The Haunting of Hill House (TV series)

The Haunting of Hill House
Genre	Supernatural Horror Drama
Based on	The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Directed by	Mike Flanagan
Starring	Michiel Huisman Carla Gugino Henry Thomas Elizabeth Reaser Oliver Jackson-Cohen Kate Siegel Victoria Pedretti Lulu Wilson Mckenna Grace Paxton Singleton Julian Hilliard Violet McGraw Timothy Hutton
Music by	The Newton Brothers
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	10
Production
Executive producers	Mike Flanagan Trevor Macy Darryl Frank Justin Falvey Meredith Averill
Running time	42–71 minutes
Production companies	FlanaganFilm Amblin Television Paramount Television
Original release
Network	Netflix
Release	October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12) – present

The Haunting of Hill House is an American supernatural horror television series created by Mike Flanagan. It is based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson, and premiered on Netflix. The first season consists of ten episodes and was released on October 12, 2018.

Plot

The Haunting of Hill House takes place in two timelines. One is set in the summer of 1992, when Hugh and Olivia Crain temporarily moved into an old mansion, Hill House, along with their five children: Steven, Shirley, Theodora (Theo), Luke and Eleanor (Nell). They experience paranormal occurrences and tragic loss, forcing them to move out of the house. Over 20 years later, in the lingering aftermath of the hauntings, the Crain siblings and their estranged father, Hugh, reunites after tragedy strikes again, forcing them to confront their inner demons from their shared childhood while mourning their loss.

Cast

Main

• Michiel Huisman as Steven Crain, the eldest of the family. As a grown man he’s an author: famous for writing about his family’s experience at Hill House.
  • Paxton Singleton as young Steven,
• Carla Gugino as Olivia Crain, the mother of the family, who designs houses.
• Timothy Hutton as Hugh Crain, the father of the family, who builds houses.
  • Henry Thomas as young Hugh,
• Elizabeth Reaser as Shirley Crain, the eldest daughter of the family, who works with her husband at a mortuary. She has one son and daughter of her own.
  • Lulu Wilson as young Shirley,
• Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Luke Crain, he is one of the twins, the two youngest kids in the family, as an adult he struggles with addiction.
  • Julian Hilliard
• Kate Siegel as Theodora "Theo" Crain, the middle child of the five, she is now a child psychologist.
  • Mckenna Grace as young Theo
• Victoria Pedretti as Eleanor "Nell" Vance/Crain, she is Luke’s twin and has never fully recovered from the haunting she experienced during her time at Hill House.
  • Violet McGraw as young Nell

