Books-to-Movie

Starring

Carla Gugino – Olivia
Michiel Huisman – Steven Crain
Victoria Pedretti – Nell Crain
Henry Thomas – Young Hugh Crain
Oliver Jackson-Cohen – Luke Crain
Elizabeth Reaser – Shirley Crain
Kate Siegel – Theodora Crain

Summary

“Flashing between past and present, a fractured family confronts haunting memories of their old home and the terrifying events that drove them from it.”

From IMDB.com

Review

I’m going to start with my overall opinion before I get into the nitty-gritty details, which I don’t normally do.

Overall, I really did enjoy the show. It was the perfect mixture of psychological horror, true horror and small jump scares and a deep back story. So, as a show I thoroughly did enjoy it. However, as a show by the title of The Haunting of Hill House, I really didn’t enjoy it as much.

Not like the book at all.
This show is supposed to be based, or loosely based, on The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. To me, besides some of the names, the name of the home and maybe a few of the small details, the show wasn’t the book whatsoever. In the beginning, I had this feeling that they were going to be connecting it somehow to the book or making it fit into the story. However, I was slightly disappointed when I found out that was not the case. There were some moments that harped back to the book but for the most part, it was just a horror story about a family in a haunted house.

Could have changed the name and it would have been just as good!
The name of the show could have been changed, so it wasn’t affiliated with the book, and it would have been so much better. To many people, the name won’t matter as they won’t have read the book and they most likely won’t have seen the original movie. They may have seen The Haunting with Liam Neeson, which was a little closer to the TV show, but even then, it was quite far off. If they had changed the names of some of the characters and maybe the name of the house, and kept the entire story, I think it would have been better. Maybe some people would have said ‘Oh, this reminds me of…’ versus, ‘I don’t see how this is connected to…’. But making the connection to the book helps to boost shows, even if it’s only loosely connected to it.

Visually it was stunning.
I think the visuals and the way that it was filmed was so good though. It was atmospheric and the lighting really kept you in the mood of this spooky situation. The weather was also used to add to the scare factor. The entire show was filmed in this grey/black/dark green-ish kind of color and many of the situations occurred during the night, or if it was day, it was a grey day.

Quite a few jump scares – good stuff!
The show overall wasn’t terrifying in the way that movies can be, but each episode had it’s own moment that made you jump a little. The music was the key to tell you that something was coming, but more than once it still made me jump. I really enjoyed that because, to me, TV shows sometimes give tension but not the scare. So I did like that touch, but if you don’t like those kind of things then this might not be the show for you. Although it’s perfect for Halloween-season.

Psychological issues or real ghosts?
You did have this constant question going on if the situation was all in the families head and that the family was nuts, or if there was actually something going on. There were references to the psychological situation where you make up a monster to compartmentalize and deal with a scary or traumatizing situation. What added to this was that one of the siblings never saw anything in the house. You knew that there was something going but you didn’t really know how much.

Please no season 2.
While I really did enjoy this season, I do hope that they just finish it and don’t make a second season. If they do, it had better play on the house but with a different story line. They really milked this story for all it is worth. Each episode was 1 hour long and sometimes it really did drag and I just wanted the episode to be over. Admittedly I was binging it, but I skipped through a few parts where it was just senseless conversation that didn’t add to the story at all.

In summation, I enjoyed the show as a show. But as a show related to the book, I felt like it was kind of a reach to connect it to that book, honestly. Do I recommend it? Yes, I do. I think the show is definitely worth a watch. But if you are a fan of the book and think that it will be like that, then prepare to be slightly disappointed.

I give this show 4 out of 5 teacups!

Happy Watching!