The series premiered on Netflix on October 12, 2018. The Haunting of Hill House received critical acclaim, particularly for its acting, directing, and production values. A follow-up series by Flanagan titled The Haunting of Bly Manor, with most of the same crew and some of the same cast but a different story and characters, was released on October 9, 2020.
In the summer of 1992, Hugh and Olivia Crain and their five children—Steven, Shirley, Theodora (Theo), Luke, and Eleanor (Nell)—move into Hill House to renovate the mansion in order to sell it and build their own house, designed by Olivia. However, due to unexpected repairs, they have to stay longer, and they begin to experience increasing paranormal phenomena, resulting in a tragic loss and the family fleeing from the house. Twenty-six years later, the Crain siblings and their estranged father reunite after another tragedy strikes them, and they are forced to confront how their time in Hill House has affected each of them.
Michiel Huisman and Paxton Singleton as Steven Crain,[1][2] the eldest son of the family. He became a famous author after writing about his family's experiences at Hill House, despite his siblings' disapproval.
Carla Gugino as Olivia Crain,[3] the matriarch of the family, who designs houses. She, along with her youngest daughter Nell, is among the most affected by the paranormal activity in the house.
Timothy Hutton and Henry Thomas as Hugh Crain,[4][5] the patriarch of the family, who flips houses. He becomes estranged from his children after the events at Hill House.
Elizabeth Reaser and Lulu Wilson as Shirley Crain Harris,[4][6] the eldest daughter of the family. She owns a mortuary with her husband Kevin. They have a son and a daughter.
Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Julian Hilliard as Luke Crain,[2][7] older twin of Nell and one of the two youngest members of the family. He struggles with heroin addiction as an adult to push out his memories of Hill House.
Victoria Pedretti and Violet McGraw as Eleanor "Nell" Crain Vance,[6][8] Luke's younger twin and one of the two youngest members of the family. She has never fully recovered from the haunting she experienced while living in Hill House.
James Lafferty as Ryan Quale, an apparition from Shirley's memory.
James Flanagan as Funeral Director
Jordane Christie as Arthur Vance, Nell's sleep technologist and later husband.
Elizabeth Becka as Aunt Janet, sister of Olivia Crain.
Logan Medina as Jayden Harris, son of Shirley and Kevin.
May Badr as Allie Harris, daughter of Shirley and Kevin.
Anna Enger as Joey, a recovering addict that Luke tries to help.
Fedor Steer as William Hill, former owner of Hill House who went insane and bricked himself behind a wall. His ghost returns as the Tall Man / Bowler Hat Man who haunts Luke.
Olive Elise Abercrombie as Abigail Dudley, the daughter of Clara and Horace, and young Luke's friend from the woods.
Catherine Parker as Poppy Hill, one of the ghosts inhabiting Hill House, wife of William Hill and considered insane when alive.
Mimi Gould as Hazel Hill, one of the ghosts inhabiting Hill House
Steven Crain is an author known for The Haunting of Hill House, an autobiographical novel about his childhood experience while residing in the haunted mansion with parents Hugh and Olivia, and younger siblings Shirley, Theo, Nell and Luke. During their stay, the Crains encounter paranormal occurrences and are forced to flee without Olivia, who dies within the house, traumatizing the rest of the family. Years later, Steven uses his family's traumatic experiences to write his book, straining the bonds with his siblings. Although it becomes a best-seller, he misses most of the frightening experiences and does not actually believe in the paranormal. Theo meets a woman, Trish, at a nightclub and brings her home to have sex. Steven and Shirley miss calls from Nell, who then calls Hugh and expresses concern for Luke, who has become a drug addict. When Steven returns home, he finds Nell standing there. He receives a call from Hugh, informing him that Nell went to Hill House and is dead. Steven realizes that Nell is a ghost.
2
"Open Casket"
Mike Flanagan
Mike Flanagan
October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
In childhood flashbacks at Hill House, Shirley encounters a box of abandoned kittens and takes them in. However, the kittens all end up dying, which deeply affects Shirley, who obsesses over why she could not fix them. Later, during Olivia's funeral, an initially distraught Shirley is in awe that the mortician was able to "fix" her mother and return her previous beauty. As an adult, Shirley is a mortician who owns a funeral business alongside her husband, Kevin, and rents a guesthouse to Theo, who is now a child therapist. Shirley is informed of Nell's death. Distraught, she decides to embalm and "fix" her sister herself. However, while doing so, she encounters her mother's ghost.
