Netflix Series - The Haunting of Hill House

The ghosts in the background were creepy, and got me dreading walking through darkened rooms after watching an episode late at night

Spoiler

Thinking about the twist at the end ... maybe the house wants to trap you there so you stay as a ghost, and some ghosts are benign (like clock repair guy) and some are malign (like Polly sending Olivia around the bend). So you try to avoid it while alive (coz it wants you dead) but faced with death you may prefer eternity as a ghost, hanging around your ghostly loved ones, than rotting in a grave. Idano.

--Geoff

 

You did a great job of elucidating many of the problems I had with the final episode that I noted in post #36 of this thread.

Spoiler

The idea that this house becomes this benign thing that the Dudley's choose to bring the wife back to so she can spend the rest of her life as a spirit with her daughter was just like what? Also, the whole idea, as you stated, that the house is something that might be preferable to the outside world with its Red Room memories. The rest of the time, the house is seen as an evil, living entity that is bent on driving people insane and will protect itself if threatened. I didn't like the slant at the end and I don't like it now. It seemed to throw the whole concept of the first nine episodes on its collective ear

 

Spoiler

The ending does make me think of one concept of the afterlife that I have heard of; that heaven and hell are the same place, but those who are there who are happy, whole and complete experience it as heaven, and those who are miserable and bitter experience it as hell.

 

It's too well made to dismiss, but I had some big problems with some of the writing and the acting. Episode 5 and its long takes is really a wonder to behold, though, and I thought the kids were really good. The ending felt like something of a cheat, and it really lacked the dark power it should have had. The comparisons to This Is Us are not a vote of confidence to me. Family drama as overwrought melodrama bores me to death.

Again, though, very well made, loved the design of the house and the way it was shot. Worth seeing for those elements, but your appreciation may depend on how much you can tolerate that family dynamic.

 

Spoiler

Ghost Nell did say something like "time was like raindrops ... all around us ... like tears in the rain" which would kinda explain some of the time paradoxes, I guess. Like maybe knocking on the door of the Red Room leading to a loud banging on the inside of the Red Room ... may have been at different times, perhaps.

I did like the "Bent Neck Lady dropping through time" sequence, but I'm still unclear how or why Nell's hubbie died when Bent Neck Lady appeared. It seemed that BNL killed him (explained later as an aneurysm) but then Ghost Nell wouldn't have done that to her own hubbie, right? Idano.

--Geoff

 

Yeah, my wife mentioned This Is Us, which I have never seen, but that's exactly what she equated it to...only with ghosts.

Some of those long dialog scenes were really good. Some not so good, but hey I would recommend this show to most people. All in all pretty well done.

 

Spoiler

YES! That does seem to be a pretty substantial plot hole. "Hi, it's me again, here to bring heartache and misery to my own life." I think both the death of the husband and the reveal of Nell as the BNL were basically shock devices that don't really illuminate the plot as much as they should have.

 

I would have liked them to have spent a few minutes on the design & layout of the house. We knew it was massive but it would have been nice if they'd done some type of tour considering the house itself is a major character.

 

Why not computer design the damn house? How expensive is a house That house sucked. No gravitas.

 

A poorly acted 90 minute ghost story padded out with a 8 hour boring family drama, at least that's how it appear, up to episode 7.

The US has a long history of bad TV but over the last few years things have improved greatly but this takes us back to those cardboard cut out characters, I was expecting much more than this.

 

i didn't find it as poorly acted so much as decent acting without much of a script.

 

You're posibly right, cardboard results could come from having to deliver what is a so boring script. I've only stuck with this so I can discuss it, tactfully, with my daughter next time we meet up.

 

No, you're right. The acting wasn't that great. The US is suffering from a glut of programming that is well made, but not as good as it is hyped to be. This was a mediocre program at best. I'm pretty sure any actor from our local theater community could have done just as good of a job.

 

I think at least three of four of the performances are notably bad, which may or may not have to do with direction and script. Henry Thomas and Carla Gugino as the mom and dad are space cadets from the get-go -- and the mom is supposedly "sensitive" but can't sense the evil of the house? That's a lapse in characterization, but the fact that they're so glassy-eyed the whole time seems more intentional a choice by the director than anything else. Whatever the case, it doesn't work, and they do indeed come across as cardboard as a result.

The adults who play Steven and Eleanor, though, I think are more responsible for their bad performances. Steven (Michiel Huisman) in particular really overacted with his facial expressions, and Victoria Pedretti as Nell was so painfully precious, especially in that last episode, delivering that awful faux-philosophical dialogue, that I winced.

Of everyone, I think I liked Timothy Hutton the best.

Spoiler

The whole gotcha thing with Abigail, letting us think she's a ghost when it turns out she's real, was really cheap. Having Olivia kill her positioned the story to have what should have been a very dark ending, but instead it was written as a sentimental resolution to what had to that point been a very messy and emotional story without a happy ending in sight. The unwillingness of Mike Flanagan, who adapted the novel, to let horrible things be horrible, loss to be final, suggests he didn't have the courage of his convictions in order to follow his ideas to their logical conclusions. He turned a horror story into a wish fulfillment fantasy.

 

Spoiler: Spoiler

I think it was more Arthur realising his wife had genuinely been haunted by her future self, rather than suffering from om hypnopompic hallucinations liked he’d suggested, caused him to succumb to a ruptured aneurysm than any intentional malevolence from future Nell

 

yeah, hutton was probably the best. aside from his silly hair, he is a guy who can bring nuance to anything he does.

i was starting to think he'd only have cameos as he really didn't do anything until halfway through. maybe they couldn't fully afford him?

 

Carla Gugino

 

Spoiler

Idano ... you're suggesting that he died of fright but it seemed to me that his neck bent as well.

When is it safe not to use spoiler tags?

--Geoff

 

My wife loved it.

I couldn't get into it.

 

Chix Flix - they bore me.

 

When I've finished the series, if I manage to get to the end.

 

The main issue I had with the 2 Hughs was that, although 26 years had elapsed between the initial events and the present day, Hutton is only 11 years older than Thomas. Assuming Hugh Crain was meant to be the same age as the actor playing him in 1992, then this would mean Hutton was supposed to be playing a near septuagenarian.

Spoiler: Possible spoiler

There was a scene which featured a close-up of Hutton’s unscarred hand immediately after a scene in which Thomas had injured his trying to prize open the door to the red room. I was expecting this to lead to a storyline abour imposters or weird healing powers but...nothing.

 

I’m gonna give it an 8. I’ve been having trouble falling asleep, so I’d put this sucker on and 10 minutes later. Zzzzzzzzzz. Recommended.

 

I enjoyed it being it was Halloween week/weekend. It's not like Breaking Bad or anything. Take it for what it is I guess and don't have crazy expectations if it's something you seem interested in watching. I heard mixed things so I didn't have these unattainable expectations. Good thing about streaming is there is zero commitment. If you want to bail, just bail on it. I did that for this past season of Orange Is The New Black.
I thought everyone was pretty good in it.

 

I really can’t figure out what people were vomiting and passing out over. Something they ate?