[4] The film stars Elisabeth Moss as Jackson, with Michael Stuhlbarg, Odessa Young, and Logan Lerman in supporting roles.

Shirley had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2020, where Decker won the Special Jury Award for Auteur Filmmaking.

Soon after, Stanley asks Rose to help with menial jobs around the house because Shirley is struggling to write after suffering another bout of agoraphobia.

Shirley begins to write again, announcing a new work based on Paula Jean Welden, a young woman who recently disappeared from Bennington's campus.

Shirley opens up to Rose, having her do research for the new book, including stealing the medical files for Paula Jean Welden.

When she and Fred finally drive away from the Jackson-Hyman house, Rose vows never to return to being a docile wife devoted to a life of domesticity.

On May 16, 2018, it was announced that Josephine Decker was set to direct an adaptation of Susan Scarf Merrell's novel Shirley, based on a screenplay by Sarah Gubbins.

Producers were set to include Jeffrey Soros, Simon Horsman, Christine Vachon, David Hinojosa, Elisabeth Moss, Sue Naegle, and Gubbins.

[8] Alongside the initial production announcement, it was confirmed that Elisabeth Moss and Michael Stuhlbarg had been cast as Shirley Jackson and Stanley Hyman, respectively.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Elevated by outstanding work from Elisabeth Moss, Shirley pays tribute to its subject's pioneering legacy with a biopic that ignores the commonly accepted boundaries of the form.

[19] Harper's Bazaar considered the film "a gripping, psychologically unsettling drama", noting it to be "loosely based on real life... far from a traditional biopic, instead playing on the horror tropes of Jackson's own work to lure viewers inside the author's brilliant but troubled mind.

"[20] NBC News, stating that the film "captures the chills-down-your-spine feeling that Jackson's writing so skillfully masters" observed that "while many of the characters are real, most of Merrel's (sic) book is fictional, which might confuse the casual film-watcher" and noted that "the quandary of fictionalizing a real life is not new, and it remains an ethically weird endeavor"; "After watching "Shirley" there may be people who think Shirley Jackson was vicious, childless and incapable of keeping herself bathed and fed.