The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix (Spoilers)

I liked that "If you go back and watch the series again, in every episode there’s probably somewhere between eight and 10 ghosts that are just hidden in plain sight that we called no attention to but they’re there"

it is truly "shit moving in the background: the show"

i love it tbh

I totally didn't get the framing device. Like Flora wasn't like, who are you and why are you at my wedding? And why do parts of this story seem familiar. And the older version of the cook and older henry just being like, sure, tell this story, you know the one we made a big deal out of the kids not remembering, definitely no chance this will jog any memories.

it was sooo silly

idk what the general reception of episode eight was but i kinda thought the diversion into the origins of the haunting was really well-done and at least two of the jump scares totally got me

like i basically loved this until the last 40 minutes, so much agonizing exposition just to convey that years have passed and yet the haunting persists

I would have liked ep 8 a lot better without the narration. hell, I'd have dug it more in full silent film mode, that would have been sick

yeah you’re right the narration is kinda overbearing

The narrator had an awful accent as well.

Set in the 80s so people were old in the framing device, also no mobile phones/google.

I mostly enjoyed it, the characters and story were decent. Nothing came close to the creepiness of the Bent Neck Lady, though.

This was daft but we stuck with it. The accents and clunky dialogue almost sunk the whole thing (in a lake); when Garth Merenghi gives the most convincing characterisation, you're in trouble. (Though even he was required to say "I couldn't do the math" or variations thereon, which was risible).

"I couldn't do the math" or variations thereon, which was risible

Yes! This massively bugged me as well and instantly made me think of this: https://coub.com/view/11skso

Set in the 80s so people were old in the framing device, also no mobile phones/google.

and so they could drop “tainted love” in the soundtrack. totally needless imo

glad to see Rahul Kohli is sticking around for Flanagan's next thing

Is he doing more Hauntings also?

none in the pipeline yet AFAIK but I'm sure Netflix is after him for more of them, anecdotally it seems to be one of their most popular "series"

lmao i don't know why i held off on hill house (well i do but it's for the very silly reason of loving the book so much that the extreme looseness of the adaptation made me suspicious of it) but it's phenomenal

Hill House is def better even if it falls apart even worse at the end than Bly Manor did

the middle stretch is just primo Flanagan, playing to all of his strengths

episode five was major

And six!

wow long takes galore in episode 6

the performances in hill house do make me wish the most talented member of the ensemble, victoria pedretti, weren't playing a character who's dead. guess that's why she's the lead in bly manor

The thing keeping me away from Bly Manor is that Hill House was so long and too filled with conversations of half-arsedly written dialogue and exposition. It could have been half the length, easily. And it needed more ghosts.

Er, Bly Manor probably has more talking and fewer ghosts.

Bugger.

And it sounds like you're really gonna hate his next series, No Ghosts, Just Talking

The Talky Ghost, and the big twist is he's not actually a ghost.

OK, a compromise - maybe some ghosts sitting about discussing the 'Like A Virgin' video?

bly manor = perfectly splendid schmaltz. I liked hill house a lot more too, scarier and I thought the way they handled luke’s character was actually interesting

oh my god i do not care about the ghost shirley fucked

lmao as reported this blows

lol I completely forgot about that plot stand for good reason

i mean he wasn't even a ghost, he just haunted her or whatever, but god, so lame, i do not need her to have cheated on her husband to realize she has flaws, she's extremely sanctimonious, that's her character flaw, it's good enough

The end was fine, good even, in terms of story but they fucked up the tone and way overexplained what you were supposed to take from it

i ultimately agree with this old chap post bc i feel like you could salvage something worthwhile from the last hour if you cut... so much of the dialogue

one nice thing i'll say about the finale: abigail being real was a great choice

yes! that was a nifty surprise

I don’t know if this is true cause I haven’t seen enough of his works but Mike Flanagan seems Bad.At.Endings. Of five of his works I’ve seen, the only one that had an ending I legitimately liked was “Hush”.

I love Oculus' downer ending.

He should have brought in Frank Darabont as a consultant on Gerald's Game to fix that awful King ending, though, for sure.

I love Oculus' downer ending.

― it bangs for thee (Simon H.)

Didn't realise he did Oculus!

I haven’t seen Oculus - will check that out. It’s the one with Karen Gillan yes?

Gerald’s Game was so good until those last five minutes, makes me genuinely angry just thinking about it lol

yep that's the one! iirc she has a memorable entrance

I never saw Gerald's Game but I will say I am deeply indebted to the book because it taught me that I didn't need to finish reading something if I hate it

Absentia ending was alright

As we barrel toward the start of production on @intrepid's new @netflix series THE MIDNIGHT CLUB, based on the work of Christopher Pike, I'm honored and thrilled to announce our cast:

— Mike Flanagan (@flanaganfilm) February 1, 2021

Christopher Pike! 12-year-old me would've been stoked about this lol

oh and I finally saw Oculus. The climax is better than most Flanagan endings but I still wouldn't exactly call it good - somehow it was both heavily foreshadowed AND seemed to come out of nowhere

Oculus isn't perfect but it manages to be a good movie about an evil mirror, and that's enough for me

that is true - as always, saved by great character work and a strong emotional core

is this the thread where we can discuss Midnight Mass? I'm on the final two episodes now - so far it's got both Flanagan's best and absolute worst tendencies on display, but i'm still mostly into it.

it's less scary than the two Hauntings, but potentially more traumatising for anyone who had a strict religious upbringing

it is good though?

I like it! But I can see how it can test some viewers' patience - it's slow-going to start with and he does love those goddamn monologues/long conversations. They hit hard on some occasions and completely kill the show's momentum on others.

Excellent cast though - Hamish Linklater esp but almost everyone is on point, which helps to distract from some of the clumsier writing. pleasantly surprised by the accurate and thoughtful portrayal of Muslim characters in this too.