Recurring

• Annabeth Gish

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"Steven Sees a Ghost"	Mike Flanagan	Teleplay by : Mike Flanagan	October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
Successful author Steven Crain is known for writing "The Haunting of Hill House", an autobiographical novel about his summer experiences residing in a haunted mansion known as Hill House during childhood alongside his four siblings -- Shirley, Theo, and twins Nell and Luke -- and their parents, house renovators Hugh and Olivia. During their stay there, the Crain family encountered paranormal occurrences and were forced to flee, but without Olivia, who died within the house, traumatizing the Crain family. Steven was the only one who never encountered any paranormal activity nor ghosts. Six years prior to present day, he uses his family's traumatic experiences to write his book, straining his bonds with his siblings. In present day, Steven and Shirley got missed calls from Nell, who then contacted Hugh and expressed concern for Luke, now a recovering addict in rehab. Erstwhile, Steven crossed paths with Luke stealing some equipment to sell for money from his house. Steven met a hiding Nell in his house and got a call from Hugh, who told her that Nell went to Hill House and is now dead. Steven realizes that Nell in his house is actually a ghost, asserting his experience as his first encounter with ghosts.
2	"Open Casket"	Mike Flanagan	Mike Flanagan	October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
In childhood flashbacks at Hill House, Shirley encountered a box of kittens located in a hut nearby the mansion, and manages to convince her parents to let her take them inside the house. However, they die one by one, except for one; these deaths deeply affect Shirley. Some time later after she and her family left Hill House, a funeral was held for Olivia and an initially distraught Shirley was surprised by the work put on Olivia by the morticians. Several years later, Shirley is a mortician who owns a funeral business alongside her husband Kevin and rents a guest house to Theo, who is now a child therapist. Shirley soon got a call from Steven, who informs her of Nell's death. Distraught and shook, she requests that Nell's corpse be brought to her to be refurbished for a planned funeral.
3	"Touch"	Mike Flanagan	Liz Phang	October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
Flashbacks to her childhood reveal Theo showing confusion of when touching people shows "truth", such as when she scolds Mrs. Dudley for yelling at Luke, learning she's afraid of something. After Luke encounters a ghost that attacks him after he and Theo used the dumbwaiter to get into a secret floor not mapped in the house's blueprints, Theo investigates to find a secret door in the pantry that leads to the basement. After getting a traumatic vision after touching her mother, Olivia reveals to Theo that her grandmother (and by extent, she and the children) have the ability to sense things by touch and gifts her gloves that her mother had. While working as a therapist for children in foster care (along with using this ability to learn what each child suffers from), she finds confusion with a child who's difficult for her to read that acts amiss and assumes to be tormented by an entity she calls "Mr. Smiley". Using her memory of the basement at Hill House, Theo goes to the foster parents of the child and is able to learn the foster father is molesting her. She alerts the police. After the events of last episode, Theo goes into Shirley's refurbishing room and takes off her gloves to touch Nell's body and collapses and cries out in sadness and pain. Theo calls up an old fling from the night before and after breaking down after what she endured of the day, she and her fling begin to kiss.
4	"The Twin Thing"	Mike Flanagan	Scott Kosar	October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
During his childhood, Luke began to be tormented by a man with a bowler hat who floats a foot above the floor. Luke spends 90 days clean and sober and shows closeness to his "girlfriend" Joey. While Luke shows determination to stay clean, Joey is less receptive and eventually leaves rehab, much to his dismay. His therapist Paige urges him to not "lean" on her due to fall outs with addicts, but he refuses and goes to look for her. After finding her about to buy drugs, Luke decides to get her help and finds a place for her when Paige informs him he can't due to low space in. Luke first goes to Leigh, Steve's wife who informs him they've actually been divorced. Leigh sends Luke to Steve’s apartment where he breaks in to steal his camera and iPad to use for cash to put himself and Joey into an apartment while she comes down from her high. The events of the first episode play but from Luke's perspective. Luke and Joey walk to a hotel but while this happens Joey complains about needing to pee and wants to stop by an alley to relieve herself. Luke starts feeling “The symptoms of withdrawal,” without being high and is feverish and confused. Joey kisses him and leaves to relieve herself only for Luke to realize she ran off with the $200. Luke searches for her, resulting him him being mugged for his jacket and shoes. After calling the rehabilitation center over what happened, Paige and Steve go to pick him up. Steve informs Luke of Nell’s passing, but Luke shakily states it wasn't suicide.
5	"The Bent-Neck Lady"	Mike Flanagan	Meredith Averill	October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
We learn that Nell was going to see a sleep technician about her supposed sleep paralysis. She recounts being unable to see or move during her “spilling dreams” of the bent-neck lady. The technician, Arthur, is revealed to be her future husband. We are then shown snippets of her wedding, where Theodore is seen dancing with a bridesmaid, and an apparition of her mother is seen standing by watching her dance with Steve. We see a paralysed sleep episode where, while she is unable to move, Nell’s husband collapses bent-necked and falls to the ground dead. Arthur’s death is chalked up to an aneurysm, though Nell is disbelieving, telling her new doctor she saw the bent-neck lady in the window the night of Arthur’s death. We experience some of Nell’s childhood where she finds Jacquiline Hill’s tea set with a peculiar cup covered in stars. She shows Mrs. Dudley. A mysterious “Nell” is drawn on the wall in chalk. Their mum, suffering a migraine, is angry when Theo interrupts defending her little sister who claims she never wrote it. Theo uses her hand to touch the writing and confirms that Nell never wrote it. She pulls more paper down, revealing the statement “come home Nell” A modern Nell is seen picking up a seemingly withdrawing Luke. He asks Nell to see his dealer for a final fix of heronin before dropping