The 'Aunting of 'Ill 'Ouse- Netflix

[Misspent Boners]

This was released a few days ago and Ive seen four so far...its enjoyable enough, playing out as much as a character study of a family of seven as an out n out horror series.

After the first couple of episodes it appears to be focusing on one sibling per ep for presumably the next five eps; flashing back and forth from their sitch in the present day to the experiences back when they lived in what would become the most haunted house in America back in the 80s.

Subtle and well filmed, its been ghoulish good fun and intriguing so far. 2 things: why is it called the Haunting of Hill House? It cant even be called a loose adaptation of the book, besides starting with a verbatim quote of the books opening passage and the haunted house they live in being called Hill House...I guess theres other slight similarities but for the most part it annoys me that theyve in anyway affiliated it with something that it has no resemblance to. Seems to be happening quite a lot nowadays.

Ive forgotten the second thing; but I think some parts are a bit miscast; although the actor playing the heroin addict sib is very good at acting, hes isnt always projecting the character of someone whos been on heroin for a decade; he looks like someone out of a H & M catalogue with a bit of black eye makeup.on...but hey thats Hollywood

[Misspent Boners]

Cant believe no one is watching this. I just cant believe it. Its very good!

[BlodwynPig]

Jump scares?

Also, I don't remember anyone playing a good heroin addict (I haven't seen Trainspotting). *film cliches thread*

[olliebean]

The first episode didn't grab me much at all, to the extent it took me until about halfway through to realise half the cast were the same people as the other half. Will probably give it another go at some point, but I haven't got around to it yet.

[Pete23]

I'm enjoying it, especially the relationships between all the kids which seems pretty well done (so far - I'm only up to episode 4), but it's a lot closer to something like Stephen King's It than the original Haunting. I'd read a lot before hand about how they were going to keep the atmosphere of the original film but they can't help showing too much of the ghosties at every opportunity. There's also a weird modern superhero feel about it with Theo and her touch of truth and the twins psychic connections - perhaps Hill House just reminds me of the X-Man Mansion.

Loved the floaty cane man, although he was a lot less scary hanging out with the druggies than tapping round Hill House.

[brat-sampson]

I'm surprised this isn't getting more attention here, given the extent of the horror threads on Deeper into Movies. It's really good.

I've been getting through it at a couple of episodes a night. The first two were admittedly fairly standard, raising lots of questions, creepy house, dysfunctional family etc. 3, 4 and 5 were a marked improvement and showed off why a lot of the decisions made in the first two were the way they were. It's here you can appreciate the use of the timelines in the storytelling. If anything, it reminded me of Arrested Development season 4, with sequences taking place before or after things we've already seen in order to re-contextualise them. Episode 6 and we're moving forward again in some of the most unsettling shots and scenes I can remember seeing on TV.

It's definitely a heady mixture of Family Drama and actual spooks, but it hits hard when it wants to, doesn't get too crazy with the jump-scares or imagery and finds a nice groove of being watchable, sometimes tense, and just generally unnerving. I'm impressed, and looking forward to the rest of it.

[biggytitbo]

I bet its not as good as the Clifton House Mystery:

[Small Man Big Horse]

I only watched the first episode and didn't find it scary at all, does it improve on that front as it goes along?

[Misspent Boners]

I only watched the first episode and didn't find it scary at all, does it improve on that front as it goes along?

Id say this depends on the individual; as some one who is not easily spooked I cant say theres been anything that has genuinely made me feel frightened, but.lots of subtly creepy parts and a lot of that really cool  "was that something in the corner there a second ago?" Type things. Really liked the top hat ghostman; he just wanted his hat back god bless him.

Only seen up to episode 6 so far but it was a wonderful piece of t.v.; lots of.lengthy single takes, some great acting and bulding tension as reality slowly slips and becomes untrustworthy

Id say to you yeah keep watching, its decent.

[Misspent Boners]

The first episode didn't grab me much at all, to the extent it took me until about halfway through to realise half the cast were the same people as the other half. Will probably give it another go at some point, but I haven't got around to it yet.

It can get confusing with the ladies of Hill House; yeah fair enough theyre all sisters but they all look very similar and at least initially its a little hard to keep track of 'oos 'oo...

[Small Man Big Horse]

Id say this depends on the individual; as some one who is not easily spooked I cant say theres been anything that has genuinely made me feel frightened, but.lots of subtly creepy parts and a lot of that really cool  "was that something in the corner there a second ago?" Type things. Really liked the top hat ghostman; he just wanted his hat back god bless him.

Ah, that kind of stuff doesn't really do anything for me unfortunately.

Only seen up to episode 6 so far but it was a wonderful piece of t.v.; lots of.lengthy single takes, some great acting and bulding tension as reality slowly slips and becomes untrustworthy

Id say to you yeah keep watching, its decent.

Though if it's good on the acting side of things and a decent story then I'll give it another shot, and thank you for the response.

[Misspent Boners]

Just finished this tonight and overall I enjoyed it. Theres only really a couple of slightly chilling moments and a couple of creepies and it defintely could have done the horror aspects a bit better. That said, there was a lot subtelty and understated elements of horror which I respect

Some great turns which alone put the series up from a7 to an 8.5 to me. The smackhead brother, although initially making me scoff at how cleancut he looked, did a great job as someone misguided and hurting.

A nice satisfying ending as well. Really hope they dont do a second series not that I can see how theyd be able to.

Id recommend this to all and sundry, great night

[Custard]

Two episodes in, and I'm pretty hooked. It's really well made, and the cast are really good

Not seen the original film, so dunno where it's going, but I think it's pretty effective as atmospheric, slow burning horror

I'm one of the few who actually liked Oculus, so Flanagan is alright in my book. Apparently Spielberg was pretty involved too, which probably explains the kid from ET getting the gig

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Spielberg owns the adaptation rights to the Shirley Jackson book, as he produced the 1999 remake (his longtime editor also worked on the remake), but he wasn't directly involved in this version. However, Mike Flanagan is a huge Spielberg fan, and that's definitely why one character is named Steven.

[Misspent Boners]

Spielberg owns the adaptation rights to the Shirley Jackson book, as he produced the 1999 remake (his longtime editor also worked on the remake), but he wasn't directly involved in this version. However, Mike Flanagan is a huge Spielberg fan, and that's definitely why one character is named Steven.

A character who happens to be a horror writer with stupid glasses and flat hair to boot!

[Sin Agog]

I don't think I'm into it.  These multiple character TV dramas are all about cutting between characters often enough to keep all their narratives alive.  But do that in a horror, which are usually about slowly building tension, and it feels like they're just skipping all the necessary build-up and telling us to be scared anyway.  Not to mention the drama stuff, at least in the eps I've seen, feels a bit staid and sterile.

[New Jack]

It isn't like the book, so me disappoint, even if good on merits own

[Sin Agog]

It is typical male appropriation taking a book written by a woman fighting her way into a masculine genre half a century ago, and casually saying a man wrote it instead.

;) I don't really think that.  I think.  Although it does seem like a lame way of working a known brand into the plot.

[thraxx]

I'm enjoying this a lot but it should be called 4 Alanis Morrisettes and a Funeral.

Totally saw the bent neck lady twist coming from a mile off.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

Been watching this with my girlfriend and I'm genuinely surprised at what a near universally warm reception it's getting. I'm finding it really clunky and the dialogue's toe-curling. It's also really, really slow, but - sadly - not in an atmospheric, tension-building way.

[thraxx]

Is episode 6 what they call a bottle episode?

The buttons on the eyes were some of the worst CGI I've sever seen.

