Highly anticipated new horror series The Haunting of Hill House hit Netflix today and it’s goddamn creepy but in a good way.
[jwplayer gvkTjsCy]
Based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson, the television series – set in modern times – introduces us to the Crain family who grew up in the most infamous haunted house in America. The series switches from between “then” and “now”, the former a portrait of a happy family in search of their “forever home” and the latter, a fractured family trying to move on from the trauma and memories from the house.
There’s only ten episodes but they go for about an hour each so there’s plenty of binge material here.
Michiel Huisman (Game of Thrones) stars as the eldest Crain sibling, Steven – an author of horror series; Elizabeth Reaser (Twilight) plays second eldest Shirley a mortician; Kate Siegel as Theodora, the middle child; and the twins Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Luke and Victoria Pedretti as Eleanor ‘Nellie’ Crain.
The excellent Carla Gugino stars as architect and the children’s mother Olivia while Timothy Hutton plays her on-screen husband and builder Hugh.
Showrunner Mike Flanagan also directed the Netflix film Gerald’s Game, an adaption of the Stephen King novel.
So what do the people think?
https://twitter.com/_ScottFree_/status/1050861494496387072
The Haunting of the Hill House on Netflix is surprisingly good 10/10 would recommend
— kait (@kaitlyncawili) October 12, 2018
The Haunting of the Hill House is fucking amazing??? The editing is really fluid and the story is really compelling and proper terrifying (from someone who hates any horror movies or tv show)
— Cam (@camslemons) October 12, 2018
me and my sister spent the entire day watching the haunting of the hill house and she ended up basically telling me “either you sleep with me tonight or you suffer”
— dog coded (@meatfIavor) October 13, 2018
Yo the haunting of the hill house is so good I definitely recommend it has made me jump a good couple of times
— cassie Ψ (@Cere_side) October 12, 2018
BIG compliment:
The Haunting of the Hill House is definitely giving my American Horror Story season 1 vibes.
— Kung Fu (@KungDavey) October 13, 2018
I expected the haunting of the hill house to be about ghosts or demons, but it’s much more then that.
— Asif Khan (@TheAsifKhan) October 13, 2018
And, quite simply:
https://twitter.com/AstroReezie/status/1050957116155027456
Meanwhile on Rotten Tomatoes, the series currently holds an 85 per cent rating with an average of 8.29/10 from 33 reviews – 28 positive, five negative.
IndieWire gave the series an overall grade of B and thought it did its best when it broke the typical ‘horror story’ mould:
“…despite these familiar tropes, the able-bodied actors eventually draw out a provocative, emotionally resonant story; moreover, showrunner Mike Flanagan infuses enough fresh tricks to make the overall experience a treat worth savoring through Halloween.”
The New York Times wrote:
“Episodes start and end with shocks, and while they are often quite effective, the scares don’t escalate. Flanagan has made an intelligent, engaging supernatural story in which the tension doesn’t mount so much as stop and start, and occasionally sputter.”
Vox gave the show a 4/5 rating and commended Flanagan for his writing and directing: “Hill House is a slow-burn character study interspersed with genuine scares”.
Vulture‘s a fan of the series but think it’s “slow”.
“Once it gets going — which it eventually does, though it takes a little time to kick into gear — The Haunting of Hill House is pretty darn good at that, throwing horrifying specters right into the lens, but just as often shoving them to the edges of the frame, forcing us to squint to determine whether we’re seeing some thing or merely hallucinating.”
In the other corner, The Australian “found it perplexing and eventually irritating”. Both the Washington Post and the LA Times initially liked the series but were not a fan of where it went.
The Post actually thought everything was going swimmingly until the very last episode while the LA Times just thought it was really long.
“With so many hours to fill, things get nuttier, and not necessarily in a good way,” wrote Robert Lloyd for the Times.
“…at a moment where a horror movie would typically have 20 minutes to go, “Hill House” still has two hours left, which means more detours, more long speeches.”
Something all reviews mentioned? It really strays away from its source material and it’s sloooow.
The Haunting Of Hill House is available on Netflix, now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9OzG53VwIk
If you like to get into shows, Flanagan told BloodyDisgusting that: “I would strongly recommend watching the first half twice because there’s quite a bit in there you might miss.”
MINI SPOILER ALERT, TURN BACK NOW:
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How abso-fucking-lutely terrifying is this?
https://twitter.com/vvendypark/status/1050872048208101376
Apparently, the ghosts in the house appear in scenes throughout the series so that’s just dandy.
