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The Haunting of Hill House Review

The Haunting of Hill House is a supernatural horror drama miniseries created by Mike Flanagan. It premiered on Netflix in 2018. It’s a flawed, but sophisticated series.

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“You couldn’t see me“

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Loosely based on the novel of the same name, the plot alternates between two timelines, following five adult siblings whose paranormal experiences at Hill House continue to haunt them in the present day, and flashbacks depicting events leading up to the eventful night in 1992 when the family fled from the mansion. The show uses this now familiar, but solid structure of showing the main scenes in the first couple of episodes, but covering what happened leading up to those scenes in the past. This all culminates with the finale that finally answers all of the mysteries raised before.

Let’s first get the elephant out of the room, this is an extremely slow show that simply won’t appeal to everyone. The pacing is at times glacial all the while requiring from you to follow it attentively to catch all of the important conversations and rich character development. Thus, I would call Hill House a horror drama with the emphasis on the latter as the horror elements only complement the human and family drama at hand. Although I personally wanted more thrills and ghosts, I’d ultimately come to admire the show for its emotionally engaging and sophisticated narrative.

Similar to the ‘Usher’ show, but a much more sophisticated take on those themes, the show is all about family and the importance of family units, especially during dark and/or traumatic experiences. Yes, the show is atheistic for sure as all Flanagan works are, but the subject of grief and fear is so well explored. The idea that parenting itself is horrifying is a modern concept, but one that fit the horror genre exceptionally well.

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The show goes out of its way to genuinely develop each and every character and give them proper arcs, which led to a very slow pace, but genuinely strong characterization and emotional storytelling. Olivia is a tragic figure as the mother who was the victim of the house and who eventually had to learn to let go of her kids and let them live peacefully. Hugh is also a sad character as this father who was wrongfully blamed by his wife’s dead by his kids. I loved his arc and how protective he was of his children.

Speaking of the children, they all have their issues. Steven is the most unlikable and egotistical of the bunch, a man who would willingly do vasectomy and write a book to profit off of his family’s trauma. Shirley is also not particularly likable and through her the series explored a deeply fake, cheating person who just pretends to be perfect. Theo is a very interesting lesbian character who is also a mediator and that was so well explored. Nell is such a tragic character and the show was too brutal toward her. Similarly, Luke with his drug addiction is another broken, damaged man. I really liked the Dudley family too, but I wished to have seen more of them.

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The Haunting of Hill House benefits from superb acting performances all around. Kate Siegel is surprisingly solid as Theo and Carla Gugino is touching in the role of the mother. I am not a fan of Henry Thomas, but he was pretty good here. Timothy Hutton was even better in such a sad role. The other actors were all fine, but less impressive. As per usual, this is a beautiful-looking show with gorgeous cinematography, strong production values and a very good score. I appreciated the strong, realistic dialogue and how well the series handled its themes. The finale ended things pretty much perfectly too. I just wished for a quicker pace, a lesser episode count and more ghosts as the horror elements took the backseat to the family drama for better and for worse. The jump scares were so effective and striking (especially the car scene and the slender man appearances) that it’s a shame that we got so few of them.