The Haunting of Hill House (Netflix)

Evangelion said:
It turns out that half of the walls are suffering from excessive damp due to sheets of water pouring down inside them for no apparent reason. In response the father footles about with some fans and plastic sheeting, but this half-arsed token gesture towards the problem is quickly forgotten and never mentioned again, so I guess the walls didn't get fixed either.

At some point the father accidentally cuts the back of his hand on an industrial fan which inexplicably lacks a guard across the blades. The wound is severe, clearly requiring minor surgery, a ******** of stitches, some nerve reconstruction, a professionally applied bandage, and at least a week of inactivity before the hand can be used again.

The father wraps a thin bandage around it, and continues his lame attempts at DIY. A few scenes later he's using the hand like nothing happened.


The child actors are pretty abysmal. One of the boys looks and sounds like he belongs in a Neil Breen flick. One of the girls is given lines that are completely unrealistic for a child her age. The adult actors are little better, and one of them has a forehead the size of the Eiffel Tower, which is as distracting and unpleasant as it sounds.
Click to expand...

The plastic sheeting and fans didn't work. There is a scene where he removes the sheeting and its gone back to being full of black mold again. It was obviously spooky mold...

The fan scene was a bit dumb, he would have severed all his tendons and would have needed surgery. I notice this is loads of films and TV shows, where people cut their hand deeply with a knife to draw blood for whatever reason. Always makes me cringe as the tendons are so near to the skin.

I can't agree with the child actors being "abysmal". I thought they were pretty decent tbh. The only one that was a bit off was the kid with glasses.
 
Mark A said:
The plastic sheeting and fans didn't work. There is a scene where he removes the sheeting and its gone back to being full of black mold again. It was obviously spooky mold...
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I remember that part... amongst the drudgery.

The only one that was a bit off was the kid with glasses.
Click to expand...

He was the worst.
 
Tombstone said:
To be fair to him though, he was only 6 years old when it was filmed, I imagine Leo DiCaprio wasnt much of an actor at 6 years old either
Click to expand...

I've seen turnips that can act better than that kid. Also, what's the deal with his eyes? As a kid, he has massive Coke-bottle glasses right out of every lame 'all people who wear glasses are basically blind' stereotype in the book, but as an adult he can see perfectly without glasses. And his hair changes colour, but oh well. /shrug
 
Evangelion said:
I've seen turnips that can act better than that kid. Also, what's the deal with his eyes? As a kid, he has massive Coke-bottle glasses right out of every lame 'all people who wear glasses are basically blind' stereotype in the book, but as an adult he can see perfectly without glasses. And his hair changes colour, but oh well. /shrug
Click to expand...
I went to school with a kid with those sort of glasses. Hasn’t worn glasses since late teens (can’t remember if it was a surgical fix or not) I was proper blonde till I was about 8 or 9 then turned brown :(
 
Evangelion said:
The negative reviews on IMDB are worth reading.
Click to expand...
I think the ‘nostalgia critic’ brothers review of it is (sibling rivalry) is smart and very fair. There may be some swear words in this can’t remember so proceed with discretion.


It does highlight what they did exceptionally well, as well as what they consider exceptionally bad. I think they are a bit harsh on the ending as that seemed to ruin the whole thing for them.
 
Finally finished it last night.

Thought it was fantastic! Very smartly written throughout and the pacing was on point right through to the end. I know the endings was a little rocky for some but I loved it. Tonally it felt spot on with what the show had been pushing for from the start.

Few things I wasn't to keen on and felt could have been left out...

Theo's 'power'. Didn't feel as though it added anything to the narrative aside from what it did for her arc during episode 3. Felt a bit too hammy, despite the fact that it was utilised well during that particular episode.

Didn't think the story needed the Dudley's at all. The nods to Abigail where fun, but finding out she was real during the final episodes carried very little weight seeing as she was only referenced on the odd occasion by Luke. I get that the Dudley's had quite a few important monologues that added to the backstory of the house, but I didn't feel they where needed. Give me full on ambiguity or make the effort to fill in the gaps properly.

Hated Shirley's character entirely. Never once did I feel compelled to route for her in any way whatsoever. Of course, that would have been fine if she where a villainous character but she's one of the 'protagonists'. Her episode was also the least compelling out of the lot which is a shame considering it's one of the earlier ones (second?)

Felt the show could have gone a shade darker with it's scares. Often times they felt quite cliché, though I except that all scares are subjective. Some certainly gave me the chills, particularly when Steve is being carried and he opens his eyes as they're running. That moment stayed with me for quite some time...

But yeah, overall I really, really enjoyed it. Felt fresh and contemporary whilst still preserving much of what makes horror of that particular ilk unique. Luke's episode was my favourite, if anyone's interested :)
 
Tombstone said:
I only just found out that the guy who played the father (younger version), is the kid who played Elliott in E.T. !
Click to expand...

Same. He was in Ouija: Origin of Evil as well https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4361050/ ...as were several of the cast members (and director)! That was also a great horror...Annabelle Creation was out last year too, also BRILLIANT: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5140878 - mentioned due to Lulu Wilson being in all three.

Thought this series was excellent. Well shot, acted and suitably creepy - one of the very few series i've watched all the way through within a few days. Some of the single shot episodes was fantastic too. I'd say the weak point was Michiel Huisman and his performance, everything else...bang on.
 
Do you know what, the child actors were really good. Kids can be weird. Kids are not all super emotionally mature and expressive and like 30 year old adults in a childs body. What I cannot stand is the kind of precocious overacting that is hugely prevalent in American TV shows when they have young child actors so this was a nice departure from that.
 
spoffle said:
They're talking about making it an anthology series, or a new season being about how the house came to be.
Click to expand...

hmm ok could be good but could also completely ruin it. i'd rather make my mind up about how the house came to be. my house is older than that house for a start :p
 
Just finished this series the other night. Thoroughly enjoyed it right up until the last episode which was a load of saccharine, hippy piffle. Absolutely ruined the whole series for me.
 
Was ok for a one season thing but milking it out to add more seems dumb. It was a very slow moving story in a lot of episodes to say the least.
 
Finished this tonight, it was the only TV outside of the news I've seen all year. I took the recommendation from a friend as something to watch over the holidays.
I'm glad I did, it's truly sublime.

I used to be a horror nut and it was good to see a little nod to Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness in the final episode. I guess a lot of my horror mindset goes back to The Evil Dead trailer on the news in the 1980's (11 I think at the time), seeing that absolute black and white, good versus evil traditional horror I grew up with.
Now in late 40's, two kids, many a sad story under my belt this threw me for a loop. The true horror in this is not the story, not the jumps or scares and certainly not what you think it will be.
The true horror is only realized at the other side of the screen, this series' only avenue to truly scare is played on the terms you identify with. I can see why a lot of people don't like it. In a way I guess that I'm envious of your reasons not to. For me though, either having a life that relates to one, many, all of the traits that gave this vehicle wheels, or to the absolute master-craft that is either this book (I've not read it yet but bet your ass I will now) or this series. It was like watching The Matrix for the first time.
Mental illness is dropped a fair chunk by Steve, much like it is in our everyday lives. This series is a revelation in terms of fending off the face value 'mental illness doesn't affect me' bunch into a B&Q shopping list bonanza and grabbing the actual issue by the teeth and holding it bare for all to see. Even if it's only a bit of adultery, yup that's a mental illness.
Sublime, never saw this coming. Hardly jumped at all but I can only commend this series, everything about it was fresh and not at all as laid out in this genre. Defining.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom