The Haunting of Hill House Season 1

I've you've read my reviews of It Follows and The Witch you'll know that I am not a conventional horror fan. Where most people go to horror films to be scared, I go for the story. Where a lot of people really enjoy jump scares and measure their enjoyment of a horror film off of how scary it made them feel, I judge horror films off of how good the story is and how it utilizes creepy atmosphere and tension to its benefit. But I think I learned a lot from the 10 episodes of this show. Up front, I should say that I really, REALLY enjoyed this show, even though I spent a good portion of it watching through my fingers.

The Haunting of Hill House follows the story of the Crain family. Much of the story is split between flashbacks from the 1990's where the family moves into the infamous Hill House in order to flip it. But the real beef of the story takes place when the adults are all grown up and they are looking back on their tragic, horrific, and supernatural experiences at the house while also dealing with a tragedy that affects them in the present.

The show mainly focuses on the kids. In fact the first five episodes are an individual account of their experiences at the house while they were kids and the couple of days that the story centers around.

I won't give too much away because if you watch the show a lot of the fun experience is getting to know these characters individually then seeing them interact with one another. An extra bonus is if you experience the show the same way I did and recognize the classic family tropes and dynamics between siblings. I grew up with a lot of siblings and I really enjoyed seeing the different roles shift between the different characters the same way those roles switch among actual siblings. There's a good chance you'll identify with one character for one reason, but you will find something relatable in all of them.

You have Steve the oldest (played by Michiel Huisman as an adult and Paxton Singleton as a child). Steve grows up to be a writer and he writes stories about haunted house and ghosts, even though he does not believe in the supernatural. As a kid, Steve wants to help his dad Hugh (played by Timothy Hutton in the present and Henry Thomas in 1992) fix up the house.

I think out of all five of the kids, Steve is probably the least developed. I like Michiel Huisman and I think he's a great character, but in my opinion they didn't develop enough about him. I don't know if that was on purpose or what but a ghost story writer who doesn't believe in ghost suddenly have to face the supernatural is really interesting and I don't think they did enough with him. The other aspect was that I wasn't really impressed with the kid who played him as a child. There were a lot of lines that were not read very well and I did feel like the character wasn't written as well as it could have been. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to really dislike him or see him as the main character, especially with how well done the other kids were done.

The next sibling is the first girl Shirely (played by Elizabeth Reaser as an adult and Lulu Wilson as a kid). Shirely is a mortician who sees the dysfunction in her family from an early age. When Steve becomes a famous writer, she feels as though she has to take on a lot of the responsibilities he refuses to take on. The fact that she's a mortician in a story like this was also really interesting and a creepy, yet really profound character trait. Her particular episode deals a lot with death and the supernatural and it was a really great episode to keep on track the first episode was able to hook us onto.

Shirley is also a great example of how great the casting for this show was. I don't know how they were able to pair up these kids with these adults so well but I thought Lulu Wilson and Elizabeth Reaser were a fantastic duo. They complimented one another really well.

Lulu Wilson is an example of how these kid actors had a lot of talent. It was fun having moments where you could see the faces of the younger kids in the adults, (especially with the character of Theo) and I thought Lulu Wilson did a really good job.

I don't think that Shirley is my favorite character by any means but her episode is the second one and if you weren't hooked with the first one (which feels more like an introduction episode to everyone rather than a Steve episode), I would recommend you stick around for the second episode. If you don't like that one then the show might not be for you, but like I said, it really kept me on the hook from what the first episode was able to accomplish.

I'm not totally sure which character is my favorite because I like them the most when they're all together. But I think the closest to that title is Theodora (played by Kate Siegal as an adult and Mckenna Grace as a kid). I won't give away the secret behind Theo because again, a lot of this show is built on unraveling the mystery. But you could probably do an entire spin off focusing on her. I'll say that.

One thing that I can say is that if you're a middle child, you might identify with Theo. Going back to that family dynamic I was talking about, Theo definitely lives in the shadow of her older siblings and goes about her business. I am a middle child myself and I think that's why I liked her character so much. Her individual episode is a lot of fun and is where the show really got going for me. I'll clarify that it's hard to tell if there was a weak link episode because they were all pretty good. I will also say that her episode is where the show started to incorporate some more frightening jump scares and if I hadn't been hooked by her story and the episodes before hand, I probably would have called it quits. But I really enjoyed her parts.

Oliver Jackson-Cohen plays Luke as an adult and Julian Hillard plays him as a kid and I really liked the character of Luke. Besides the fact that we're getting into the younger and more adorable kids, I think the story line that they did with this character is really good.

In adulthood, Luke is a recurring addict and a burden on the family. As a kid he seemed to have a wild imagination and this all comes to a hedge with his episode which was actually really sad. While each episode brings out that family drama pretty well, Luke is the center of a lot of drama for this family and I thought that dynamic of family trying to look out for one another but also getting really annoyed of one another was done really well. I feel they could have actually given more to Luke but as it stands he was really great.

And then there's Nell (played by Victoria Pedretti as an adult and Violet McGraw as a child).

