I saw the original movie and the remake, but I never read the book. That trailer is nothing like the two movies – not even close. Is it more true to Shirley Jackson or are they just using the IP to make something new?
I haven’t seen the trailer, or even knew there were movies, but I loved the book.
Now I need to figure out if I want to watch one of the movies or watch the Netflix original.
You don’t want to watch the 90s one. Unless you’re a real big fan of (I think) Catherine Zeta-Jones.
And even then. Yeesh, that’s a bad movie.
Jason McMaster’s mash note to the b&w original: 2 days to Halloween: The Haunting - Quarter to Three
Oddly, the setup of the Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta-Jones version is closest to the book. The second half goes nuts though.
Aw come on! Not kids! Kids ruin everything. Big pass for me.
Bump, since this is available to binge now.
I thought the first episode was okay but episode two picked up quite a bit. Lifting the bag out of the chest cavity was a highlight. Gruesome and f*cked up!
So this is good. Surprisingly good. If you like creepy, unsettling things and psychological horror as opposed to splatter movies, you should give this a shot.
Just make sure to get past the first episode (the weakest of the 4 I’ve watched so far.) The characters initially seem bland and more CW than HBO, and it’s definitely the sort of Hollywood-y show where characters who are long-time junkies for some reason still look like they work out three hours a day and have really great teeth.
But once things get established these seemingly thin characters are shown to have meat on them; the show turns out to be more about the people than the spooks as such. There are surprising developments (not all of which are related to the supernatural) and plenty of chills large and small, some of which are predictable but still effective.
The series comes up with a clever way to change Shirley Jackson’s original story while keeping its tone with a device plainly inspired by It. But to the show’s credit the end result doesn’t feel much like It (it’s more The Shining) or Netflix’s other It-inspired series, Stranger Things.
OK, getting ready to completely blow past any sane bedtime and binge a few episodes of this now.
Also, Timothy Hutton is in this! He and Dennis Christopher seem like the “What the heck ever happened to those guys?” lost boys of the pre-Tom Cruise/John Hughes movie young actor with chops Hollywood.
I am officially weirded out at how much middle-aged Henry Thomas resembles old Timothy Hutton.
Yes! I noticed the exact same thing, too. Spooky how close they look now.
I’m liking the interplay between different time periods. The gradual reveals about what’s happening now, what happened when they were kids, and what happened to the Hills.
Yeah, I think it’s a much better handling of that kind of storytelling than Dark. Episode 3 with Theodora was especially skillful at cutting between time periods. Also fun to see scenes from episode 2 being set up in episode 3. I’m thinking of Theodora’s advice to Shirley for how to talk to her kids about what happened to Nellie.
It’s very reminiscent of Oculus in that respect. I don’t think it’s very accurate to the Haunting of Hill House book, but I like it a lot.
Yeah, I am now four episodes in and enjoying it a lot. Though like someone else said elsethread, the child actors are… not great. I don’t care enormously because I mean, they’re young kids and that’s tough, and they’re not really doing the key work here. But it’s definitely noticeable.
I don’t necessarily agree. Luke is amazing!
He’s the one I would have specifically called out as least good. But to each their own.
I don’t care much about performance in a show like this since it has very little relation to real-world emotional truth. I just love his little bespectacled face.