Netflix (and other VOD) recommendations

Yeah that was a great one. From what I gather from reviews it seems to be considered the highlight of the series. Wonderful balance between the hard realism and the magical elements of the show. Also the way it is filmed like a stageplay allowing much space for some great acting.

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I just saw one of the hidden ghost images that are apparently dotted throughout the series and almost crapped my pants.

It was when the dad was pulling the brick out of the wall. In the background was a gaunt girl with really long blonde hair. I yelled ‘WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!’ so we wound it back and turns out Kate isn’t going mad. Shudder

I missed most of them except the really obvious ones (I think during the thunder storm you see them a lot).

I think I also mistook some of the house statues for ghosts. I recently watched a video that had possibly almost all of them, you´ll see how many you´ve missed yourself!

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I keep doing that too :grin:

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Finished watching The Haunting of Hill House.

The last instalment was good, although I found the pace dropped a bit. And that amazing episode (‘Two Storms’) set the bar quite high! I also had to do some reading around it to make sure I’d understood everything – but that’s more because I don’t like to miss anything!

I really liked how it debunked a lot of the presumed supernatural events (I had a feeling it was going to do that) – like the fact that Abigail is a real child and the strange shadows and noises coming from the red room was in fact the people in the house experiencing that room in different ways. The blend of supernatural with reality is so subtle that it really conveyed the idea that not everything is firmly real or firmly imagined, but they are intertwined.

The parts where Nell drew them all to the red room and helped them face their demons was so powerful. (The only one I would say was a bit trivial was Shirley’s affair, but I guess the point is to show she’s not as virtuous as she wants everyone to think.)

Another moment that really moved me was when Mr Dudley returns to the house with his dying wife so she can rest there forever with her daughter and the other ghosts. It reminded me of The Others a bit, but with more feeling and less of a bitter twist!

As cheesy as this sounds, I like how the house is really a metaphor for the shitty stuff that happens in our lives that we’re inclined to destroy and forget, but which should be kept nearby and accessible to deal with when we’re ready. It was only when they all went back to the red room and revisited the events that had made them feel guilt and fear that they were able to move on and become a close family again.

I’d quite like to read the book at some point (though I know the series deviated from it quite a lot).

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It feels a bit clichéed to me to say this at this point but I can´t put it any other way: I agree with everything you say. :relieved:

I´d love to read the book myself, Stephen King always cites it as one of his all time favourites. Also the Weird includes a short by Shirley Jackson that was also very movingly tragic to read. They included many quotes from the novel in the show which I know mostly because they also used it in other film versions.

So far I know of The Haunting from 1999. Starring Lili Taylor, Catherine-Zeta Jones and Liam Neeson.

It´s very flashy and has lots of very dated looking CGI effects in it.

And then there is the Haunting from 1963, which came out only 4 years after the novel, is very subtle yet effective. That´s a must see classic.

BTW. There was one scene in one episode of the show where there was Russ Tamblyn as a therapist that probably made you go: “Oh, it´s that mad doctor from Twin Peaks!” however the reason he was there was probably rather that he was in the 1963 Haunting, he is the second guy from the left in that picture. :slight_smile:

So I think you can watch this now if you haven´t already.

I think I also know why I missed almost all of them…

Yeah, right. as if I´m looking at the background when Carla Gugino is in the foreground! :relaxed:

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It would be so weird seeing those roles played by big celebs now. Although I do like Lili Taylor (ahem, not just because she’s X-Files alumni…)

I would definitely watch that one.

Oh yeah, heheh! Can just about tell it’s him. Actually he looks a bit James Marsters-y :eyes:

I read an article with pictures of them all – some are really subtle and others right there. But every moment is potentially so important I didn’t want to get distracted looking for them. The only ones I spotted were that blonde woman in the damp room and the face behind the glass in the kitchen.

She really is stunning!

I also meant to say that

I completely concur. It was so unexpected in the middle of that intense dialogue. It did feel like one of the ‘cheaper’ scares – but then again it led to some important relationship mending.

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He was also in West Side Story. :grin:

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Another thing I´d like to add is that while I am becoming sick of the whole “telling stories out of order” thing, I thought it was used really interestingly here where some episodes told certain events from a characters perspective and then in a later episode you saw them from another perspective explaining how some events you knew only half about unfolded.

Oh wow, never made that connection!

Yeah, definitely. I think I’ve found that ‘limited perspectives’ technique used most effectively in comedy (Frasier and How I Met Your Mother come to mind), but it worked really well here, especially with the ‘this isn’t so frightening and unexplained when you know the full story’ reveals.

I’m really not expressing myself very succinctly today! Nargh.

Oh no, I get what you mean! I also thought that the eventual revelation of what the mother really did was far more disturbing than any of the ghost stuff can really be. It´s just the realism of it that worked really well in the end.

Yeah, definitely. So many people I know don’t want to watch it because they’re worried it’s too scary, and I keep trying to explain that it’s so much more than just a creepy horror series. But I guess you have to be able to withstand some of those jump scares – so I can never say outright it’s ‘not scary’.

I´m glad they got less and less as the show went on. There were a few of them in the beginning and I got annoyed everytime they were there, since I liked everything else.

I also know someone who wasn´t too fond of the finale and thought the mood shifted so much it wasn´t really horror at all anymore.

But I think that is very much in line in what the story is, at least the Haunting from 1963 feels as much as tragedy as a creepy ghost story.

At least Stephen King thought Shirley Jackson probably would have loved the show.

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I saw it in 2000ish. It already looked dated then.

:+1:

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Yeah, I might have seen it soon after that when it was first on TV. It never looked real good.

Since you brought it up, and it actually looks quite interesting.

The novel The Haunting Of Hill House was released in 1959.

The same year the House On Haunted Hill starring Vincent Price premiered.

This may have been why the 1963 film version was only called The Haunting.

Then in summer 1999 the remake of The Haunting came to theaters. Later that same year the remake of House On Haunted Hill starring Geoffrey Rush also came out.

It´s like history repeating itself. :upside_down_face:

I wonder if that means that we can expect a House On Haunted Hill show on Hulu, soon! :laughing:

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:exploding_head:

These emojis are too exuberant for me. I wanted a deadpan head exploding.

Yeah, sorry. Got nothing either.

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I just got the book but haven’t started it yet. I keep trying to finish the series but I always fall asleep.

Luke’s episode where he sees the top hat man everywhere is my favorite so far.
My wife is a big fan of Timothy Hutton’s subtle acting… but to me he’s most interesting when he’s talking to his dead wife’s ghost over his shoulder. .

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I loved that too! I called him Magritte Ghost in an earlier thread because he reminds me of the paintings that feature a guy in a bowler turned with his back to the viewer.

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I loved the fact he NEVER turned and jumpscared with a ridiculous creepy face what only could have failed to work.

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And it looks like my favourite reviewers discussed the show, too!

And at least Jay also mentions Maniac favourably a couple of times.