Halloween Day By Day: The Haunting of Hill House (2018)

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.

Fortunately, Flanagan is one of the best genre directors on the planet, having cut his chops on horror starting with Absentia almost a decade ago, before moving on to the likes of Hush and Gerald's Game. And somehow he's managed to take what worked so well in the book and make a solid 10-hour horror movie out of it.

Yeah, The Haunting of Hill House plays more like a reallllllyyyyyyy long feature film than a TV show, but there was no other way to do it. And he made a big, big change to pull it off, one that took a few episodes to swallow, but was a smart move from a storytelling perspective.

Instead of Theo, Luke, Nelly et all gathering to explore the possibilities of a haunting, they are part of the Crain family, who had a very Amityville Horror experience at Hill House when they were children, right down to fleeing the home in the middle of the night.

What follows is a fascinating slow-burn exploration of trauma and it's lingering, lifelong effects. It's also a look at the debate over the supernatural: are ghosts real or imagined? Combine these two concepts together and you've got some fascinating, and frightening, television.

I admit, Flanagan does get a bit bogged down in the family dynamics at times, fortunately the cast -- which includes Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas, Kate Siegel and Timothy Hutton -- is up to the challenge. As are the young actors who play the siblings in flashback.

And yes, we do get ghosts. In fact, Flanagan uses ghosts almost like Easter eggs in the background. Do you see them or not? It's a fun game to play while watching, and amps up the ample dread throughout.

This is a fine example of how horror can be smartly used on television, and how when Netflix wants to be, it can be a real leader for horror. This Haunting is a Good in my book.