Oh hey, Russ Tamblyn. Who I personally know best as Dr. Jacobi, from Twin Peaks, but I strongly suspect the reason he was cast here is because he played Luke in the original 1963 movie adaptation, The Haunting.
The Bent-Neck Lady was all kinds of messed up.
I had guessed it would turn out to be Nell when everyone had grabbed their necks on waking up, but I didn’t think we’d actually see the hanging and time-shifts from her dying perspective.
This really is like a long-form Oculus.
I have one episode left. No familiarity with any of the source material.
I am super impressed by the execution of this show. It’s not…subtle, but it is very effective. I’m sure it resonates especially well with me because the themes and family dynamics have a lot to grab onto in my own life, but honestly I just feel like this is super well done.
I’m not a big consumer of “sad” or “depressing” media - I can’t really read Margaret Atwood, though she’s undoubtedly a fantastic author - but something about this works for me. I like a lot that all the characters have reasons that make sense to them to do the things they do; they’re not just assholes or idiots because the writers need conflict. I like and dislike them all for different, internally consistent reasons. That’s rare in my experience.
I also like (mild thematic spoilers for I think ep4): I like that they acknowledge very clearly that yes, supernatural shit is absolutely happening while still remaining firmly in psychological horror territory with the focus on the family and their interactions and how HAUS affects them rather than “oooooh lookit spooky spooky, I’m Stephen King and I don’t know how to write third acts a bloo bloo.”
The opening shot in I think ep7 (8 maybe? I watched a bunch last night) is, if I was paying attention as well as I thought I did, like fifteen minutes long. It’s amazing. Coolest TV single shot since the Daredevil hallway fight.
Anyway, I’m sure I’ll have more spoilery thoughts when I actually finish it (probably tonight). Great show, though, and I definitely recommend it to anyone thinking about watching it.
Oh man.
Ep 8 spoiler.
“There was no treehouse.”
I thought Episode 4 was pretty good but none of the scares got to me at all. Bowler hat dude thumping his cane around the hallway and floating into the bedroom was more silly than frightening. Tonight it’s time for Bent Neck Lady who promises to be way more SOUL SHATTERING.
Finished it. I have…very mixed feelings about the final episode.
Man. 9 episodes of creepiness and tragedy and family tensions, even about half an episode of creepy prodding from the house in episode 10…and then actually everyone gets what they want and even the house turns out to be more boarding house for ghost families than the incredibly dangerous predator Dad was making it out to be. Apparently ghosts aren’t malevolent twisted versions of themselves there to lure people to their deaths, they’re just the person you loved that you can see whenever! Bleh. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted the best for those characters by that point but horror is not about getting what you want.
I finished it last weekend, so it’s been fun watching all the praise it’s getting and waiting for people to reach that hilariously shitty ending. “…And whatever walked there, walked together”. Awwww, happy fucking ending. Just awful and embarrassing.
It’s especially frustrating because honestly, the ending they filmed could have been entirely satisfactory (maybe not the best possible way to close, but in keeping with the mood and themes of the rest of the show) with just a bit of tweaking.
Some of the comments in the AV Club review of the final episode were (seemingly slightly desperately) trying to argue that it wasn’t intended to be a happy ending, and that the house had won and would be getting them all in the end. I don’t agree that that’s a reasonable way to read the ending we got, but it wouldn’t take much to make it read that way and I think it’d really improve things. Just…show that the Liv and Abigail we got as ghosts weren’t really Liv or Abigail, but the house pulling its usual lures. Make it clear that Hugh’s suicide wouldn’t result in a happy reunion with his wife, but a hellish afterlife in the clutches of the house, a tragic trade for his kids’ escape. And then show that that escape is, ultimately, only temporary. Don’t disrupt the “happy endings” we see for them for the characters themselves, but make it clear to the audience that Hill House is still waiting for them - my cliched approach would be to have some surreptitious ghostly presence lurking in the background in the shots of them happy, but there’s probably other, better ways. Oh, and for fuck’s sake, don’t butcher the Jackson quote.
Yeah, I’ll join the chorus on the ending. They whiffed it.
She’s like snowflakes or confetti in your lives? Abigail is just a regular little girl ghost that the Dudleys can visit? The House is basically a hotel for spirits at the end. WTF? They really went overboard to get to that happy ending for the kids.
It was so strong for 8 episodes, then it started unraveling.
Also not happy about the ending.
Though I did like the idea that they had all been in the red room many times before. Would be nice if they kind of did something with that. As it was, it was just, it was just interesting and explained some things that happened before, but didn’t further the plot. Also it kind of just got dropped in your lap.
According to an interview with director and writer Mike Flanagan…
One of the original endings he considered was to set all the happy ending epilogue scenes in the Red Room by having the sets contain that tall central window, so savvy viewers would know the house won in the end.
Shame he didn’t actually go with that.
Yeah, no kidding.
This is one of those bummers of the modern age of binge watching and online reviews/discussion. Even without having seen any spoilers or specifics, the general consensus that the finale was a let-down takes some of the fun out of the experience. I’ve been watching about one episode per day since it came out but I still feel behind the curve. Booo.
Dont read stuff till you watched it ya silly goose! Finale is a bit of a letdown but doesn’t spoil the series for me at all.
I almost edited in the caveat “I know I don’t have to read forums” but figured I’d see how long it would take someone to point that out. 6 minutes was longer than I expected. It’s a stupid thing to say even though you said it politely. I don’t have to go to parties or restaurants or anywhere ever, if you think about it.
It doesn’t spoil the series for me either. It just takes some of the wind out of my sails and watching tv wasn’t always like that.
One thing I liked about the scene where they arrive at the motel… it reminded me of the last scene in Poltergeist (where they disappear inside, and then shove the TV out the door) but here it’s at the midpoint with plenty more story yet to come. Cool!
I almost edited in the caveat “I know I don’t have to read forums” but figured I’d see how long it would take someone to point that out. 6 minutes was longer than I expected. It’s a stupid thing to say even though you said it politely.
Well jeez next time I reply to you I’ll keep in mind you consciously lay rhetorical traps in your posts for dimwits like me to fall for.
It was an observation, not a problem I needed help solving.
When you assume the latter and then offer the most obvious solution, it can be inadvertently insulting.
yeah but you’re ignoring the crux of my problem - that you were operating on the level of ‘I COULD add this, but I won’t and will jump on the first person that tries to lecture me.’ It’s a very hyperaware and off-putting way to post. But I’m over it, you do you.
It’s a pet peeve that I should have to add that caveat so I decided not to go back and stick it in. I feel it should be common sense. So I used it for a cranky reaction rather than ‘no shit’ or ‘duh.’ But you still deserve credit for the silly goose.
For those still watching, don’t let the talk about the final episode deter you. The problem with the final episode is that it’s unneeded extra stuff, not that’s there’s anything fundamentally wrong with the earlier episodes. (If you wanted to, you could stop with the end of episode 9. The meat of the story is done by then; episode 10 is essentially an extended coda.)
But this series is a prime example of the chronic Netflix problem - their series are padded to have more episodes than they should have to tell their stories well. The deepest fear of every Netflix showrunner is that at the end of the deal meeting, a Netflix exec will jump out of a dark corner and proclaim, “Just one more thing - we want two more episodes.”