The Haunting of Hill House (TV series)

The Haunting of Hill House
Genre Supernatural
Horror
Drama
Based on The Haunting of Hill House
by Shirley Jackson
Directed by Mike Flanagan
Starring
Music by The Newton Brothers
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 10 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)
  • Mike Flanagan
  • Trevor Macy
  • Darryl Frank
  • Justin Falvey
  • Meredith Averill
Running time 42–71 minutes
Production company(s)
Release
Original network Netflix
Original release October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12) – present

The Haunting of Hill House is an American supernatural horror television series created by Mike Flanagan. It is based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson, and premiered on Netflix.[1] The first season consists of ten episodes[1] and was released on October 12, 2018.

Plot

In the summer of 1992, Hugh and Olivia Crain temporarily move into an old mansion, Hill House, along with their five children: Steven, Shirley, Theodora (Theo), Luke and Eleanor (Nell). They experience paranormal occurrences and tragic loss, forcing them to move out of the house. In October 2018, 26 years after the hauntings, the Crain siblings and their estranged father, Hugh, reunite after tragedy strikes again, forcing them to confront their inner demons from their shared childhood while mourning their losses.

Cast

Main

  • Michiel Huisman as Steven Crain,[2] the eldest of the family. As a grown man he’s an author: famous for writing about his family’s experience at Hill House.
    • Paxton Singleton as young Steven[3]
  • Carla Gugino as Olivia Crain,[4] the mother of the family, who designs houses.
  • Timothy Hutton as Hugh Crain,[5] the father of the family, who builds houses.
  • Elizabeth Reaser as Shirley Crain,[6] the eldest daughter of the family, who works with her husband at a mortuary. She has one son and daughter of her own.
  • Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Luke Crain,[8] he is one of the twins, the two youngest kids in the family, as an adult he struggles with addiction.
    • Julian Hilliard as young Luke[3]
  • Kate Siegel as Theodora "Theo" Crain,[6] the middle child of the five, she is now a child psychologist.
  • Victoria Pedretti as Eleanor "Nell" Crain,[7] she is Luke’s twin and has never fully recovered from the haunting she experienced during her time at Hill House.
    • Violet McGraw as young Nell[9]

Episodes

No.TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal release date
1"Steven Sees a Ghost"Mike FlanaganTeleplay by : Mike FlanaganOctober 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
In October 2018, successful author Steven Crain is known for writing "The Haunting of Hill House", an autobiographical novel about his summer experiences residing in a haunted mansion known as Hill House during childhood, alongside his four siblings -- Shirley, Theo, and twins Nell and Luke -- and their parents, house renovators Hugh and Olivia. During their stay, the Crain family encounter paranormal occurrences and are forced to flee without Olivia, who dies within the house, traumatizing the Crain family. Steven is the only one who never encounters any paranormal activity nor ghosts. In 2012 (six years prior to present day), Steven uses his family's traumatic experiences to write his book, straining his bonds with his siblings. In present day, Steven and Shirley get missed calls from Nell, who then contacts Hugh and expresses concern for Luke, now a recovering addict in rehab. Erstwhile, Steven crosses paths with Luke stealing equipment from his house to sell. Steven meets a hiding Nell in his apartment and gets a call from Hugh, who tells him that Nell went to Hill House and committed suicide. Steven realizes that the Nell in his house is actually a ghost, making this his first real encounter with the supernatural.
2"Open Casket"Mike FlanaganMike FlanaganOctober 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
In childhood flashbacks at Hill House, Shirley encounters a box of kittens located in a hut nearby the mansion, and manages to convince her parents to let her take them inside the house. However, they die one by one and these deaths deeply affect Shirley. Some time later after she and her family have left Hill House, a funeral is held for Olivia and an initially distraught Shirley is surprised by the work put on Olivia by the morticians. Several years later, Shirley is a mortician who owns a funeral business alongside her husband Kevin and rents a guest house to Theo, who is now a child therapist. Shirley soon gets a call from Steven, who informs her of Nell's death. Distraught and shaken, she requests that Nell's corpse be brought to her to be refurbished for the funeral.
3"Touch"Mike FlanaganLiz PhangOctober 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
Flashbacks to her childhood reveal that touching people shows Theo the "truth." When she scolds Mrs. Dudley for yelling at Luke, she touches her and learns that she's afraid of something. Luke and Theo used the dumbwaiter to get into a secret floor not mapped in the house's blueprints, where Luke encounters a ghost that attacks him. Later, Theo investigates to find a secret door in the pantry that leads to the basement. Olivia reveals to Theo that her grandmother (and by extent, she and the children) have the ability to sense things by touch and gifts her gloves that belonged to her mother. While working as a therapist for children in foster care (using her ability to learn what each child suffers from), she comes across a child who's difficult for her to read, and who claims to be tormented by an entity she calls "Mr. Smiley". Using her memory of the basement at Hill House, Theo goes to the foster parents of the child and is able to learn that the foster father is molesting her. After the events of the last episode, Theo goes into Shirley's refurbishing room and takes off her gloves to touch Nell's body, then collapses and cries out in sadness and pain. Theo calls up an old fling from the night before and, after breaking down over what she endured that day, she and her fling begin to kiss.
4"The Twin Thing"Mike FlanaganScott KosarOctober 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
During his childhood, Luke begins to be tormented by a man with a bowler hat who floats a foot above the floor. In the present, Luke spends 90 days clean and sober and shows closeness to his "girlfriend" Joey. While Luke shows determination to stay clean, Joey is less receptive and eventually leaves rehab, much to his dismay. His therapist Paige urges him not to "lean" on her due to her fall outs with addicts, but he refuses and goes to look for her. After finding her about to buy drugs, Luke decides to get her help and tries to find a place for her. Luke first goes to Leigh, Steve's wife who informs him they've actually divorced. Leigh sends Luke to Steve’s apartment where he breaks in to steal his camera and iPad to sell for cash to put himself and Joey into an apartment while she comes down from her high. The events of the first episode play but from Luke's perspective. Luke and Joey walk to a hotel but while this happens Joey complains about needing to pee and wants to stop by an alley to relieve herself. Luke starts feeling “the symptoms of withdrawal,” without being high and is feverish and confused. Joey kisses him and leaves to relieve herself only for Luke to realize she ran off with the $200. Luke searches for her, resulting in him being mugged for his jacket and shoes. After calling the rehabilitation center over what happened, Paige and Steve go to pick him up. Steve informs Luke of Nell’s passing, but Luke shakily states it wasn't suicide.
5"The Bent-Neck Lady"Mike FlanaganMeredith AverillOctober 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
During her childhood, Nell begins to be tormented by a ghastly ghost she calls the Bent-Neck Lady, who seems to have a broken neck. Nell begins seeing a sleep technician for sleep paralysis named Arthur and the two immediately hit it off. The two engage, although Arthur does help Nell whenever she suffers her episodes. One instance however leads to Arthur collapsing and dying, Nell seeing the Bent-Neck Lady once again. While seeing a new therapist, Nell begins to use her medication less and less, causing schisms with Theo and Steve, and also reluctantly helping Luke to score heroin before he jumps into rehab. In her broken state and convinced by her therapist that Hill House is "just a carcass in the woods", Nell drives off to the house after doing a series of calls to Steve, Shirley, and her father. She enters the house and encounters a scenario of her family and Arthur before finding herself in the library and tricked into putting a noose around her neck. Nell falls and hangs, her neck snapped. She then sees herself constantly fall and travel through the past and present revealing that she is the Bent-Neck Lady haunting her own past.
6"Two Storms"Mike FlanaganMike Flanagan & Jeff HowardOctober 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
The Crain family and Kevin met up at the funeral parlor during a rainstorm to grieve and honor Nell the night before her funeral. Steven and Luke met up with Shirley, Theo and Kevin. After viewing Nell's body, Steven sees Nell's ghost again. Hugh was left behind at the local hotel and later rendezvous with the others in the funeral parlor. After viewing the body, he asks to go to the restroom. He follows the directions given by Shirley, but finds himself back at the house, on the night of the storm. He is startled when the chandelier falls at the bottom of the stairs. He sees his younger self come down to investigate, and then the rest of the family joins. The lights go out, and the family gets out flashlights, and discover that Nellie has gone missing. Back in the present, the Crain family converse with one another about their memories about Nell. They talk about the logic and circumstances of Nell's death, and Hugh mentions his previous call with Nell, where she told him the Bent-Neck Lady was back, provoking Steven to have a volatile argument with him and the family. Shirley and Theo also clash over each other's opinions on Steven's royalties after his Hill House book, and Kevin confessed to have used them to establish the funeral business. Shirley goes back to the coffin and finds buttons over Nell's eyes. She demands to know who did it, and while several of them are around the coffin, the lights go out in the funeral home, and when everyone goes to investigate, Hugh is left at the coffin, and is pulled back into another flashback, where the storm intensifies, breaking windows, and where visions of the Hill family appear, and Olivia appears and disappears at the end of opposite hallways, and the children see a dog. Hugh goes to investigate, and then turns to see Nellie behind him, frozen in fear, but the lights go out before he can get to her. Back at the funeral parlor, Luke wonders who was responsible for the buttons, and Hugh suggests that it was none of the family, and that she wasn't responsible for her own death. Luke asks about whether their mother's death was suicide, and Hugh says it is complicated. They press him, suggesting the mental illness in the family, including that he has been talking to himself all night. Hugh says the house killed her, and he and Steven argue, and escalate until the coffin falls over, and the lights suddenly come on. Shirley goes to get her kit to fix Nell's makeup, and catches Theo and Kevin intimately groping each other and walks out on them. Meanwhile, back at Hill House, the lights come on as the family rushes to Nellie, who says she was there the whole time, but nobody could see her. As everyone leaves the funeral parlor, Nellie's voice repeats those words, as the Bent-Neck Nell stands alone beside her body in the coffin.
7"Eulogy"Mike FlanaganCharise Castro SmithOctober 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
As the Crains gather to say their final goodbyes, a flashback reveals Mr. Dudley's connection to the house -- and exposes a secret in the walls.
8"Witness Marks"Mike FlanaganJeff Howard & Rebecca KlingelOctober 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
A familiar terror revisits Shirley and Theo on Halloween night as Hugh and Steve go looking for Luke, who disappeared on a deadly errand.
9"Screaming Meemies"Mike FlanaganMeredith AverillOctober 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
While struggling to discern dreams from reality, Olivia fears for her children's safety, a motherly instinct Mrs. Dudley urges her to embrace.
10"Silence Lay Steadily"Mike FlanaganMike FlanaganOctober 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
The Red Room's contents are finally revealed as the Crains return to the house to confront old ghosts, unspeakable secrets and an insatiable evil.

