The Haunting of Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House contains some of the most unforgettable horror imagery in film or television in years. The best horror film of the year also happens to be one of the best TV shows of 2018. Don’t miss it.

It's as though Flanagan has taken Jackson's original work, shattered it and then rearranged the pieces to create a completely original, but equally brilliant tale.

It’s a monologue-heavy series, but the writing is rich and haltingly expressive. ... The family’s issues with mental illness are treated sensitively and believably, and Flanagan makes sure to counter every moment of supernatural terror with a reminder that psychological terror is real, that depression, addiction, and ideation are every bit as terrifying as anything lurking in Hill House.

A horror series that doesn’t immediately make a case for itself; like the best of the genre, it’s slowly insinuating, building in power as it tells a story of repressed trauma and family discord. It’s an effective scare-fest that is at its best when the tale does more than jolt the viewer.

The showrunner, Mike Flanagan, builds a dreadful atmosphere, which is crucial, because the creeping pace of his ten episodes would be intolerable if not for its ambient suspense. The show may work best as a binge watch, one where you don’t pay steady attention but instead let it haunt your own house.

Despite some notable flaws, The Haunting of Hill House deserves credit for doing what any good ghost story does: It conjures up the unthinkable and refuses to let us look away.

His Haunting is a two-hour movie spread over 10 hours. That doesn't mean there's eight hours of padding here, but it often feels that way (I saw the first three hours and the last. Sorry, but even TV critics have only so much patience.)

Feel sorry for those that said this series is full of cheap jumpscares. The story is so deep and well written for characters development and for a horror series, i dont think the jumpscare is even enough lmao. If u could take ur time to slowly enjoy the show it would have been different. The best horror series u could ever ask for, meaningful and deep and moderate amount of scares. Very well balanced

The main problem with The Haunting of Hill House is that it can't make up its mind about the kind of story it wants to tell. On the one hand, it genuinely tries to be a metaphorical drama about trauma, depression, suicidal thoughts and other heavy subjects. On the other, it's not metaphorical at all, because the ghosts are framed as being real. It's not done elegantly, it doesn't leave you wondering, it outright states that ghosts are real and that the ghosts are what leads to trauma. Not a difficult childhood, not a death in the family, no; it's all about the ghosts. As a result, all possible points it could've made are invalidated, because—surprise, surprise—it's all just about the paranormal presence. So, it could've been a decent drama, but it's not because "it's all ghosts, man." Then maybe it's a good ghost story? No, it's just as mediocre as a ghost story. Sure, there's some impressive imagery, some skilful camerawork and genuinely dreadful moments, but overall there's nothing new about it. Outside of a couple of exceptions, they pretty much look like zombies. There are very few cases where ghosts cause a genuinely disturbing, uncanny valley kind of an effect; most of the time they look like corpses, and it gets boring very fast. But the worst part is that, while the story bits work in isolation, they don't come together to form a coherent and sensible narrative. Can ghosts kill people? It seems they can, but how and why remains unclear. Why didn't the family move out of the house, after dozens of cases of their kids waking up screaming in the night, let alone the fact that the parents themselves see the ghosts too? Hell, how do these ghosts work? Some of them seem to represent specific people, others just appear as illusions or hallucinations. These questions and many others like these bothered me a lot during the viewing. The Haunting of Hill House falls short of becoming the smart and chilling show it could've been, instead of relying on illogical storytelling and simplistic imagery, and where it tries to start a complicated conversation, it ends up copping out of it with "it was all ghosts."

The first episode is kind of a mess; but I stuck with it and there was certainly a lot to like. Especially for a fan of psychological horror. However, there is a lot to not like as well. This show is stuffed to the brim with emotional filler. Long monologues from characters that I find completely unnecessary. It all felt like an attempt to get viewers to become more emotionally connected to all of the characters. It wasn't very effective though and by the end of the show, I only really cared about the family in the flashbacks (the family of the past). But their fate was already sealed, so caring about them didn't matter much. The family in the present mostly had pretty unlikeable characters. I liked the dad and Luke but the rest of them weren't all that likeable. Moving on: the show has a few jump scares and unsettling moments. I really like the way that some of the characters can be totally taken out of reality and tricked by the Hill House. However, the rules/reasons/circumstances for everything is kind of a mess. There are many plot holes or unexplained elements by the end of this show. I don't really understand the ending either. Like, this house is totally evil and needs to be burnt down. End of story. If you die there is your soul stuck there? And is it a miserable afterlife? Because it seems to me that it would be. If you die at Hill House, your soul is being trapped in this awful place rather than going to where ever it should go once you die. And if my parents souls were stuck there, I would figure out a way to destroy the place. Additionally, there are typical horror tropes where characters don't tell each other what they are seeing and therefore, no collective knowledge is gained and that enables the show to continue the course it is on. The mother keeps her mouth shut about her mental state far too long; the Dudley family keeps their mouths shut far too long; and the rest of the family keeps their collective heads in the sand for far too long as a consequence. But that didn't bother me so much because that is kind of a necessary evil for horror shows/films. What bothered me most was the confused delivery of the story. The long monologues, the emotional manipulation, and the broken theme of the show: which is that the house is a metaphor for the family's trauma. But that can't be true because the ghosts are real. It all just kind of makes no sense. For instance, why did a ghost come to the funeral home and destroy the forever house all of a sudden? Why did Nell appear to Theo and Shirley as they were driving to the house? So many events like that are not really explained. What about all of the time travel insanity like with the bent neck lady? What the hell does it mean that Nell was the bent neck lady all along, torturing herself throughout her life? Does it add anything to the story? It doesn't seem like it does. It's just another way the house tortures you, is that it? PS: The show isn't really very left wing/woke, if anyone is curious. However, I did notice that most relationships were interracial and then one of the characters is lesbian. This kind of stuff wouldn't bother me if it felt organic but these days it almost never does. Because these are deliberate decisions pushed by ESG scoring as well as production outfits and even award shows such as the Oscars. They all have DEI rules that really are just social engineering and for someone like myself who notices these kind of things, this show is not a horrible offender. It doesn't push any direct political messages.

Where this show lacks in scares, it more than makes up for in cringey dialogue and never-ending monologues. Every character sounds like they’re trying to reach their essay’s word minimum. It’s really bad.

I don't understand the praise this show gets. The writing is atrocious. The story could have been told in 3, maybe 4 episodes but was stretched with so much filter into ten 60+ minutes episodes. 80% of the show doesn't add to the plot at all. I get that horror isn't a genre historically known for good writing or acting but so much of this show is hard to watch. We only finished the series because we had heard good things and kept hoping it would get better. The wake episode should just be skipped altogether. The cinematography is completely different then the rest of the series and the constant panning made me nauseous.