The Haunting of Hill House (Netflix)
Atmosphere
England
Based on Shirley Jackson's renowned 1959 gothic horror novel of the same name, Mike Flanagan (Gerald's Game, Hush) brings a modern reimagining about five siblings who grew up in the most famous haunted house in America. Now adults, they're reunited by the suicide of their youngest sister, which forces them to finally confront the ghosts of their own pasts... some which lurk in their minds... and some which may really be lurking in the shadows of the iconic Hill House.
Anyone watching this yet? One of my favorite horror novels ever, and Mike Flanagan is truly becoming a modern master of horror. The first two episodes were great and I'm looking forward to continuing on. Granted this is a loose retelling of the source material, but that hasn't bothered me too much thus far.
• Guilty Remnant •
Comments
Really loving Mike Flanagans work so will definitely watch this.
He is dingbat, he's doing doctor sleep for a relase in 2020.
Doctor Sleep has a lot of potential, it's not as scary as The Shining but it has a good narrative of taking down evil.
Flanagan proved that theory wrong with Gerald's Game, which got more out of that story than I could have possibly imagined. Great with the camera, has a solid grasp on suspense - but he's doing these genre stories with a somewhat limited reach. He's making basic stories very good or great, but he can be more than that.
Loving this. So in terms of adaptations, the house is the same, the characters have the same names, but that's about as far as the connection goes in the story. What Flanagan is really good with is capturing the terror and dread of the novel in his own way. The scares are really well set-up and executed. James Wan has nothing on this guy. He's a natural at getting the most tension and atmosphere out of every possible situation.
But what I have been most surprised about is how involved I am already in these characters lives. There's a strong emotional pull to these people who are essentially dealing with seeing unthinkable, fucked up things when they were children and carrying that shit through their whole life. That wouldn't work if the performances weren't good, but they have been pretty brilliant across the board so far.
If Flanagan is stuck doing stuff like this his whole career, then I wouldn't give a fuck frankly lol
But still, ten hours of not skipping ahead. Although the plot was different, it reminded me a lot of the novel, maybe because it kept returning to the basic story of the house offering immortality and the characters being depressed and dramatic, also had a convincing gothic atmosphere.
Unexpectedly, it made me fondly remember The Haunting, the movie adaptation where Catherine Zeta-Jones played Theodora, even though I never liked that movie. In this new adaptation, Theodora's story-line was the most interesting to me, and reminded me a bit of Catherine's role in the 1999 film.
Anyway ima check dis out
Fucking love this show. Two more episodes to go
The characters are great and the actors really sell it. Some nice, lush cinematography as well.
The ending was spot on and the acting was solid all around.
Thoroughly enjoyed every episode.
Wow, this turned out to be not what I was expecting at all. Mike has a real knack for masterful storytelling. The pacing was perfect and I was engrossed the entire time.
Truly great horror makes you care about the victims. Hill House was scary because you didn't want anything to happen to these guys.
Excellent stuff. Directors like Flanagan will flourish on Netflix, they better give him whatever the hell he wants to do from this point on.
We knew everything about every single person and it been a long time since we've seen so much depth to the characters in a horror feature. This was done extremely well.