[Once
again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for
the entire month of October. I've done this the last few years on The
Cleveland Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded (usually with the
help of a few other writers). Other times I didn't. We'll see if I can
pull it off this year.]
Unlike past film adaptations in 1963 and 1999 that went by
the title THE HAUNTING, the new
Netflix limited series ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ uses the full title of the
Shirley Jackson novel on which it is ostensibly based. Do not mistake this as
an indication of greater fidelity to the source material. If anything, this
latest version should be considered more of an “inspired by” than an “adapted
from”.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. I’ve always been
of the mind that when a band does a cover tune or a filmmaker does a remake, if
they don’t have something new and fresh to bring to the table, what’s the
point? And if nothing else, series creator/director/writer Mike Flanagan has plenty
of new ideas he wants to incorporate into this tale.
That’s obvious just form the characters. Rather than the
unrelated group brought together to stay at Hill House by paranormal
investigator Doctor Montague (Markway and Marrow in the previous film
adaptations), the main characters here are a family. Hugh Crain (Timothy Hutton
in the present, Henry Thomas in flashbacks) is a house flipper who sees Hill
House as his ticket to riches. His wife Olivia (Carla Gugino) is an architect
designing the family’s “forever home” and taking care of her five children:
Steven (Michiel Huisman in the present day, Paxton Singleton as a child),
Shirley (Elizabeth Reaser in the present, Lulu Wilson as a child), Theo (Kate
Siegel in the present, McKenna Grace as a child), Luke (Oliver Jackson-Cohen in
the present, Julian Hillard as a child), and Eleanor (Victoria Pedretti in the
present, Violet McGraw as a child).
Most of those names will be familiar to fans of the book or
previous film versions. Hugh Crain was the patriarch who built Hill House in
the novel, and possibly one of the malevolent spirits that still resides there.
Eleanor, Theo, and Luke are the names of the people Dr. Monatgue asked to
participate in his study of the house, and Shirley, of course, is from ‘The
Haunting of Hill House’ author Shirley Jackson (there doesn’t seem to be any
direct antecedents for Steven or Olivia.). There are some aspects of these
characters that match up with their namesakes where applicable. Notably, Theo has
psychic abilities, and Eleanor is particularly sensitive to the house. For the
most part, however, these are new and different characters. Hill House,
however, is still just as haunted and malevolent as ever. Or is it?
Each episode is about an hour in length, with a few going
past the 60 minute mark. That allows for a lot of character development and
thematic depth that one couldn’t explore in a feature film. It also allows for
a certain amount of self-indulgence and padding, too. Nothing too egregious,
but my gut feeling is 6 or 8 episodes would have given the series a little more
punch than stretching it out to 10. Regardless, the characters and plot remain
compelling throughout, and one usually doesn’t have too long to wait before the
next scare.
The themes are considerably different than those explored in
Jackson’s book and past adaptations. The focus is on family issues: love, forgiveness,
and most importantly, dealing with loss and grief. Despite these concerns, the
series finds ways to incorporate plenty of scares that genuinely work at face value,
while also enhancing those underlying themes.
I had been willing to dismiss a few minor issues with the
series because the parts that worked, worked well. But when all is said and
done, with an ambitious work such as this, it’s important to stick the landing.
And ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ does not stick the landing. I won’t give any
spoilers, but the ending is kind of a mess that undermines its horror aspects
in favor of an emotional, tug at the heart strings resolution, complete with
banal indie folk soundtrack. To be fair, this is what the series had been
building towards the whole time, and I probably should have recognized it. And
I might even have been okay with it, if it hadn’t been done in such a schmaltzy
manner.
I guess for me, as much as I like it when an artist puts
their own stamp on something, I still want to be able to recognize the core of
that thing underneath it all. Aside from a few nods here and there, Flanagan’s
take fundamentally alters what Jackson’s novel was about. And at the same time,
it retains too much of its inspiration to be wholly original. That’s a
precarious balancing act. Amazingly, Flanagan almost pulls it off. But for me,
at least, he still ultimately lets it all come crashing down in the end.
There’s enough in this ten part series that I did enjoy to
still warrant a soft recommendation. Considering my opinion on ‘Hill House’ is
a minority view, chances are fairly good you’ll like it better than I did. I
just can’t lie and say I wasn’t personally disappointed in it.
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