NETFLIX REVIEW: THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE (2018)

October 18, 2018 Jazz Blackwell 0 Comments

The latest in Netflix's original horror series The Haunting of Hill House has been something of the talk of the internet lately - and for a number of reasons. Loosely based on the 1959 novel of the same name, the show has been receiving relatively mixed reviews, with some people claiming it was so scary it made them puke and others claiming they were... well, just plain disappointed.

I, personally, fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. As a literature nerd and self-confessed Big Ol' Goth™, I was rather excited by the prospect of Shirley Jackson's delightfully frightening 1959 novel of the same name being serialised - after all, the 1963 film adaptation The Haunting was fantastic. If you're expecting something similar - don't. The Netflix series is, to put it bluntly, absolutely nothing like the novel on which it claims to be based. There are nods to the book certainly - through the names of several of the characters and the mention of the 'cup of stars'. But the similarities really begin and end there. 

Instead, the series follows the five Crain siblings - Steve, Shirley, Theodora (Theo) and twins, Luke and Eleanor (Nell). All individually troubled as adults, the series tells its story through a combination of present-day and flashback scenes. The flashbacks depict the summer they spent as children in the titular Hill House, while their parents renovated and eventually planned to sell it. Of course, this is a ghostly-spooky-horror series and, as is the way with such things, all is not as well as it seems in the house, and the siblings are left mentally scarred by their experiences there.

Now don't go getting me wrong. The series is good. Very good. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's pass-out, vomit-inducing scary as some people are claiming, but it's certainly unnerving and, at times, downright upsetting. It's incredibly well-directed, with plenty of scares and "oh my God!" realisations throughout the ten episodes. The casting is also incredibly strong, with the show being incredibly well-acted by the core cast, which includes total-hunk-slash-potential-love-of-my-life Michel Huisman, horror-movie regular Kate Siegel (whose husband Mike Flanagan directed the series) and the ever-brilliant Timothy Hutton. The series also gets major props from me for its LGBT+ representation and it accurate (if harrowing) portrayals of mental illness and drug addiction.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the series and my only real gripe with it is that really, if we want to be pedantic (which I always want), it isn't The Haunting of Hill House at all. It is, however, in and of itself a deliciously spooky series and one I would definitely recommend if you're up for a bit of a scare this spooky season. Overall, I'd rate it a 9/10. 

Keep it weird,
Jazz xo