Reception

The Haunting of Hill House received critical acclaim upon its release. Rotten Tomatoes gave the series an approval score of 85% and an average score of 8.29 out of 10, based on 33 critics, with the consensus stating: "The Haunting of Hill House is an effective ghost story whose steadily mounting anticipation is just as satisfying as its chilling payoff."[10] Metacritic gave the series a score of 81 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim", based on 15 critics. [11]

Corrine Corrodus of The Telegraph gave the series a 5/5 rating, calling it "the most complex and complete horror series of its time".[12] Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave unanimous praise to the Netflix adaptation, calling it "essential viewing" and stating that "[the show] contains some of the most unforgettable horror imagery in film or television in years."[13] David Griffin of IGN gave the series a rating of 9.5 out of 10, "Amazing", calling it "a superb and terrifying family drama."[14]

References

  1. 1 2 Andreeva, Nellie (April 10, 2017). "Netflix Orders TV Series Adaptation Of 'The Haunting of Hill House' Book From Mike Flanagan, Amblin TV & Paramount TV". Deadline. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
  2. ↑ Goldberg, Lesley (June 13, 2017). "'Game of Thrones' Favorite to Star in 'Haunting of Hill House' Series for Netflix (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
  3. 1 2 N'Duka, Amanda (October 17, 2017). "'The Haunting Of Hill House': Netflix Sets Paxton Singleton & Julian Hilliard As Series Regulars". Deadline. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
  4. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (July 18, 2017). "Carla Gugino To Star In 'The Haunting Of Hill House' Netflix TV Series Adaptation". Deadline. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
  5. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (August 23, 2017). "Timothy Hutton To Star In 'The Haunting Of Hill House' Netflix TV Series Adaptation". Deadline. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 Petski, Denise (August 14, 2017). "Henry Thomas, Elizabeth Reaser & Kate Siegel Cast In 'The Haunting Of Hill House' Netflix TV Series Adaptation". Deadline. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
  7. 1 2 N'Duka, Amanda (September 14, 2017). "'The Haunting Of Hill House': Lulu Wilson & Victoria Pedretti Cast In Netflix Series Re-Imagining". Deadline. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
  8. ↑ Petski, Denise (August 24, 2017). "'The Haunting Of Hill House': Oliver Jackson-Cohen Cast In Netflix TV Series Adaptation". Deadline. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
  9. 1 2 N'Duka, Amanda (September 25, 2017). "'The Haunting Of Hill House': Mckenna Grace & Violet McGraw Join Netflix Series". Deadline. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
  10. ↑ "The Haunting of Hill House: Season 1". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
  11. ↑ "The Haunting of Hill House: Season 1". Metacritic. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
  12. ↑ Corrodus, Corrine (October 12, 2018). "The Haunting of Hill House review: by far the most complex and complete horror series of its time". The Telegraph. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
  13. ↑ Tallerico, Brian (October 11, 2018). "Netflix's Terrifying, Moving The Haunting of Hill House is Essential Viewing". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
  14. ↑ Griffin, David (October 12, 2018). "Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House: Season 1 Review". IGN. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
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