The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix (Spoilers)

Or did you mean the first take? That makes more sense, sorry.

A new Haunting is coming. Can you guess where it takes place? Listen closely... pic.twitter.com/vqzrd3z4NZ

— The Haunting of Hill House (@haunting) February 21, 2019

(it's an anthology show now)

2020! (emits eldritch howl)

that's cool. he has to finish Doctor Sleep first (and I need to finish reading it. hope the movie is more interesting than the book so far)

Anthology show probably the correct way to go.

so apparently the new one will be landing around October probably. much of the same cast, based on a bunch of different Henry James stories with a bunch of different writers and directors. could be good!

oooooh exciting

Has anyone watched “Shirley” (it’s on Hulu)?
Definitely pushes the boat out but i thought it was really good & weird & disorienting. Elizabeth Moss is fantastic.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/29/shirley-jacksons-son-talks-to-his-fictional-mom-elisabeth-moss

I watched it last night, VegemiteGrrl. A disappointment: the sort of film that encourages a culture's most predictable conclusions about the nexus between a writer and her material.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxeiY2W03Mc&

Looks cornier than Hill House.

hmm

I need to make sure when I sit down to watch this that I turn my analytical brain off and embrace the cornball tbh

also I hope Victoria Pedretti's character in the new one gets to ice some fools or something, she needs payback for Hill House

I fucking love Turn Of The Screw but have no idea how they'd flesh it out into a series!

I just finished Hill House last night and the ending was the worst, the worst, the worst, all the plot threads tied up so deliciously and wonderfully but the "this evil house.. is actually a sanctuary" was awwwwful.

Plot Twist: The ending was entirely the product of Steve's corny imagination, and the gag is that he's a spectacularly shitty writer
Plot Twist: Olivia, who has always been Joanna Newsom, sings "I fell in love with a house wrapped in red roses and I roasted apples on the hearth and I had a robin" to the tune of "Monkey & Bear"
The Dudleys response to the death of their daughter was WTF
I only realized in the last episode that the dad was Elliott

apparently they've got the rights to the entire Henry James...bibliography?...so basically it'll be the Henry James Cinematic Universe....Season

Huh!

A friend has pointed out to me that the bulk of the clunky dialogue that suddenly takes over the last two episodes of Hill House was taken direct from the novel. Too bad!

This was a rare show that I avoided any possibility of any spoilering and it was worth it, though, every mystery-reveal was faultless

That's Flanagan's main flaw as a writer: he loves his source materials too much. (This is a big problem with his faithful adaptations of deeply flawed Stephen King works.)

I just hope s2 can nearly match s1 for sheer, almost irresponsible, levels of emotional terrorism

also delighted to scan the cast of the new series and see that there's no Huisman, the very obvious (and only) weak link in the cast of the first one

Oooooh casting the guy who played Luke as Peter Quint is inspired

In general I thought the MVPs on Hill House were the kids, young Steve aside (and he was good too!) they were fucking amazing.

The scene where Young Luke is saying "I'm going to be so sad that I put poison in my body" really destroyed me

I still can't get over the uncanny casting of Henry Thomas and Tim Hutton as younger/older takes on the same person

I don't remember much but I remember the last two episodes of Hill House had nothing plot-wise to do with the book. If there were lines directly lifted, I wouldn't hold a case of taking words from the page out of context and sticking them in a different medium with a different plot more or less against the source material.

No, that was exactly the case... lifted lines put into new contexts. Apparently one of the ghosts tells Old Hugh a nursery rhyme that Shirley Jackson used to tell her own kids irl

And ya Simon it was uncanny. The child/adult casting of Shirley also was craaaazy

Bly Manor's out Friday; getting mostly encouraging reviews.

also, lots more Victoria Pedretti and no Michael Huisman seems like an immediate, obvious improvement

most of the reviews seem to be saying "not as scary" which is slightly concerning given Flanagan's soppier instincts

as long as there's no tacked-on happy ending this time I would be fine with that tbh

Why is he talking about having the rights to all of James’ supernatural stories? Surely James is out of copyright??

some of M.R. James' stuff was published after he died and is thus still copyrighted

(Casting the Runes and Whistle and I'll Come For You are both public domain though!)

This is Henry James though

Kinda wish I'd known that going in. I kept being like 'this...really reminds me of The Innocents'. Lo and behold.

his name is pasted all over the credits!

Watched the first two eps - digging the super chill pacing and the mood-over-scares approach. Also lol @ the dodgy accents juxtaposed with actual English actors

ooh need to watch Bly Manor thx for reminder

Peter Quint's is quite possibly the worst fake Scottish accent I've ever heard.

Oh God, just reached his part - it's awful.

ok, 5 eps in and really digging this so far despite the hilarious accent work. really more of a gothic romance vibe than horror but that's totally fine by me.

Yeah, the noble accents of the British Isles are being mauled all over the shop in this. Four episodes in and enjoying it though, fewer obvious chills than Hill House but still engrossing and, er, haunting.

I ended up liking this less than Hill House despite the ending being less of a shitshow, but I'll hold off on saying more till other people weigh in who've watched the entirety.

i’m 4 eps in and I like it but the accents are driving me up a wall

Quint makes me want to mute the tv

Even the accents by UK actors sound a bit weird.

it's really too bad because the perf and characterization are otherwise quite effective imo

bly house lost me by the end idk, it did some things well but couldve been condensed; i havent watched hill house but i prob will eventually

the biggest problem for me was that the dani/jamie relationship ending up as the central one felt wrong; that pairing never clicks, mostly due to cliched and/or vague writing and a lack of chemistry btwn the actors

I ended up liking this less than Hill House despite the ending being less of a shitshow

agree with this and the bit behind your spoiler tag. Hill House was good throughout but flubbed the ending, whereas this one I think peaked with the Hannah episode (ep 5), which I thought was fantastic and heartbreaking and tied all the different plot strands together really well.

Overall, I found the season both overstuffed and overlong - feels like it could have ended an episode earlier and nothing much would have been missed. At the same time, several of the stories didn't seemed fleshed out enough e.g. whether Dani ever really dealt with her guilt over her ex-fiance's death; or why Rebecca, someone who seemed otherwise smart and reasonable, could be so easily taken in by Peter Quint not once but multiple times. She seemed like an underwritten character.

Btw, I know there's another Rebecca film on Netflix right now but I thought Ms Jessel was a nice homage to Du Maurier's Rebecca, who also haunts her replacement and likes to hang out in the west wing.