There's a delicate line that so much of the best gothic and neo-gothic fiction walks, one where the supernatural seems just around every corner, as literal or metaphorical as you want it to be.
There are interpretations of Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre that bring in all manner of unexplainable phenomena, not that any of that is there in literal readings.
And there are interpretations of The Turn of the Screw or most of Edgar Allan Poe's work where everything that seems paranormal is just a metaphor writ large.
A little flexibility in literary analysis is often a good thing, because there's always a risk that if you take something intriguing and over-explain it, you can go from tantalizing to plain old ridiculous in an instant.
Read more on hollywoodreporter.com