3
"Touch"
Mike Flanagan
Liz Phang
October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
Theo is able to perceive feelings from people and impressions from objects when she touches them with bare hands. Child Luke encounters a ghost that attacks him and is upset that no one believes him. Theo investigates for him and finds a hidden door leading to a basement that is not in the plans of the house. Olivia reveals to her that her grandmother was "sensitive" just like her and gives Theo a pair of gloves to protect her hands. At her job, Theo comes across a child that she cannot "read", who claims to be tormented by "Mr. Smiley", a monster. Theo goes to the girl's house and discovers the truth through her touch; the girl's foster dad is molesting her and Mr. Smiley is a manifestation of the abuse. Theo gets the foster dad arrested. She goes to the morgue and touches Nell's forehead before collapsing and screaming. A flashback to their last night in Hill House reveals that when Hugh grabbed Theo as they were trying to flee, Theo saw disturbing images of ghosts and Olivia being pushed.
Child Luke is frustrated as his family never believes him about the ghosts he sees, including his "imaginary friend", Abigail. Luke claims a bowler hat his mother finds in the attic and wears it. Present Luke is now 90 days clean. Since birth, Luke and Nell are able to feel the other's physical ailments. Luke's best friend in rehab, Joey, flees to get high, and Luke follows to get her back. Child Luke encounters the ghost of an abnormally tall man that comes to get its bowler hat back from him. Luke finds Joey but begins feeling unnaturally cold and stiff. Lacking money for a place to stay, Luke breaks into Steven's apartment to steal items to sell but is caught by Steven, who gives him money. Joey steals the money and flees, and Luke is mugged, leaving him wandering with the hatted ghost following him. Luke calls his caseworker and she and Steven find him and inform him that Nell died by suicide. Realizing he has been feeling Nell in death all this time, Luke states it was not suicide.
Child Nell is tormented by an apparition she calls the Bent-Neck Lady, a ghost with a broken neck. Adult Nell sees a sleep technologist, Arthur, for sleep paralysis. The two fall in love and marry. Arthur tragically suffers a brain aneurysm and dies, and the Bent-Neck Lady returns. Nell begins to use her medication less and less in her broken state, and convinced by her therapist that Hill House is "just a carcass" of a house and not the haunted nightmare of her past, Nell travels to the house. She sees it as it was in her childhood, fully renovated, with her family and Arthur present. This, however, is an illusion; the house is desolate and abandoned in reality. Nell is led to the spiral staircase, where she puts a noose around her neck while imagining it to be her mother's locket. She is then pushed by her mother's ghost, breaking her neck. As Nell dies, she travels through the past, revealing that she herself was the Bent-Neck Lady and has been haunting her younger self all along.
6
"Two Storms"
Mike Flanagan
Mike Flanagan & Jeff Howard
October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
The episode alternates between two storms: one the family experienced in the past at Hill House, the other in the present, the night before Nell's funeral, with the Crain family meeting at the funeral parlor to view her body, finally together in the same room after years. At Hill House, Nell goes missing. Olivia sees spirits and enters a fugue state, acting strangely. Nell reappears, shaken, and states that she had been right there in front of the family the whole time, yelling, but they could not see or hear her. In the present, as the Crains argue, odd things happen: Steven sees the ghost of his mother, the power goes out, and someone places buttons on Nell's eyes. The family demands answers from Hugh about what really happened, leading to confrontations. Shirley catches Theo and Kevin together in a storage room. Nell's coffin falls over by itself, startling the Crains into shock. Nell's spirit, as the Bent-Neck Lady, is present in the room the whole time, though no one sees her.
It is revealed that Hugh often talks to Olivia like she is still there. He is able to make amends with Theo, who says she should have reached out to him. During the funeral, he tries to reconnect with the rest of his children. In the past, Hugh assesses the house for storm damage. Mr. Dudley assists, revealing some history of the house's previous occupants. Mr. Dudley suggests that the erratic Olivia needs to spend time away from the house, revealing why he and Mrs. Dudley never come to the house at night. Olivia's behavior becomes more disturbing. After Hugh wakes to find a disoriented Olivia holding a screwdriver to his neck, they agree she needs to leave Hill House for a few days. Hugh inadvertently uncovers the body of William Hill, the original owner, who had bricked himself up inside the house's walls. After Olivia's death, when being questioned by the police, Hugh states the Red Room remained locked, but during the events of the last night at the house, Hugh finds the door to the Red Room unlocked. After the funeral, Olivia's ghost attacks Luke, then Hugh and Theo. Luke goes missing after the funeral, stealing Shirley's wallet and Theo's car.
