If I were to sum up Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House in two words, they would be "mixed bag." There were so many aspects I liked, but there were also aspects that definitely bugged me. To start with the pros; most of the acting was excellent. The characters are played with such sincerity you easily feel the raw emotions of the core family dynamic. Most of the writing is great as well. the story is able to clearly show the root of each character's personality, and how the titular Hill House shaped them into the damaged adults they are. However, these compliments of the script and performances come with an asterisk. The acting takes a nosedive once we start spending time with the kids. Not all the kids had hollow performances, but most did. It doesn't help the children would often say things that would come out of an adult's mouth. The writing as well starts to phone it in toward the end. Things seem hastily wrapped up, and it almost comes across l...

That's right, bitches! We're branching out into the world of books here at From The Basement. Yes, Shawn's least favourite pass time is one of my favourite ones, so I figured it was high time (but not too high) that I started sounding off on what I'm reading. And what better way to begin than with Paul Tremblay's 2015 shocker, A Head Full of Ghosts. Spoiler alert, it's freaking awesome! Told largely from the POV of an eight-year-old girl, A Head Full of Ghosts explores the alleged possession of said girl's older sister, Marjorie, and the impact it has on her family... especially once a reality TV show comes into play. We get all the possession tropes here, ranging from William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, plus oodles more pop-culture references -- all deftly delivered with Tremblay's elegant yet easy-to-read prose. What makes A Head Full of Ghosts work, and ultimately terrifying, is its ambi...

Taking on a classic psychological horror story like Shirley Jackson's seminal novel The Haunting of Hill House must have been a daunting thing for writer/director Mike Flanagan. It's a classic story that's already been twice told - once with great success by Robert Wise in the 1960s, and once as a big, giant turd in the late 90s. The key to the book's success, and that of Wise's film, is the implied rather than the seen, which Jan De Bont got so, so wrong with his 1999 adaptation. To draw out psychological horror over a 10-episode series . . . well, that's a tricky thing as most audiences want to see something sooner or later.

It's a big weekend at the box office, with no fewer than four movies competing for your dollar, and Jason and Howie are ready, willing and able to throw down on what to watch as We Came from the Basement returns to the Radio NL 610 AM Morning Show. But they aren't just talking movies, as Netflix debuts a limited series based on the classic Shirley Jackson novel The Haunting of Hill House, and Taylor Swift is now liked 25 per cent less by U.S. President Donald Trump.