The Haunting of Hill House

Whether or not you believe in ghosts, Netflix’s Hill House is a scary watch. It’s a classic haunted house story that takes us deep into the emotional trauma of the Crain family.

The show explores how grief and trauma can affect your mental health, even if you have a logical approach to dealing with it. There are two types of characters in this story: fixers and flailers.

The Story

Hill House is a haunted mansion, a spooky place with an unsettling past. It’s the setting of Shirley Jackson’s famous novel, but in Netflix’s new ten-episode series, it becomes much more than just a place where ghosts roam and ill-advised walks alone are a bad idea.

Mike Flanagan, cowriter and director of Hush (which he also helmed), makes Hill House the central focus of his surprisingly cathartic new series. He re-imagines the story substantially, retaining the characters’ names and characteristics but replacing the paranormal investigation plot with a family drama that explores the effects of trauma on a group of surviving siblings.

The Crains, a dysfunctional family of house flippers who bought Hill House to renovate over the summer, quickly find themselves battling with their own personal psychological terrors that manifest as terrifying ghosts. In the midst of it all, Olivia Crain (Tatiana Maslany) kills herself to escape the terror she’s experiencing. Her husband Hugh, the current owner of Hill House, and their children, Steven, Luke, Eleanor and Nell, are also forced to confront their shared traumas as they try to navigate the haunted estate.

The Characters

Hill House is a family home that’s haunted by ghosts. Every member of the Crain family is touched by these ghosts.

Liv, the matriarch of the Crain family, is everything a mother should be: she loves her children and would do anything to protect them. But when the ghosts start telling her that their lives are in danger, she starts to unravel.

Olivia’s mental illness makes her a terrifying figure in the story. She’s obsessed with her children’s safety and begins to believe that she must kill them.

Nell, Luke’s twin and one of the youngest Chain children, is also deeply affected by Hill House. She’s been haunted by a spirit named the Bent-Neck Lady since she was a child, and her visits become increasingly frequent as she grows up.

Theo, Luke’s middle daughter and a child psychologist, is another sensitive who wears gloves to prevent her from experiencing psychic knowledge about others. She’s the only one of the Crain children who isn’t a skeptic, but she also has a strong connection to Hill House.

The Setting

The setting in Hill House is a crucial part of the story and plays an important role in keeping the audience engaged with the story. It is a large mansion that is isolated and hidden away from everyday life.

The location and geography of Hill House are crucial to the story and have an impact on the characters and their feelings. The hills surrounding the house create a dark feeling and give it a sense of mystery.

As well as this, the house itself has a history that is incredibly important to the plot and helps raise questions for the characters to consider. However, this was cut from the show due to budget constraints and focus on the main characters.

Eleanor and Theo are the two characters who end up spending a lot of time in Hill House. Eleanor is a frightened and lonely woman who is seeking her own place in the world. She is also a very intelligent and talented artist who is drawn to Theo.

The Finale

A lot happened in the season finale of Netflix’s hit horror series The Haunting of Hill House. The show, based on Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel, chronicles the family of five Crain siblings in two timelines.

The first timeline focuses on their arrival at Hill House and the spooky events that led up to their mother Olivia’s death. The second follows the siblings as they mature into adults and struggle with their paranormal experiences at Hill House.

But even despite the terror of the Red Room, the family eventually finds hope and healing in the end. As the final episode ends, Hugh sacrifices himself to let Steven, Shirley, Theo and Luke escape Hill House and leave the Red Room behind.

And though the ending is incredibly sentimental, it’s also a testament to how much the Crain family has learned through their experiences at Hill House. Their lives are better now that they’ve cast off their traumatic memories of Hill House and lived for the moment.