The newest Netflix hit, besides the second season of MAKING A MURDERER, is a little show called THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE.
The show re-imagines Shirley Jackson’s classic 1959 gothic horror novel. It also puts a modern flare onto the storyline.
What is created is a classic program before our eyes.. a burst of horror, fright.. sadness, joy.. complete and total emotional drainage occurs. This series is one of the better shows ever created.. one of the finest horror genre-related programs ever to air. Nothing about it–not one episode–is poor. Every single scene of every single show unravels a story of grief and fright all at the same time.
For those who may not know, this is now the first time the horror book was placed into film in front of us: The HAUNTING in 1999 tried. And it failed. It got only a 16% rating on ROTTEN TOMATOES (yes, the website existed then) ..
In the Netflix version of the book, Hugh Crain (Henry Thomas, E.T.) and his wife Olivia (Carla Gugino, Spy Kids, Sucker Punch) are professional house flippers. They purchase Hill House at a bargain price with the aim of renovating it and selling to the highest bidder so they can build their dream “forever house.” The house takes over their lives, it destroys their family.. it ruins their future. And it intertwines their past with the present..
….and what develops on screen in front of us, the small screen that it is, is magnificent.
There have been some reports online of people getting sick while they watched the raw emotion in the series. People claim they are vomiting in fear.. trembling by the scares.. Deeply scarred by the horror on screen.
While I cannot attest that physical ailments enveloped my existence during the show, I will only relate this: The program hit me very, very hard. It dug deep into my psyche.. it made me question my reality, my thoughts.. my visions that occur in darkness from the sides of my eyes. Yes, indeed, I may not have regurgitated from the show but at points I had to take a break, pause Netflix and …chill out.
“The Bent-Neck Lady” and “Two Storms” were the two episodes that contained the most emotion. The most raw emotion..
I cannot explain how fine the cast of this show did, and how amazing their performances were.
You can fine the storyline and plot in full on other websites, but I am choosing not to relate much more than I already did. Except the praise I have for this series..
The show is perfect for this time of year.. The Season of the Witch. Halloween.
Perhaps what makes this story even more striking is the claimed real life mystery that actually inspired the book to begin with.
According to Publishers Weekly , Jackson was inspired by real-life buildings. “She based The Haunting of Hill House, her famous ghost story, on historical accounts of haunted houses and pictures she collected of spooky estates; from the Castle Neuschwanstein in Germany to the Winchester Mystery House near her hometown in California,” the site says. “One of the books she most admired was An Adventure , an account by two British women of an uncanny experience in which they apparently stumbled upon a scene from the past while visiting the Petit Trianon at Versailles. She was also inspired by poltergeist accounts collected by the psychical researcher Nandor Fodor, among others.”
Then in Ruth Franklin’s 2016 biography of Shirley Jackson the Crain mansion was based on several real-life buildings, among them the Winchester Mystery House, in California, which was seen in the movie Winchester.
There’s also creepy stories surrounding the 1963 movie adaptation of the book. Ettington Park Hotel, the location where it was filmed, is reportedly haunted.
Staff at the hotel – which was built in 1850 – talk about moving objects and noises even to today…
This show is a total and complete home run.. Every single element is drop dead perfect.
I cannot compliment this show enough.. and I cannot tell you enough to watch it while the season is right.