[thraxx]

Been watching this with my girlfriend and I'm genuinely surprised at what a near universally warm reception it's getting. I'm finding it really clunky and the dialogue's toe-curling. It's also really, really slow, but - sadly - not in an atmospheric, tension-building way.

It's pap, but enjoyable pap.

The plot is basically 'woooo, woooo look it's a g-g-g-g-ghost!'

[McFlymo]

Agreed on finding it really clunky. I really hated it by the end. So many points where I felt they were just dragging things out. I couldn't find any consistency in why and how the spooky things were happening. It just felt random and boring. 

Some of the long monologues were just excruciating. The first few episodes did grab me and I jumped a couple of times, but I just couldn't motivate myself to care about any of the cliched characters. I didn't really get the ending either....


*SPOILER* .... So the house was bad, but not bad, because it wanted to keep the ghosts there, because it was lonely, but it killed the mum anyway? And the Dudleys were sad that their daughter died, but not really that much? And why was the dad so rubbish? And why were the ghosts able to manifest in random places (like cars etc.)??  ....

[Ja'moke]

Been watching this with my girlfriend and I'm genuinely surprised at what a near universally warm reception it's getting. I'm finding it really clunky and the dialogue's toe-curling. It's also really, really slow, but - sadly - not in an atmospheric, tension-building way.

Same. I gave up after episode six. The episodes are way too long; one of them was 1 hour 10 minutes! And the guy playing the author is not a good actor. His performance in the funeral episode... yeesh.

[worldsgreatestsinner]

I'm glad there's some negative voices now because I was feeling really alone.  Cut about six episodes and  change the actor for the author character and it would have improved it but there was never a need to market this as a Shirley Jackson adaptation.  Reminded me most of that early 00s Stephen King miniseries Rose Red, which in itself was a flawed attempt to make something in the spirit of Haunting of Hill House.

[Maurice Yeatman]

Just finished this after watching it over the last 2 weeks, and I'm surprised to see that it's been so well-received by the critics, according to wikipedia at least.

I could have happily quit at any time during the first 4 or 5 episodes - too much family melodrama and long monologues with sad piano coming in at the end - but I suppose there must have been enough of interest to keep me going. Episode 6, Bent Neck Lady, stood out as a very good one. The penultimate episode was good too, but the last one was a disappointment. Not enough scares, and even more over-sentimental monologues. An hour and 10 minutes that one, such a drag.

There wasn't enough humour, the adult siblings were too unsympathetic as characters. Good technically on the different timelines though, and another up-vote for floaty hat man.

[Keebleman]

Wasn't that impressed by episode one, but decided to give it another chance and was glad I did: lots of scares, intriguing storylines and some good film-making - I thought the episode that consisted almost entirely of 4 really long shots worked particularly well, even if it was just a gimmick.

But there was a huge drop in quality by the end.  The big emoting scenes all fell flat, and as the final episode was virtually nothing but these it was a terrible disappointment.  The Abigail stuff made not a lick of sense.  The make up on the Dudleys at the end was awful.  Plus Carla Gugino, possessor of the best bosom in Hollywood, kept her clothes on throughout.

And of course there are all the problems with the ghosts.  Why were they doing what ever it was they were doing?  Were they always evil or has the house made them evil?  If so, why was the house evil?  Or are they not evil at all and just lonely (actually, the last line suggests this is the case, changing the original line of Jackson's (and the 1963 film) from "...those that walk here, walk alone," to "...those that walk here, walk together.")?  Or are they really all just fucking metaphors, like Shirley's one-night stand?

Of course the only reason the ghosts are there is to be scary, and everything else is subservient to this.  This isn't a problem with short stories but in extended works with plotlines that need resolving it invariably leads to both too much and not enough explication.

[Maurice Yeatman]

The sentimental feelreasonablygood ending was daft. Time isn't linear, it's like snow or confetti and I'm always with you, what part of being shit-scared and miserable don't you understand?

And what was the point of the Trish character? Her turning up at the funeral was absurd.