ReviewCorner: The Haunting of Hill House (2018)

“Am I walking toward something I should be running away from?”

Recently, the Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House has taken up the social media by storm. With rave reviews and a positive fan reception the show is attempting to follow in the foot-steps of American Horror Story to bring quality horror to the small-screen. I binge-watched it over the week to see what all the fuss was about and surely enough it lived up to the high expectations.

This is story revolves around 7 family members, Hugh, Olivia, their children Steven, Shirley, Theodora, the twins Luke and Nell, who shift into their new mansion, the group of siblings who, as children, grew up in what would go on to become the most famous haunted house in the country later on are now adults back to the house to confront the ghosts of the past.  It starts of by telling us that they move into the mansion for the summer to renovate it and work on it and eventually sell it so they can move into another home. But it’s not that simple as it seems as this mansion has more secrets then you realize. And the fact that this mansion is haunted with ghosts. Has a secret red room, most of the time whoever stays there after dark start to see hallucinations, nightmares when you try to sleep. And not just the normal kind but scary to the core.

This show is scary stuff

The series is perfect mix of jump scares, thrill, mystery, horror, drama, family. The manner in which they show the present, the past, the future of the hill house. How they shot the scenes, telling us about the hill house then in 1992, everyone experience paranormal occurrences and tragic loss, forcing to move out of the house. Now, years after sheer terror, the five children must face their repressed memories and tackle the demons that so deeply traumatized them.

The story then moves forward 26 years later (the present) it shows us flashbacks while keeping everyone curious about the present alongside.

The show initially has slow pace, but with each passing episode you are more on the edge and intrigued about what would happen next, all the characters have really good storyline but the actor who played Eleanor was quite outstanding with her acting skills. Furthermore, most of the time the movie maker these days try to come up with the usual jump scares and a very unfinished storylines, where this miniseries episodes were of an hour and so they had the gift of time and so Mr. Flanagan expressed each and every characters views and story line in depth, showing us what ticks off each character, how each of them perceived the same situation, which is why this show was more attention-grabbing than usual, this show filled up narrative gaps from every aspect, mental illness, addiction, secrecy, emotional trauma and especially by making the viewers give a chill down their spine when they realize that the real horror are not the ghosts but the memories that resides within the person themselves and what it can do to you.

First scary show in a long time

Lastly this show is all about family, love, challenges, issues and most importantly having each other’s back even when you don’t want to at the end that is what families do.

However, this show lacked a little bit of back story of the hill house itself, they left a few unanswered questions as they were focusing on the characters and their flashbacks and forwards.  But all in all, the series was a great hit, it had it bumps along the way but viewers who stick till the end well they might just be surprised, satisfied by the ending they might see. Because it is the kind of a series which will stick around for some time in people’s mind.

Written by: Sharooq Naeem