The Haunting of Hill house

mmmmm..... what can i say about this film. Though it is in an episodic format it felt more like a movie for me.



The main selling point of this piece of art is the mastery involved in the craft of film-making. Mike Flannagan has used every piece of tool available in creating the tone and texture of the film. I would recommend people to appreciate and experience the usage of the color pallete in portraying the emotion and the psychological state of the characters. Some of the points to note esp like the "Red Room" was always portrayed as a place of solitude for each character where they can be themselves without the interference of others/society.The Directors choice to show the Red room as very bright when they are in its trance is an apt choice to convey that it is the room trying to trap the characters eternally within its grasp.

Hollywood has seen a slew of well made horror movies in recent times but The Haunting of the Hill House has managed to create a league of its own. Whereas the other movies seems to highlight the tone and the jump-scare moments whereas this is actually an endearing drama where the ghosts are just an euphemism for the mental struggles which every human goes through.

Not all ghosts are dead people as clearly illustrated by the image which haunts Shirley was not about her dead mother/sister it is actually the image of infedilty. It should be appreciated that the Director painstakingly developed each character and how all the siblings coped with their experience in the hill house during their childhood. It is a story about the emotional trauma of children as much as a horror story.

Each of them has their own coping mechanism -

Steve was able to manage it by denying the existence of the super-natural and concluding that the real ghosts are actually in our heads (he is not wrong!). He also thinks that mental illness is hereditary which lead to his vasectomy thereby preventing further offspring of trauma. The Director has taken the effort to show us why he came to that conclusion by his ignorance to the presence of ghosts in the hill house which saved him from the trauma experienced by his siblings. It has also strained his relationship with the family as he didnt see any issue in writing a book about their experience in the hill house

Shirley did not seem to be much affected by her experience in the hill house and was able to cope with the death of her mother by pursuing the vocation of funeral home impressed by the handiwork performed at her mother's wake.She seems to be the most stable of the children and almost like the matriarch but at the same has her own insecurities.

Theo's character is the issue for me. They have taken the option to portray her as a psychic where she can basically see the experiences of others or even non living objects (really...) by just touching them.There is no background provided on the character on why she chose to stay with her sister or why does she had the ability. There is a decent argument on her coping mechanism by choosing to wear gloves inorder to stop experiencing the ghastly images seen during the last day of her stay in the hill house

Nell and Luke are probably the saddest characters in the series. Their entire childhood experience was traumatic in the hill house which has quickly translated to the struggles in their adult lives. Luke became a recovering drug addict whereas Nell is on continuous therapy sessions after the tragic death of her husband.