Nell very much becomes the emotional center of the family and her episode is both one of the more horrifying episodes while also being one of the more psychological and cerebral.

It's obvious from the front end of the show that Nell really never gets over the horror that the family experienced in the house and it haunts her throughout the show. While Nell and Luke are twins, Violet McGraw is probably the youngest of the cast. I think that's hard to convert to an adult 26 years later but they do it really, REALLY well.

Now if you make it to episode 5, you're probably in for the long haul and you're not questioning your commitment to the show. And I think that the episode "The Bent-Neck Lady" might just be the reward for sticking with the show this long. This episode also amps up the jump scares, but after some time to digest them, I realized that they were all strategic and not just for the sake of scaring the audience. I'll talk a little bit more about this later in the post, but that was both an incredibly jumpy episode, and also one of my favorites because how smart it was, especially in the way it used tension, scary imagery, and emotional storytelling. And it all centers on this character.

There are other characters worth mentioning like Shirely's husband or Steve's wife, but the main supporting characters are Olivia (played by Carla Gugino) and Hugh Crain, the parents of the five kids.

I might end up having to do a spoiler talk about this because there is very little I can say about any of these characters without delving into spoilers. I haven't decided but I will say I thought the actors who played the parents did a really good job. There was a moment early on where I wasn't wild about Carla Gugino which was strange because of how much I enjoyed her Gerald's Game, but especially in later episodes, she does a really good job. And like I said, the best parts of the show is when the entire family is together.

I thought episode 5 was hard to top after I watched it and then I watched episode 6 "Two Storms" and I was absolutely stunned by how well the episode was filmed and the way they utilized tracking shots. That particular episodes didn't rely on too many jump scares at all and just set up an atmosphere that made my skin crawl. And for the most part, the show does a really good job at doing that. There are for sure jump scares and it's incredibly more intense than a movie like It Follows, but like I said, it is very strategic.

Now maybe this next criticism is on me. There's a very good chance that I'm just bad at predicting when jump scares are going to be or the suspense throws me off so much that I can't process other moments because I'm expecting them.

But I did think that there were moments in the show that were diminished because I was waiting for a jump scare. I can think of a particular episode, especially near the end where I was expecting something really scary and when it came to the end of the episode, I realized that I missed a really sweet moment because I was so tense and waiting for something to pop out at me and I think that's where horror movies can lose me. I like tension, I like that creepy feeling, and the end of the episode ended up being really clever and cerebral, but when I'm so up tight, I can't enjoy the real emotional moments this show has to offer because I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop and there to be jump scare, it ruined a couple moments for me. But that leads me into what I think might be the biggest strength of this show, at least for me.

While the jump scares threw me off at times, I do kind of see the show a little bit of a personal badge of honor for me because I feel like I'm watching an ACTUAL horror movie. Now as someone who avoids movies like that, my threshold of an "actual" horror movie is pretty low and you may not think it's that scary. But I also think that the show isn't a straight up horror movie, and instead just uses those elements really well to tell a really touching story about family, about tragedy, about death, and about relationships.

I think the best stories aren't those that use science fiction, or horror, or westerns, or fantasy just for the sake of telling those science fiction, horror, western, or fantasy stories, I think they're best when they use those genres to tell an interesting story with a message. Now I think Hill House is a little bit on the nose, especially at the end. But the show never felt gimicky. The show never felt like it was throwing out jump scares just for the sake of scaring me, it felt like it was for a reason.

I really like the supernatural, I like psychological horror, and I like it when I'm not totally sure what the root cause of a tense moment is. Is it a ghost? Is it mental illness? Is it a combination of both? I think The Haunting of Hill House is able to utilize supernatural, horror, ghosts, mental illness, and a lot of other story elements really well to mess with the mind a little bit, and give a great message strung throughout it.

Is it a perfect show? No. While it scared the living crap out of me, if you're a hardcore horror fan you might think this show is a little bit tame. Some of the acting is a little bit off, but I did think the cast was a huge part of why this show was a success for me.

I get the feeling that this show might only embolden me to keep on watching horror movies and pick out exactly what I like and what I don't like. The good thing is that that is somewhat of the direction that Netflix seems to be heading with some of their original programming. Shows like this and Stranger Things are able to attract those who like psychological and supernatural stories, and if they're anything like this, I think the future of Netflix's programming is in good hands.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Haunting of Hill House, a lot more than I thought I was going to. The story and characters are the main thing I liked but some other good things worth mentioning are the soundtrack, the cinematography, and some creepy easter eggs I might mention in a spoilers review.

If you're like me and you hate horror movies, I do recommend this show with a warning. It is pretty intense and I actually was sitting through multiple episodes watching through fingers. But I do think it is worth checking out. The use of supernatural story telling, excellent cinematography to give that really tense haunted house vibe, and the great message throughout about family really makes it worth the experience. I will definitely watch any future seasons of this show if it is renewed for a second season.

But those are my thoughts on The Haunting of Hill House. What did you think? Hardcore horror fans, how does this compare with mainstream horror films? Am I still a pretty big wimp if I still think this scared the crap out of me? Let me know. You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me requests for films and TV shows I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!