Last Halloween, I finally decided to watch The Haunting of Hill House created by Mike Flanagan – most known for his amazing horror movies such as Doctor Sleep, Oculus, Ouija, Origin of Evil, and etc. The show tells the story of a family whose horrific past comes back to haunt them when the youngest daughter (played by Victoria Pedretti) dies a tragic death.
In this review, I’m going to talk about the stuff I like and the stuff I find mediocre, and analyze the show as a whole to find out what it’s trying to tell us.
This show is tragically terrifying!
Horror movies aren’t horror movies without scenes that will leave you up at night – and this show has a lot of good ones. What makes Mike Flanagan an amazing film maker of the horror genre is his zero reliance on jumpscares. They all depend on building tension: My favorite was the one right at the end of the very first episode. I love how the scene started out as innocent at first, and then it slightly builds up during the phone conversation. When Hugh tells Steve the heartbreaking news, my heart stopped! And that close up shot of Nellie’s face slowly withering had me at the edge of my seat! Now THAT is how you create and build horror!
What do I think about the car jumpscare? To tell you honestly, I knew this jumpscare was coming mainly due to the Internet. On the other hand, I think it’s the funniest jumpscare of the entire show – seriously, I’m not joking! I actually found myself chuckling when this scene happened mostly because I interpreted this scene as Nellie stepping in to stop her sisters from fighting.
But the episode that really sent a shiver down my spine was Episode 5: “The Bent-Neck Lady.” The way this episode ended was just pure tragedy! The way Nellie hangs on the ceiling, helpless as she’s forced to relieve all her horrific moments just to realize that SHE was the Bent-Neck Lady all along was just terrifying! You get a sense that the House is this Mastermind who’s been planning this from the very beginning – which leads to another topic I’d like to discuss:
History repeats itself
There are a lot of match cuts in this show; the episode that best exemplifies this is Episode 6: “Two Storms.” The way the episode transitions back and forth from the family back then to the family now shows the real horrifying thing about The Haunting of Hill House: that despite leaving the house, the house never left them! The entire family has been trapped in an endless loop of despair, having to go through the same disagreements, and traumas.
If there’s one thing we can learn from this show, it’s that if we don’t try to change and make up for our mistakes, we’ll be bound to make them again and live in a never ending cycle and be as trapped as the family.
Zooming in
Speaking of Episode 6, if you pay enough attention during the episode, you can see a Doctor Who reference where the statues are moving everytime you look away from them. I also saw on YouTube that if you look closely at certain scenes, you can actually see that there are some ghosts hidden in the background.
The Mediocre Finale
I wouldn’t really call this show boring, but it does have some pacing issues I must address. For instance, I really think the whole sequence where each character has to confront each of their ghosts and secrets felt really half-baked. None of it felt climactic at all; it was just so repetitive that it makes it boring. It’s basically the final act of It Chapter 2, except all the fun was sucked out of it. Had this sequence been a cross cut like the climax of Everything Everywhere All at Once with better music, then it probably would’ve been so much better!
Sorry, not scary
If there’s one thing Breaking Bad has taught me, it’s that if you lie on your back after having taken heroin, you will choke to death! But that is not the case in The Haunting of Hill House. Throughout the entire show, Luke’s “death” has been foreshadowed on multiple occasions, showing that he’s going to die of a heroin overdose, but when it actually happens, Luke just comes back to life a few moments later! And that’s another problem with the finale: all the dread is taken out. There’s no sense of danger anymore! The ghosts no longer feel threatening because they don’t do anything threatening! They just stand there and look or say something creepy and that’s just underwhelming!
For instance, the scene where the ghost of Poppy Hill does that creepy rhyme. That scene had a really good set-up! It was creepy, the music was on point, the performances were convincing, but the problem was what happened after. In that same scene, the ghost of Olivia just shows up and tells Poppy to leave him alone, and Poppy basically says: “Okay, sure, whatever!” and just casually leaves. There’s no conflict, she just walks away. Like I said earlier, this was anticlimactic!
But despite all these, The Haunting of Hill House still has an amazing catharsis.
Conclusion: This show hits the feels!
The great thing about this show is that it isn’t really about ghosts, it’s more of a family drama about grief that just so happens to be a horror story. And I love how this show actually took its time to get to know each of the characters, who they are, what they do, and what their inner struggles are: Steven with his Narcissism, Theo with her walls up, Luke with his drug addiction, and Shirley with her failing marriage.
I know I said that the finale was mediocre, but there were still some things I liked about it. For instance Nellie’s monologue, and the entire family reconciling with her, was really emotional. Hugh’s conversation with the ghost of Olivia and his big sacrifice in the end was pretty heart breaking. That amazing long shot of Steven leaving the house as the ghosts watched and followed him is just peak cinema!
I started watching The Haunting of Hill House for the horror, but ended up staying for the family drama. So would I recommend this show? Honestly, yes. But just like Better Call Saul, you need a lot of patience while watching it; it’s not a show I would go crazy for and fanboy over, but it’s still a show worth watching once and ONLY once! I’m gonna give this show a 6/13. Thanks for reading!
About the author:
コメント