Review: “The Haunting of Hill House” (2018 – Season 1)

[**** – Definitely Recommend!]

I have always been a horror buff – slasher, spirits, psychological, you name it. I spent my entire teenage years basically not sleeping because of paranormal/spirit movies(looking at you, Shutter). As I grew older, however, I began to be a LOT less brave – sure, chop a foot or head, I’m cool, but please don’t send me creepy children. It took me years to watch The Conjuring, and that was probably my last spirit movie before watching The Haunting of Hill House. I was not prepared. First, know this:

 

THHH (as it will now be called because please, what a long name) follows the Crain family in the early 90s and in current times. Hugh and Olivia Crain, along with their five children (Steven, Shirley, Theo, Luke, Nell) move into Hill House for the Summer to fix it and flip it at a profit. But of course, no old dark house can be innocent when it comes to horror movies, and strange things start to happen – more noticeably for little Nell, and less so for the others.

THHH is a 10-hour long descent into sheer panic. It spends the first five episodes in character building, with each following one of the siblings. After a particularly surprising plot twist, we dive deep into what happened/happens at Hill House.

I was scared beyond repair with the apparitions – a friend had to start narrating the scary scenes to me because I just could not have the ugly spirit faces etched in my memory, my sleep suffered even without it. There are not many jump scares per se, but the build-up to scary scenes was just as bad. The visual and special effects were tremendous, it really felt like Netflix invested good money into it. Not only that, but the choices made for these scary scenes were so good – they really did manage to make you terrified of pretty much anything anywhere, nothing is safe anymore.

Before going into spoilery territory, I must commend episode six, “Two Storms”, not only for the writing, acting and directing, but also for its sheer technical accomplishment – the entire episode consists in 5 long shots, which requires extremely rehearsed positions, an entire set built with this episode in mind, and even for the cameraman to work out a little more. It is a technical feat like few we’ve seen in recent television, as good as it has become.

I have some problems with the mythology of the show and how they wrapped it up, but I’ll go into it in…

SPOILERY TERRITORY!

Stop.

Reading.

Now.

Is anyone who finished it as pissed as I am with that ending? I mean, great, happy endings somewhat, but for me, it made no sense why the House was doing what it was doing – it was just hungry for more souls basically? I understand and commend their choice to not overexplain, but it’s not even that – I am all for leaving some things unexplained, otherwise, it feels like you are being lectured at (e.g. I don’t mind them not going super into Theo or Olivia being “sensitive”). I just felt a massive gap in the “Whys” of the House’s behaviour, and this is a massive plot point that is missing from that final episode. Also, I am much more in favour of the dark, alternate ending but I am a sick bastard.

With that being said, THHH is first-class horror. Up until the end, the amazing cast has a very strong script to work with, the scares and the drama are well spread out, the set design is to die for (they built it from scratch!), and the cinematography is so well done. This balance between drama and horror really is what makes THHH stand out from most horror movies – you actually care about those characters, you spent time knowing them and getting attached, the story makes you CRY. A HORROR STORY. SAD TEARS. I can’t even. I was hooked from episode one and couldn’t stop watching – I binged for 10 hours straight, oh my.

I don’t see how a second season would happen, they wrapped the Crain’s story quite nicely (even if plot holes), and taking them forward would just ruin it. As much as I will miss Kate Siegel as Theo, this story is open and close. I could see them doing an anthology in the likes of American Horror Story, all focused on Hill House – if they keep the crew they have now, it would be a bliss seeing them producing more high-quality stories like this.

Now, my favourite bits:

• Abigail not being a freaking creepy spirit. I didn’t see that one coming AT ALL, and I am so so sad about what happened to her.
• THE SUPRISE CAR JUMP SCARE. I could not have prepared myself for that one. I still check behind a car every time I go into one now.
• Super cliché but Theo. Everything Theo. Kate Siegel’s acting is so on point it’s ridiculous. That episode, of her finding out the little girl is being abused? Damn, give her an Emmy already!
• Luke and Nell – I loved them, I cried for them. It is so heartbreaking to see what all that trauma did to them 😦