The Haunting of Hill House is one of those shows that seriously messed me up for a while after watching it and you cant stop thinking about what you just saw for days, specially how that house fucked all those kids on the head and their lives, poor Luke and Nell. Mike Flanagan took this old Shirley Jackson book and turned it into something way more than just another ghost story on Netflix, Im not going to argue how close to the lore it is but I would say tight since the scores on sites like IMDB and RTT, he made it about family and loss and grief and how trauma can stick with you for years and completely destroy you as a person. This thing jumps back and forth between when the Crain family lived in that creepy ass house as kids and how fucked up they all are as adults because of what went down there and it works so damn well because you actually care about these people and there problems and there pain. Every single one of them is dealing with there own stuff from drug addiction too anger issues too just straight up refusing too believe what happened to them was real and watching them try too function as broken adults while dealing with ghosts from their past is what makes this show so good and different from all the other horror shit on streaming right now. The scares are legit too like there are moments where I had too pause because something jumped out that I was not expecting, but what really gets you is the emotional weight of everything and how heavy it feels the hole time your watching it.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6763664/
- Platform: NETFLIX
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Steven Crain is this paranormal investigator and writer but hes also a huge skeptic witch is funny because he grew up in a haunted house although he doesnt believe or choose not to believe in any of what people experience because thats how he be coping with what has been chasing them all this hears. Shirley is the funeral home owner and she is basically the mom of the family specially after they abandon Hill House and left their mom behind, she is constantly taking care of everyone else problems and worrying about Luke and Nell too the point where its destroying her own life and marriage. Theo is the middle child and shes got this ability where she can feel emotions from people and objects when she touches them so she wear gloves all the time to avoid feeling others people, she helps kids but she cant help herself because shes so disconnected from everyone. Luke is the drug addict twin whos been in and out of rehab like a million times and nobody believes him anymore, truth is that nobody believe him as a kid and was a very very dark story and probably top two but now that I think about it the twins story were the worst thats Nell and Luke, as a kid mom and dad never believe him not about the ghosts he sees or the tall man with the floating hat or his friend that came out during the day who in fact was an actual girl, and Nell is his twin sister whos depressed and seeing this bent neck lady ghost that scared the shit out of her as a kid and is still following her around as an adult but never saw her face. Timothy Hutton plays the dad Hugh as an adult and Henry Thomas plays young Hugh in the flashbacks, both of them are so good you can see how much he cares about his kids while also being overwhelmed by what is happening in that house and not knowing what too do about it. The mom Olivia is played by Carla Gugino and shes amazing, you watch her slowly lose her mind over the episodes and its heartbreaking because shes trying so hard too protect her kids but the house is getting too her and messing with her head. The kid actors are surprisingly good too witch is rare because usually kid actors in horror stuff are annoying as hell, but these ones actually made me care about what was happening too them specially the young Nell and young Luke.
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The structure of the show is really smart where each episode focuses on one of the five kids and shows you there perspective on what happened at Hill House and what there dealing with now as adults. Episode five is Nells episode and its called The Bent Neck Lady, and holy shit that reveal at the end completely destroyed me emotionally I wont spoil it but its one of the best twists I have seen in any show period like it made me sit there staring at the screen for like five minutes just processing what I just watched, what a way to TERRORIZE a human as a kid and all the way up through adulthood, thats some sick shit in the head. Episode six is when all the siblings come together at Shirleys house for Nells funeral and its called Two Storms, its this one long take that goes back and forth between the present and the past during a storm, the technical stuff is insane and the acting is incredible because everyones just yelling at each other and all the family drama comes pouring out to the point that not even dead Nell can take it and her casket falls to the side. The ghosts in this show are actually scary not like cheap jumpscare scary but like disturbing scary in a way that sticks. Theres this tall floating man with a bowler hat that follows Luke around and hes creepy as hell, not that much at the house but you can feel Luke been paranoic about it, theres the bent neck lady that haunts Nell, theres hidden ghosts in the background of scenes that you dont even notice until someone points them out too and then you go back and watch it again and your like holy shit how did I miss that, but the scariest thing about the show isnt the ghosts its the family stuff and how real it feels, like if you have ever had someone die suddenly in your family this show is gonna hit you hard because it captures that weird fog you walk around in for weeks after where nothing feels real, this happen TWICE in the show. The way the siblings all deal with there grief differently and how they blame each other and there dad for what happened but it was never his fault, its so well written and acted that sometimes I forgot I was watching a horror show and just got hooked in there drama. Mike Flanagan really understands trauma and how it effects people and how it can tear families apart over time, hes also really good at making you care about characters before he scares the crap out of you witch is something most horror directors dont get right. The red room reveal is great though like finding out that all these different rooms the kids remembered were actually the same room the hole time, that was a cool twist I did not see coming.
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The ending though man the ending is where things get messy and I know other like have different things too say about it and argue about it online because I think the ending was very emotional but there could have been a more drastic fight against this danm house, like how Hugh was never able to neither open the Red Room or find where all the fungus was coming from but ALL his kids spend time inside the damn room. Without spoiling too much the last episode kind of goes against everything the show was building too for nine episodes, it feels way too happy for a show that was so dark and depressing and relentless with its sadness for so long. Some people think everyone actually died at the end and the happy ending is just the red room tricking them one last time witch would make sense with how the house works, would have been cool if the series had gave me some classic context on why this all happen, most like it was that crazy lady form the 60s who started all but who knows, the sure thing is that all her family was staying there stuck. The tone of that final episode is so different from everything else that it almost feels like a different show, its like Flanagan didnt have faith in his own dark ending and tried too give everyone a happy resolution witch just feels wrong for a story this tragic. I wanted it too end sad I wanted it too hurt because thats what the show earned over ten episodes of building up all this trauma and pain, instead we get this weird hopeful ending that dont really fit.
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