8
"Witness Marks"
Mike Flanagan
Jeff Howard & Rebecca Klingel
October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
Steven and Hugh drive around to find Luke. Steven believes the family's issues are mental illness and explains he underwent a vasectomy to avoid spreading his family's "sickness" on. At the funeral parlor, Shirley and Theo have an argument over Theo and Kevin in the storage room. The family discovers that Luke is on his way to Hill House. Hugh reveals to Steven that Steven has been seeing ghosts all along without realizing they were ghosts, and that none of them are mentally ill. He reveals that the tree house Steven and Luke speak of at Hill House was never there, and that the Crains are like "an unfinished meal" to the house. Shirley and Theo also begin driving to Hill House to save Luke. Nell's ghost scares them, and Theo breaks down, explaining that Shirley misunderstood her and Kevin; nothing happened. The sisters reconcile. Luke tries to burn down Hill House, only to be attacked by the ghost of Poppy Hill, William Hill's insane wife.
9
"Screaming Meemies"
Mike Flanagan
Meredith Averill
October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
In the past, Olivia begins having disturbing paranormal experiences in the house. She sees a vision of the corpses of adult Nell and Luke, and encounters the ghost of Poppy Hill, who tells her the world outside will devour her children and she needs to keep them safe. Disoriented and scared, Olivia and Hugh decide she should take a break and travel to her sister Janet's house. However, Olivia, now unstable and influenced by the house, never goes and the family's last night at the mansion starts to unfold. A delusional Olivia takes Nell, Luke, and Abigail, who was sleeping over, for a tea party in the Red Room, which is now open. Hugh realizes Olivia has poisoned the tea with rat poison to kill the kids, believing this is the only way to keep them safe from the world. He saves Luke and Nell but is too late to save Abigail. Terrified, he hurriedly gets the kids out of the house while Olivia, wanting to "wake up" from her horrible "dream", jumps off the top of the spiral staircase.
10
"Silence Lay Steadily"
Mike Flanagan
Mike Flanagan
October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)
Steven and Hugh find Luke unconscious in the Red Room. Steven, Theo, and Shirley all become locked inside with Luke, and all experience revelatory nightmares about their lives as the house tries to kill them; all the siblings are saved by Nell's ghost. They awaken to find Luke dying. Nell's ghost explains that the Red Room is the "stomach" of the house and can disguise itself as different rooms to each person to calm them while it "digests" them. It disguised itself as the tree house for Luke, the gaming room for Steven, and so on. The siblings apologize for not saving Nell and she assures them that they all loved each other. Olivia's ghost keeps the siblings trapped, not wanting them to leave. Hugh convinces her to open the door, telling her he will make her a promise. She frees them, and Shirley and Theo drive Luke to the hospital. Hugh and Steven stay behind and the aftermath of Olivia's death is revealed, including the fact that the Dudleys were Abigail's parents. Hugh commits suicide to be with Olivia (his promise), and says goodbye to Steven, entering the Red Room with Olivia and Nell. Two years later, the siblings, their bonds reconciled, celebrate Luke's sobriety together with their partners. An elderly Horace brings Clara to die in the house, her spirit joining Abigail.
On April 10, 2017, Netflix announced that it had ordered a 10-episode adaptation of the classic horror novel The Haunting of Hill House, with Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy as executive producers, and Amblin Television and Paramount Television as co-production companies. It is the first scripted series to be made for Netflix by Amblin.[9]
Production on the series began in October 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia, with location filming in the city and its environs.[10][11] Bisham Manor, former name of the property located in LaGrange, served as the exterior of "Hill House".[11][12] The house's interior settings were filmed at EUE/Screen Gem Studios in Atlanta.[11]
OnRotten Tomatoes, The Haunting of Hill House has a 93% rating based on 103 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Haunting of Hill House is an effective ghost story whose steadily mounting anticipation is just as satisfying as its chilling payoff."[16]OnMetacritic, it has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[17]
Corrine Corrodus of The Telegraph graded the series with a 5/5 rating, calling it "the most complex and complete horror series of its time."[18] Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave unanimous praise to the Netflix adaptation, describing it as "essential viewing", and stated that "[the show] contains some of the most unforgettable horror imagery in film or television in years."[19] David Griffin of IGN gave the series a rating of 9.5 out of 10, calling it "a superb and terrifying family drama",[20] and Paul Tassi of Forbes described it as "absolutely fantastic" and stated that "it may actually be Netflix's best original show ever."[21]
Horror author Stephen King, who holds considerable admiration for Jackson's novel, tweeted about the series, "I don't usually care for this kind of revisionism, but this is great. Close to a work of genius, really. I think Shirley Jackson would approve, but who knows for sure."[22][a]
In January 2020, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino said, "My favorite Netflix series, with no competition, is The Haunting of Hill House."[25]
In August 2019, it was announced that The Haunting of Hill House would be released on Blu-ray and DVD from Paramount Home Entertainment on October 15, 2019. The release includes extended director's cuts of three episodes ("Steven Sees a Ghost", "The Bent-Neck Lady" and "Silence Lay Steadily"), all of which also have audio commentaries from Flanagan, and an additional audio commentary for "Two Storms".[31]
Continuation series
