Review: Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House. The story of the Crain family and The Hill House is one of horror, love, sadness, and death.
If you’re anything like me, then you just love watching good tv shows and movies. Something with a good premise, great characters, amazing acting, and crazy twists that you never saw coming.
So grab your wine, the coziest blanket you can find and turn on Netflix.
You scroll for hours, reading descriptions and watching trailers just to decide nothing catches your attention and in the end, you settle on The Office for the billionth time (no shade to The Office, it’s one of my favorite shows). On those days where you spend more time searching for something captivating than you do actually watch something, I would suggest Netflix’s, The Haunting of Hill House.
IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE SHOW, STOP READING HERE…THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW:
Netflix
The parents spend all of their money to buy this HUGE, old house that sits in the woods.
The story centers around Hugh and Olivia Crain, and their 5 children: Steven, Shirley, Kate, and the twins Nell and Luke. The parents spend all of their money to buy this HUGE, old house that sits in the woods in a town somewhere in Massachusetts.
They had plans to renovate and sell the house, so they moved their family in and immediately began renovations. They also had Nanny/housekeeper, Mrs. Dudley, to help with the daily upkeep of the house and the children.
The show takes places in 2018 and through a series of flashbacks from their past when they were children. Each of the 5 children has an episode dedicated to showing their personal backstory with the house, and each one of their stories is just as creepy as the next.
Netflix does a wonderful job of tying together the experiences of the children and the parents to tell a completely and utterly gripping story of PTSD, mental illness, supernatural horror and the fears of the real world.
The one thing that scares them the most.
After the hard to comprehend suicide of one of the sisters, Nell, the remaining siblings start to fall apart emotionally and mentally. They all blame themselves wishing there was something they could have done differently and all of their old demons and fears start to resurface.
But the one thing that scares them the most is what the sister revealed to the father before she committed suicide, that she had recently started seeing the “Bent Neck Lady” again.
The “Bent Neck Lady” is a woman who had been haunting Nell since they moved in to (and even after they moved out of), the Hill House. She had only confided in her father about what she was seeing — right after she told him, she went back to the Hill House.
Nell had a very tough loss she was dealing with at the time. She had been seeing a therapist. Her fraternal twin Brother, Luke, wasn’t doing too well himself.
Luke had been haunted too, ever since Hill House. There was a very tall man with a hat that was continuously following him, haunting him but always with his back turned. Luke had a lot of problems he was trying to work through and had burned a lot of bridges.
He took Nell’s suicide the worst. He lost part of his soul when she died and Oliver Jackson-Cohen did an amazing job portraying that. He has such an emotional ride and Netflix did a great job with this character. I truly enjoyed his character.
Their mother wasn’t mentally ill in the way you would think.
Netflix
Each of the children has their own battles and horrors they face that eventually leads them back to the house. That’s where they have some of the fondest memories of their mother, and also some of their worst. Their mother wasn’t mentally ill in the way you would think, but, for lack of a better phrase, she was that.
The one thing she was great at, was being a mom. All of her children loved and respected her. She was a true gem. Their father was just the same.
The story of the Crain family and The Hill House is one of horror, love, sadness, and death. It’s heartbreakingly beautiful with crazy and creepy twists that you won’t see coming. Netflix truly outdid themselves with this show, I really enjoyed it.
If you have some time off or the next few days to kill, I suggest you watch this, it’s great television. I can’t help to wonder though, what will they do with season 2?
