MovieChat Forums > The Haunting of Hill House (2018) Discussion > This show is goddanged incredible

This show is goddanged incredible


The first couple episodes...eh, I wasn't that impressed. It was a little slow...a bit scattered. And these silly, needless jump-scares kept popping up out of nowhere...and it was too bad, I couldn't figure out why they felt the need to do that.

And then somewhere around episode 3-4, it started getting better. Things started to make sense...we'd gotten to know the characters better and relate to their perspective, their motivations...divergent story lines began to merge, and by the fifth episode, I was pretty sure I was watching one of the best shows I'd ever seen.

Its the characters, I think. Every one of them is a real person, fully fleshed out and wholly relatable.
IMO, this show is a perfect example of the level of charisma a character-driven story can generate. I've stopped after episode 8 to write this...I don't want it to end lol
I genuinely like these characters, this family...and that's what's drawn me in to this show. I care about their journey, their fate, I'm afraid right along with them. Shoot, I'm afraid FOR them.

Its a trip coming to the forums here to see all the people talking about how this show is overrated...one of the first threads I clicked on was, "The writing is so bad!!" and the first few responses being about, "I KNOW" and, "I thought I was the only one!"

"To each his own" and all, but I can't help but wonder how far you guys made it. Because I'm not sure this would be a show for people who didn't have the kind of patience it might take to watch the characters/story unfold the way it does. Because they're intertwined. The story goes hand-in-hand with the character development...its not just a story about a haunted house, its a story about a family, their attempts at coping with the past and how its affected them, how its affected their relationships with each other.

THIS is how its done IMO. Whatever else any story has to offer, if its focused on making it about the characters, first and foremost, the rest doesn't need to be much more than window dressing, really. And still, the window dressing here was...this show is goddang incredible, IMO. Amazing stuff.




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We live in an era of SHORT attention spans, and of people who have no understanding of interpersonal relationships or social skills, and who would find Conrad’s novel, The Heart of Darkness, “boring” and “light horror,” so quiet but definite triumphs like this limited-run series are like unto pearls before swine to them. (And, you know what? They don’t know what that phrase means, which is even more evidence of their limitation! “Uh, so pigs eat pearls? Doesn’t that mess up their stomachs?”) I really do sympathize with those who complain that this series has essentially nothing in common with the titular source novel or film, nor even with the film, House on Haunted Hill, other than the character names. I think this series was a money-driven cheat: use a touchstone name to attract an audience to a very different narrative that nonetheless is quite good in a very different way. I admit that would really honk me off, were I familiar with the source material. The two previous movies have passed in front of my eyes, but I honestly don’t recall them much. I nevertheless respect someone who does, and who feels cheated. I really do. Having said that, I think THIS series, especially for its final two episodes and the set-up and payoffs that they provide, makes it more than worthwhile for a mature fan of the macabre.

Not all that is horror is macabre. Not all that is macabre is horror, as commonly defined. Macabre is a Trump President. Horror is a Hitler Feur.

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I loved it. LOVED the relationships between the kids, the parents, the way things went, etc. Great show.

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