him off at rehab. We see some of the special twin relationship that Luke and Nell share, as Luke is unable to lie to her. Bargaining that if she helps him get well, she can tell him everything about how hard her life has been since Arthur’s death. Reluctantly, Nell buys one balloon and Luke shoots up. Nell looks away, out the window where she sees the bent-neck lady standing under a street lamp in the rain. Nell sees her doctor again, where she explains that she experienced phantom withdrawal when Luke detoxed in rehab. Theodora comes to see Nell and was disappointed to hear of the way she helped Luke. Nell asks her to use her powers to connect to Arthur. Unfortunately, his spirit has passed on and isn’t in the house. Theodora is angry at the way Nell is being treated by her doctor. They argue about how to “adult” and it results in a falling out. This is clearly the last time either spoke to each other before Nell’s death. We see a glimpse of Steve’s book tour. Nell gatecrashes, accusing Steve of profiting off things “He doesn’t believe it,” and airs his opinion on that everything that she ever told him in confidence, he doesn’t believe and is cruel to her about them. Steve accuses her of being off her medication and embarrassing him in front of his “office.” Once again in her doctor’s office, Nell, this time, seems out of control. He raises the idea that she hasn’t moved on or truly dealt with her past. The doctor asks her to think about what Arthur would want to see her do with her life. At home Nell drinks from a mug of stars and books flights back to the a familiar model. She takes time to look at a pocket watch before remembering the night that her, her father and her siblings ran away from the house. Her dad leaves all five children alone while he goes back to collect his wife. They all theorise in what was happening. Back in the future (and seemingly the same room) Nell counts seven sugar packets into a protection-like circle, one packet for each family member. That night she experiences sleep paralysis where she sees an vision of her dead husband stuck to the roof. In the past, the father returns covered in blood, (he says “paint”), Nell is the only one awake when he arrives and together they sit on the bench from the pervious scene. The police arrive and take Mr. Cains into custody but not before he gives Nell the pocket watch. We now see the connection between earlier episodes where Nell began calling everyone before her death but no one picks up. In a darkened room where a vending machine is stationed Nell sees the bent-neck lady again. Returning to her room she listens to Steve’s voicemail before she loses time and seemingly wakes up at 1:09am. She plans to go see Hill House, but as she passes the sign she sees that someone has spray painted it into “Hell” House. Unlocking the gate she drives to the driveway before calling her father (claiming to be in bed). This is the last person she spoke to before her death. We see the porch light flash twice in the “come home signal” her mother once used. Inside, we hear and see echoes of the past, where everyone bare Nell hasn’t changed. In this hallucination or apparition, we see The Mother writing “Welcome home Nell” on the wall in the original place. Mom instructs Nell to fetch a nighty from her third drawer. Once returning downstairs, adult versions of everyone dressed as if enjoying Nell’s wedding again appear. It is like a happy ending, as even Arthur is there dressed in his wedding. They dance through the house “together” (but from previous episodes we know that she merely is dancing alone through the ruins) - we are taken back and forward between fantasy and reality. Arthur kisses Nell one last time, before leaving her alone. Abigail is there with young Luke and her mother and they invite Nell for a tea party in the Red-Room. From the top of the stairs, Nell sees Arthur at the bottom, and Olivia puts on her promised locket around Nell’s neck. Suddenly Nell finds herself in sleep paralysis with a rope around her neck, unable to wake up, she falls and dies. After this point she finds out that she was always the bent-neck lady, haunting her past.
6	"Two Storms"	Mike Flanagan	Mike Flanagan & Jeff Howard	October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
The Crain family and Kevin met up at the funeral parlor during a rainstorm to grieve and honor Neil the night before her funeral. Steven and Luke met up with Shirley, Theo and Kevin. Hugo was left behind at the local hotel and later rendezvous with the others in the funeral parlor. There, the Crain family converse in one another about their memories on Neil. They then talked about the logic and circumstances of Neil's death, and Hugo mentioned his previous call with Nell, provoking Steven to have a volatile argument with him and the family. Shirley and Theo also clash over each other's opinions on Steven's royalties after his Hill House book, and Kevin confessed to have used them to establish the funeral business. Later on, Shirley caught Theo and Kevin intimately groping each other and walked out on them. Meanwhile, flashback sequences reveal the Crain family as they are holed up in Hill House during a rainstorm night where Olivia acted strange and Nell temporarily disappeared and reappeared.
7	"Eulogy"	Mike Flanagan	Charise Castro Smith	October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
8	"Witness Marks"	Mike Flanagan	Jeff Howard & Rebecca Klingel	October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
9	"Screaming Meemies"	Mike Flanagan	Meredith Averill	October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
10	"Silence Lay Steadily"	Mike Flanagan	Mike Flanagan	October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)

Reception

The Haunting of Hill House received critical acclaim upon its release. Rotten Tomatoes gave the series an approval score of 85% and an average score of 8.29 out of 10, based on 33 critics, with the consensus stating: "The Haunting of Hill House is an effective ghost story whose steadily mounting anticipation is just as satisfying as its chilling payoff." Metacritic gave the series a score of 81 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim", based on 15 critics.

Corrine Corrodus of The Telegraph gave the series a 5/5 rating, calling it "the most complex and complete horror series of its time". Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave unanimous praise to the Netflix adaptation, calling it "essential viewing" and stating that "[the show] contains some of the most unforgettable horror imagery in film or television in years." David Griffin of IGN gave the series a rating of 9.5 out of 10, "Amazing", calling it "a superb and terrifying family drama."

External links

• The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix
• The Haunting of Hill House at IMDb