For a horror anthology, Hauntology seems like the perfect title. I’m surprised that nobody actually thought of it before. Director Parker Brennon’s queer horror is much more than its title, of course. It does have issues when it comes to technicalities, but the good intent is visible, which makes the whole thing very much watchable. It sets up an interesting premise for all four segments and then neatly ties all of them together by the end. In this article, we’re going to look into the ending of Hauntology and also each of its segments, separately.
Spoilers Ahead
What Is The Movie About?
In an unnamed town in Ohio, teenager Venus Price runs away from home after having a spat with her parents. Her older sister Jazmin, aka Jaz—who presumably doesn’t live with Venus and her parents—stops her in the middle of the road. Jaz then convinces Venus to visit certain places in town and listen to some stories before taking the final decision of leaving the town (and her parents). What’s important here is Venus most likely being LGBTQ—she is unsure about what she is. And Jazmin is very likely a lesbian, and Alex—who appears briefly for a moment—is her girlfriend. That might also be Jaz’s reason for leaving the house years ago. I’m speculating some of this, by the way, in case you’re wondering.
Julian Needs Some Magic
Jaz’s first stop is a house, some distance out of town. Apparently, a witch used to live there. But it’s not the kind of witch you’ve read about in fairy tales. Julian was born as a male, but she has always identified herself as a woman. Her orthodox family couldn’t accept that, and she started living in that house. This segment is about her finding a miraculous solution to the problem and the downside of it. Had Julian not met Annalisa (the AHS fan in me was happy to see Naomi Grossman here), she probably would have had to live her whole life in the wrong body. But Annalisa might have a cure. Julian has to perform a ritual, summoning a spirit, which will transform her. There’s one catch, though: under no circumstances can Julian open her eyes. So she goes ahead with the ritual, but for one second or so, she does open her eyes and get a glimpse of the very menacing-looking ghost. The next morning, Julian wakes up in a woman’s body, which only means the magic has worked for her.
Soon, there’s this man—Jacob—pursuing her in a very intense manner. Strangely enough, Jacob just happens to be exactly the kind of man Julian always dreamt of. Except, he’s the ghost who helped Julian with the transformation, and since she opened her eyes, now she owes him whatever he wants from her. And it turns out Jacob wants her to be his, in every way. So Annalisa comes up with the idea of doing a banishing ritual, hoping that would work. Even though it seems like it’s gonna fail, it fortunately works out, and Jacob is taken care of.
Mabel Finds Love After An Eternity
To tell the story of their great-great-great-grandmother Mabel Bishop, Jax takes Venus to the cemetery. For her entire life, Mabel tried her best to be the perfect wife and mother, all while burying the truth deep down—she liked women. Unfortunately for her, it eventually came out, and one William Cashel, who I suppose was one of the major authorities of the town, decided to punish her by putting her in the grave.
Years later, Jade finds herself in a loveless relationship/marriage with Iris. No matter how hard she tries, Iris appears to be nonresponsive. In what should be considered a stroke of luck, Jade finds Mabel’s grave, and Mabel’s ghost hears her call. Mabel finally finds someone that she couldn’t while being alive. It looks like true love. I’m not entirely sure how it is going to work between Jade and Mabel, though. Also, what exactly is the point of taking it out on Iris by putting her in the grave (she wasn’t killed, though) for a lesson? All she wanted was to be alone, that’s all.
May Felner’s Ghost Goes Out of Control
The third segment is also about a family member of Jaz and Venus— their aunt May Felner, who used to be a famous painter. At the center of the story, though, we have Wayne and Shane. Wayne is a painter who’s getting a lot of appreciation for recreating some of Felner’s works. Shane is over the moon about it as his partner is getting much-deserved appreciation. However, what Shane doesn’t know is that Wayne is seeing the ghost of Felner, and the painter appears to be extremely angry.
The segment begins with the couple’s realtor getting violently killed and the killer (we don’t see who it is) leaving some drops of paint on him. The next victim is Evan, who looks after Shane and Wayne’s art gallery. It is revealed to Wayne that Felner is behind the killings, and she’s using this woman named Christina—who used to be in her inner circle, and I suppose they were also lovers—as her vessel. The former artist is clearly not happy about what Wayne is doing. After revealing all this, Christina leaves town, and the onus is upon Wayne to fix things. Sadly, he’s unable to convince Shane, who still very much wants Wayne to recreate Felner’s work, especially now that there’s a huge demand. So the only way this could end is Felner possessing Wayne and taking care of Shane by stabbing him to death with a broken bottle. Felner has a point, but I do feel bad about Wayne here, if you ask me.
Ms. Ishii’s strange night at the Cashel House
For the final segment, Jaz takes her sister to the most haunted house in town—the Cashel House. The actual story is set in the past, but considering the modernity of it, we can very well conclude that it is set in the recent past. Journalist Madeline Ishii walks into Cashel House for an interview with Josephine Cashel. She also wants to find out whether all the stories about the eponymous house are true or not. Both Madeline and us realize something is off the moment we are introduced to Francine Boxel, the very authoritative housekeeper. Madeline only got lucky with the interview because Mrs. Boxel didn’t see her application, so she couldn’t throw it in the trash, and Mrs. Cashel ended up reading it.
After initial pleasantries, Madeline comes right to the question: Is the Cashel House really haunted? Josephine responds with a rousing yes but also mentions that nothing is going to happen if the people in the house stick to following a set of rules. The rules are for women mostly, and they vary from dressing decently to not using any electronic devices, and they are set by, quite obviously, a man. The ghost in the question is William Cashel, the same one who once killed Mabel. Madeline gets a glimpse of him on her first (and only) night at the house and then also the morning after. She immediately leaves, but Josephine warns her that the ghost of William is going to follow her everywhere, now that he has seen her. And it turns out she is right after all, as we see Madeline in a taxi with the ghost just sitting beside her.
Do Jaz and Venus banish William Cashel?
With all the segments done, we come to the climax of the main story: Jaz and Venus versus the ghost of William Cashel. The person has always been the band of the family, dead or alive. He killed Mabel in the past and is now haunting these two. William has to be the worst possible ghost ever, as he is homophobic and quite possibly racist. It would not be wrong if we called him a misogynist as well, given how he treats women in general. But for every terrible ghost like William, there’s a banishing ritual as the way out. For that, though, the sisters has to enter the Cashel House and get some of Williams’ things. Given they find the house empty, we can safely say both Mrs. Boxel and Josephine are now dead. Sensing his ghostly existence is in trouble, William tries to kill Venus the first chance he gets. But Venus is saved by the obsidian Jaz has given to protect her. Then she comes across Mabel’s ghost, who offers her William’s black hat. The banishing ritual comes quite easily after that. William does everything to spoil it, but he is handled by the ghosts of Mabel and May Felner (yeah, she also arrives for the sake of her descendants). With William gone, Jaz asks Venus if she still wants to leave town. Venus replies that she has seen and known enough, and for the time being, she’s going to return to her parents house and handle them.
Hauntology ends with the sisters laughing together, right after they’re done with the ritual. This might come off as something odd to you, but it makes perfect sense if you think about the fact that the whole story is sort of about white cishet male oppression and the fight against that sickness. Why shouldn’t Jaz and Venus laugh after finally winning that battle? Also, the reveal of Julian being a Cashel is a nice touch. No wonder she had to leave that household and live elsewhere.
