Viewers call it “absolutely terrifying” and “emotionally devastating”. Others say it is a “true masterpiece of horror”, the “greatest horror show of all time” and “the best story I have ever experienced”.
High praise indeed — and if you have seen Haunting of Hill House, a Netflix original series, then you may well agree with these comments (and then some). Haunting of Hill House is indeed enough to leave you terrified, emotionally drained and scared to turn out the lights. And you can find seven under-rated Netflix series here.
Haunting of Hill House was the first of Mike Flanagan’s Haunting anthology, which also includes Haunting of Bly Manor and The Fall of the House of Usher. It was released in 2018 and stars Michiel Huisman, Carla Gugino, Timothy Hutton, Henry Thomas, Elizabeth Reaser, Lulu Wilson, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Kate Siegel and Victoria Pedretti.
Adapted from Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel of the same name, it tells the story of the supernatural events that plague the Crain family on their move to Hill House, and how those effects still haunt them two decades later.
The opening of Jackson’s novel is in itself a sublime scene-setter for what is to come in the TV adaptation: “Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”
Stephen King once called the novel “as nearly perfect a haunted-house tale as I have ever read”.
Be careful: from this point on, this article contains spoilers.
If you’ve seen it, you will remember utterly chilling scenes like when Steve rings his father to tell him his sister, Nell, is with him in his flat, only to be told by his father that she had just died. Then there’s the “car scene”, which is so terrifying it redfines the term “jump scare”. And that’s before we even mention “Bent Neck Lady”.
Film YouTuber Skip Intro says Flanagan is an “expert at hitting audiences with an unexpected horrific image” but said “that’s not the only thing that makes him a great horror editor”.
You need only glance briefly at YouTube to see people lining up to explain why Haunting of Hill House is a “masterpiece” and the “greatest horror story of all time”.
One viewer said “nothing has ever made me feel the way it did” while another said it “just changed something within me I can’t explain”.
On Reddit, one fan wrote: “A few years ago I wouldn’t have believed someone would make a horror show as splendid and full of perfection as this one. It’s a perfect ghost story mixed with an amazing plot that keeps eyes glued to your screen. And by the time you’re done, you’ll be left thinking whether it’s okay to go to the kitchen alone or sleep with the lights on. It’s the scariest show I’ve ever seen… It’s a genuine masterpiece.”
An editorial piece on Rotten Tomatoes, the review aggregator, says just one episode of Haunting of Hill House (episode six) stands on its own as “arguably the best horror entertainment to hit any screen in 2018” — and that’s the same year as the film Hereditary was released.
On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a top rating of 93%. David Fear, writing in Rolling Stone, calls it “absolutely terrifying” while Andrew Whalen writing in Newsweek says it became “a new high watermark for episodic horror”. And Sam Adams in Slate says: “It isn’t the words that stick with you. It’s the sight of the Bent-Neck Lady…”
I’ll leave you with that haunting thought.