The Haunting of Hill House


Now that Halloween is behind us and Christmas songs are playing at the shopping malls, now that Pumpkin Spice has given way to Peppermint and tin foil, many of us may have lost our taste for Horror movies and TV shows. But. if you haven’t watched The Haunting of Hill House yet, please, please don’t that mistake. Not just yet anyway.
It is far too good to be cast aside like the last of the stale Halloween candy. It is far too good to be forgotten like the most recent coffeehouse special.
So, before, or maybe while you start your run of Christmas movies and shows (I highly recommend Happy!, which takes the most twisted and hilarious run at the Holidays since Bad Santa. I’ll definitely be talking about that one soon), try giving The Haunting of Hill House a watch. Or, if you’ve watched it already. Watch it again. It’s that good.
Try giving this show more than a few episodes of a chance. Because at first it does seem derivative of Stephen King with the whole ‘something bad happened when we were children but now we’re adults’ flashback flash forward thing, and it definitely draws heavily on Kubrick’s version of The Shining (There is even an actual Red Room), but this show also has a a very deep, very distinctive heart of its own. Some of that originality and heart take some time to shine through. But, when it does, right around the time of the first really big revelation, more than a few episodes in, The Haunting of Hill House shines so brightly it will definitely give that annoying neighbour’s lawn full of Christmas ornaments a run for its money.
Yes it is a horror series. It is creepy and scary in the way that most movies and shows have forgotten how to do. They’re all so busy trying shock us, gross us out or surprise us that they just don’t seem to have time to be old time ghost story scary. This series, once it gets going, remembers how to do that, and it does it very well.
But The Haunting of Hill House is also a very powerful drama about family and the relationships we can never seem to quite complete or fully understand. It is about people who don’t know what to do with their feelings, like almost all of us, and how we wound each other with words and neglect and withheld secrets without ever really know why we’re doing so or that we are doing so. The acting, by so many actors you’ve probably never heard of or seen before, is good. It’s very good. It is very often great. Carla Gugino and Timothy Hutton anchor as the senior members of the cast, and remind us why they should be in everything, and often seem to be in everything. Because they are so very good. But no one in particular shines out because everyone in this cast shines out at one time or another. And the writing and the directing, derivative at times, or taken as terrific tribute, is simply first rate. Even among the so many great shows there are out there today, Hill House stands out and does not fail to leave a very powerful impression.
And the most powerful impression this show manages somehow to leave between the wonderful horror and the drama, is, believe it or not, one of deep and lasting love.
That may not sound all that interesting.
It may not sound like a reason to spend your time on a horror series.
But, man, that is one hell of of a smooth trick to be able to pull off in the midst of ghosts and ghouls and anger and resentment. I defy you to not shed a tear by the time this show is over, and I defy you to not feel the deep deep love that resonates throughout, but particularly towards the end.
What could be more Christmas-y than that.
If for nothing else that is one good reason to check out The Haunting of Hill House.
There are so many very good reasons why you should check out The Haunting of Hill House.
It is one of those series that is about so much more than what it seems to be about.
It is one of those TV series that is not afraid to be deep and meaningful.
But what you need to know about Hill House, above everything else, is that it is very very good.
It is often, if not mostly great.
Halloween might be over.
But don’t let that stop you from experiencing a show this good.
If you haven’t seen it yet, consider this a Christmas present to yourself.
Watch The Haunting of Hill House.
Watch it because it’s scary.
Watch it because it’s deep.
Watch it because it’s beautiful.
But watch it.
And then watch it again.
That’s what we should do when a show is this good.
#tv #tvshows #tvseries #horror #tvhorror #television #televisionseries #televisionshows #ghoststories #julesdelorme #julesfdelorme #delormewriting #TheHauntingofHillHouse #Happy! #Netflix #Netflixseries


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