The Haunting of Hill House – review

Director: Mike Flanagan

First aired: 2018

Contains spoilers

I watched this series as it came out and there was clearly a vampiric aspect, as we’ll explore, but I never committed it to a blog review. I’ve recently rewatched it on Blu-Ray and it is about time that I looked at the series.

How is it vampiric you might ask? Surely it is a ghost story? And ghost story it is, based on the Shirley Jackson novel (which itself was the basis for one of the best ghost story films of all time – the Haunting (1963)). Director and series creator Mike Flanagan has, of course, created a vampire series in the form of Midnight Mass and also created the superb Doctor Sleep and it is there, along with his film Oculus, our discussion will begin.

ghosts of Hill House

So, looking back at Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep, it begins where Kubrick’s the Shining leaves off, with the Overlook Hotel still standing but abandoned (unlike King's novel). The hotel was a vampiric building, feeding off the shining and the activity within that film was so intense as Danny was so strong in the psychic ability he was essentially an all-you-can-eat buffet. Once abandoned, the ghosts (of those the hotel had fed upon) could no longer feed and sought Danny out. When he returns to the hotel, the building awakens again, able to feed. Similarly in Oculus, the mirror is vampiric – tying the ghosts of those it feeds upon to it (though there is no indication that they are hungry vampiric ghosts). This gives us the basis for the building and ghosts in this series.

the red room open

In this we return to that theme – there is a room in the house… The Red Room… which cannot be entered, no key opens the red door, and it is later described as the stomach of the house. In fact it is entered by all the occupants – unbeknown to them. It actively becomes what they want, a games room, a reading room, a treehouse etc to entice them and so they enter the stomach of the house (which in reality is a barren room with black mould on the walls) as it devours them. The house pushes them to die (we get murder and inhabitants tricked into suicide during the series) and their ghosts remain. What becomes interesting is that the ghosts are not, by rote, evil and, again, there is no indication they are hungry. Some are evil, conspiring with the house, others are benign and others confused.

the Crains

The series follows the Crain family. A young family who have bought the house to restore and flip and what remains of the family in the future after mom Olivia (Carla Gugino, Rise: Blood Hunter) apparently committed suicide and the kids were sent to live with their Aunt by the courts, given Dad Hugh (played young by Henry Thomas, Doctor Sleep and Midnight Mass, and played older by Timothy Hutton) stuck to the story that she was killed by the haunted house. Hill House remained boarded, and the (now adult) kids all have their own psychological ghosts haunting them. The apparent suicide of Nell Crain (played young by Violet McGraw, also Doctor Sleep, and played older by Victoria Pedretti) in the abandoned house brings things to a head – with Hugh realising that the house considers them unfinished meals.

Hill House

One great thing about the series is the fact that it is non-linear in storytelling – for instance the full events of Olivia’s death are only revealed towards the end of the series – with the past and present intertwined and often seen passing into themselves. This is also reflected in the hauntings themselves, – one in particular becomes perfectly circular. Like the Overlook, one can read this that the house is especially interested in the Cranes due to a psychic ability that Olivia manifests and is particularly strong in daughter Theo (played young by Mckenna Grace and played older by Kate Siegel, also Oculus and Midnight Mass). When the Cranes return the house awakens, lights glowing through boarded windows. It is worth noting that the sheer number of ghosts in the house is impressive. A great series, 8 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK