The Haunting of Hill House (Season 1)

[Dead & Messed Up]

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[Dead & Messed Up]

Decent start, excellent middle, frustrating and maudlin ending. The three-episode run of "The Twin Thing," "The Bent Neck Lady," and "Two Storms" rocks.

Whenever characters quote the original Shirley Jackson novel, they do not know how to make the words work.

[Ezee E]

I've been meaning to post about this and how surprisingly good it is, for a while. I did not expect that at all.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I've been meaning to post about this and how surprisingly good it is, for a while. I did not expect that at all.

There are times when it does an excellent job of threading the horror and the family melodrama together.

[Peng]

B+

A shame about that last episode, and the tendency to cram endless monologues after monologues during the second half (no matter how well acted many of these are), because this feels a hair away from a horror series high water mark. Even that finale, kind of awful from a plot standpoint, manages to get by emotionally a bit with superb direction and performances. This really feels like all of Flanagan's skill and pet theme -- past trauma framing present horror -- done maximally and often magnificently, especially in its best stretch (4 through 6, the twin episodes and the long-take one). I actually have a few gripes with the sixth episode's conception, such as how the long takes magnify some performance tics that go past natural awkwardness into outright flaw (sorry, Timothy Hutton), but overall it's an ambitious endeavor that bleeds the past and the present so well emotionally. And of course the fifth is a heartbreaker, and the fourth may personally contain Flanagan's most frightening creation for me, with that floating old man with his crane knocking on the floor as he goes.

Flanagan's most impressive technical achievement may be the casting and direction of five Crain kids though. Not only are their performances so good in of themselves (frankly, how he manages to direct them in episode six's long takes so naturally -- which must already be hell even without factoring in the actors being this young -- is kind of astonishing), but they also do resemble their adult counterparts (well, except maybe Luke), with all their tics and personalities uncannily syncing up so well; I'm thinking especially of how McKenna Grace's corner-mouth smile evokes the defensive deadpan apathy of adult Theo perfectly. What five remarkable finds.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Flanagan's most impressive technical achievement may be the casting and direction of five Crain kids though. Not only are their performances so good in of themselves (frankly, how he manages to direct them in episode six's long takes so naturally -- which must already be hell even without factoring in the actors being this young -- is kind of astonishing), but they also do resemble their adult counterparts (well, except maybe Luke), with all their tics and personalities uncannily syncing up so well; I'm thinking especially of how McKenna Grace's corner-mouth smile evokes the defensive deadpan apathy of adult Theo perfectly. What five remarkable finds.

This is totally true; those kids do fantastic work, all of them, and that takes a good director.

[megladon8]

This was really good until it became This Is Us: Ghosts Edition in the last episode.

[Dukefrukem]

My wife watched this without me. :-/

[Dead & Messed Up]

This was really good until it became This Is Us: Ghosts Edition in the last episode.

Pretty spot-on. A friend of mine said it was like Grey's Anatomy.

[Dukefrukem]

Flanagan you dog you. I'm only on Episode 7, but Episode 6 (the Lightning storm) is the best episode in any season of any TV ever. It's perfect.

[Dukefrukem]

Pretty spot-on. A friend of mine said it was like Grey's Anatomy.

Yeh the last episode is definitely subpar from the rest. Still excellent overall.

[Dukefrukem]

Prequel?

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