Stephen King may be considered the master of modern horror, but Mark Danielewski and his novel House of Leaves deserve a place right next to him. Where King is well known for his prolific writing pace, Danielewski is the opposite. He's published only a handful of books since his debut. But each has been narratively strange, structurally confounding and deeply unsettling, giving him more of a cult following than King's widespread success.
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His debut novel is easily his most famous, though infamous may be a better word. It's been touted as one of the scariest books ever written and has left a lasting mark on anyone brave enough to read it. It's also spawned ripoffs, parodies and even a reference in an episode of Spongebob Squarepants. But House of Leaves is arguably most notorious for being so strangely constructed that it's almost impossible to adapt to film. Even so, Danielewski has penned a script, so at least he believes it's possible.
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What Is House of Leaves About?
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The basis of the novel is a house that's bigger on the inside and a documentary the homeowners make about it. Fans of Doctor Who's TARDIS might scoff at why this is so scary, but the novel does an incredible job of selling the terror. The owners discover a door that should lead outside, but it actually reveals a long hallway. Every time they explore the space, it gets larger and more labyrinthine, paths change and doors appear and disappear. Eventually, they hire a team of surveyors, hunters and explorers to create an expedition into the impossible space, and things go downhill very quickly. This scenario had existential dread aplenty, leaning hard into the terror of not being able to trust the solid foundations of physical reality. Parallels are sometimes drawn to the 1997 indie horror flick Cube, though that film is far more rooted in reality.
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Here is where things get stranger. The only experience of the documentary readers get is a doctoral thesis about the film called "The Navidson Record," written by a man named Zampano. His manuscript makes up the bulk of the book, and his handwritten notes and edits appear scribbled in the margins. He describes the events of this film in the kind of excruciating detail that often makes academic writing difficult to read. But the subject matter is simply too bizarre to be uninteresting.
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On top of that is Johnny Truant, a tattoo artist living in LA. His personal journals serve as the primary point of view through which "The Navidson Record" is communicated. He found Zampano's manuscript when the old man's apartment was cleaned out after his death. It's through Truant that readers discover that in the world of the novel, this documentary doesn't exist. He can find no records of it anywhere despite Zampano referring to its vast cultural impact. Johnny quickly becomes obsessed with the manuscript, and his personal narratives reveal a slow descent into insanity. If this sounds similar to the works of H.P Lovecraft of Cthulhu fame, that's because they both play with ideas of impossible architecture, non-euclidean spaces and minds shattering when seeing the chaotic nature of the universe.
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What Makes House of Leaves So Hard to Adapt?
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What makes House of Leaves so unique is also what makes it so difficult to translate to film. To represent each of the multiple levels of reality, Danielewsky employs a number of devices that stretch the literary medium to its absolute breaking point. Multiple font styles, colors and orientations are used to signify who is speaking at any given time. Every instance of the word "house" is in blue type, and when the Minotaur appears, it's always in red.
These aren't the only tricks he plays. Several pages have text sideways, upside down or locked into text boxes that don't read sequentially from one page to the next. He writes in multiple languages and types backward, and some pages are filled with Johnny Truant's own handwritten notes as his obsession consumes him. There are even rumors that the title pages were designed to fall out of the book, removing Danielewski as the author and leaving Zampano as the only name attached to the story.
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All of this serves to trap the reader in a maze as convoluted as the one the characters find themselves in. Several pages only have a few dozen words on them or are even left blank. While the author has never confirmed it, the implication is that readers are encouraged to add their own notes to the story as they read, willingly diving through the fourth wall to immerse themselves in the existential horror of it all.
With all this in mind, it's no wonder no studio has attempted to tackle this project yet. Everything that makes this novel reach out and grab readers would be lost in a translation to film.
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How a Studio Can Make House of Leaves Work
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Even considering all these challenges, Danielewski seems to think a movie could happen. More accurately, he believes a TV adaptation is the way to go, as the scripts he's posted to his website and social media are broken into an episodic structure. This makes much more sense than a theatrical release as a novel this complex certainly needs breathing room. House of Leaves needs time and space to gradually plunge into the madness, allowing it to become for horror what Game of Thrones was to fantasy.
As for how a TV series might capture the immersive nature of the book, Netflix has attempted some experiments that prove promising. The Black Mirror special "Bandersnatch" placed the viewer in the driver's seat of the story, presenting them with branching storylines, choices significant and mundane and allowing them to communicate with the characters directly. And using a similar device or even an augmented reality mobile app could serve as a screen equivalent to the book's multi-level epistolary structure.
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Another thing to consider is that Danielewski's sister, who goes by the stage name Poe, released a companion album meant to be listened to in conjunction with the novel. Some readers report that listening to the album while reading added another layer of sensory experience that indicates the author always meant for House of Leaves to be a multimedia experience. Combining a screen presentation with a separate audio element is certainly an effective way to add to the experience for those wishing to immerse themselves further into the unsettling world Danielewski created. Any production team would need the best creative minds to tackle such an all-encompassing idea. A studio like A24 is well-equipped to handle challenging horror content with care and success, but it's never attempted the kind of long-form storytelling this book truly needs.
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The biggest concern is that any additional media would, by necessity, need to be an add-on to the teleplay, where the charm of the book is that it's impossible to read it without experiencing it the way the author intended. That said, Danielewski has written the pilots and is fiercely protective of his story. He's been vocal on social media about wanting to move the project forward, but it won't happen without his blessing and involvement. If House of Leaves ever does wend its way through a Hollywood greenlighting process as labyrinthine as its own endless maze, fans can rest assured it will be exactly the product Danielewski wants them to see.