Hey everyone, James here (a.k.a. the Boss, Rooster Illusion, etc.). Our twelve dedicated readers will surely recognize the banner above this intro, but for the rest of you, it’s my pleasure to introduce Colin French, writing under the column name of Strange Bacon. Back in the archives, you can find his thoughts on Canadian cinema, philosophy, Stephen King, and much more (including the most viewed post on this site). This Halloween he’s back with a review of…

The Haunting of Hill House (2018):

With age and full time employment comes having less patience for bad television. In the spirit of that, these days in the mid 2020’s you’ll only see me recommend that you watch something that is going to eat up many hours of your time if I really believe it’s worth it. One of my consistent snobby critiques of major network television is that when a program tries to include too many different elements (romance, action, drama, thrills, a character each viewing audience member can relate to) one of the dangers is creating a watered-down product that doesn’t excel in any one area. The shows try to do too many things not terribly well, simply in the name of trying to keep ahold of the largest possible viewership (Not unlike an Asian buffet trying to serve day-old pizza for menu variety). The more you try to cover over the course of a story, especially a mini series, the more difficult it is to do everything justice.

I was therefore skeptical when I started The Haunting of Hill House (2018, Netflix) because after the opening episode and character introductions, I was concerned that trying to fit supernatural horror, an overarching thematic focus on how we as humans deal with death, AND the complicated nature of a large family dynamic might be too much for one relatively short series to cover. Thankfully, Mike Flanagan was able to surprise me and pull it off with flying colors. The aforementioned Flanagan is also who we have to thank for the recent Stephen King movie adaptation Doctor Sleep, and the similarities between the two are striking enough that I was able to theorize they might have had the same mind behind them before even checking the good ol’ Google home device to verify.

One of many things that makes The Haunting of Hill House a quality watch is that it is able to tell a low-concept story extremely well given the backdrop of a classic haunted house horror. There’s nothing particularly new or unusual about the horror elements to the story–it is watching characters that you enjoy and quickly grow attached to try to navigate the unfortunate circumstances that bring the show along. Simply put, this is a family of characters that would be watchable in a drama, horror, thriller–against many different backdrops. This just happens to be a very high quality story about family and death with the cosmetic framing of a spook-fest.

The ensemble cast generally fit their roles well, with “minor” exceptions (The child acting is quite rough in some places, but what can you do?). Following the five siblings in incremental flashbacks means that past grievances and events to strain feelings within the family transpire in an order that always helps the story develop in a way to keep the viewer hooked, without ever becoming too confusing to follow. Each of the first five episodes cover the same series of hours leading up to a major family tragedy from the perspectives of each child, which not only introduces the characters, but also gives each of the early episodes a distinctive and unique feel, as though the way the story itself is being revealed also is taking the perspective of the individual characters into account in the creation of the episode. They feel personally hand-crafted by the characters themselves.

I hate spoilers of any kind in reviews, and so will try to keep the plot-relevant specifics to a minimum. But I’d strongly recommend this show. Even if lengthy dialogue isn’t your typical forte, you can tell that many of the lines are directly lifted from the novel, as it’s unusually good for a Netflix show. It may be Halloween, but it might be worth giving this one a start and carry you into November. Happy Halloween.