--- title: "The Haunting of Hill House" year: 2018 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/the-haunting-of-hill-house" fi1m_score: 80 critics_score: 81 critics_reviews: 12 published: "2026-09-17T13:45:45.988769+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T13:45:46.397668+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Haunting of Hill House (2018) Created by Mike Flanagan · MPA TV-MA · Mystery, Drama **Fi1m score: 80** · Critics 81 from 12 reviews *In a sentence:* Five grown siblings still arguing about what they saw in 1992, while the ghosts wait patiently at the back of the frame > Flanagan’s take on Shirley Jackson’s novel is a family drama first and a ghost story second, and it frightens when it remembers the ghosts. It runs long and talks too much at the end, but the middle episodes are as good as television horror gets. ## Synopsis Summer, 1992. Hugh Crain (Henry Thomas) and his wife Olivia (Carla Gugino) move their five children into Hill House to do it up and sell it on. The doors will not stay shut, a red room’s key fits no lock, and a woman with a bent neck stands at the foot of the youngest child’s bed. The children grow up and scatter. Steven (Michiel Huisman) writes a bestseller about a haunting he says he never saw. Shirley (Elizabeth Reaser) runs a funeral home. Theodora (Kate Siegel) wears gloves and will not say why. Luke (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) is back in rehab, and Nell (Victoria Pedretti) is ringing her brothers and sisters in the night, and nobody picks up. ## Review Shirley Jackson’s *The Haunting of Hill House* is a short novel about one lonely woman and a house that wants her, and it has been filmed twice before, well in 1963 and badly in 1999. Mike Flanagan’s ten-part series keeps the house, borrows a few names and throws nearly everything else away. It is not researchers who spend a few nights at Hill House here but a family who spend the summer of 1992 there, and the series is about what that summer did to them. It cuts between the children in the house and the adults decades later, who have barely spoken since. Flanagan’s first job is to make us care about the Crains before he frightens us on their behalf. The children are well cast, Julian Hilliard’s Luke and Mckenna Grace’s Theodora especially, and Henry Thomas and Carla Gugino, as the young Hugh and Olivia, play a marriage that is happy for just long enough to hurt. The adults are more mixed. Victoria Pedretti’s Nell is the find of the series, a woman who has been afraid since she was small and has learned to say so quietly. Kate Siegel’s Theo, gloved to the wrist and sharp with everyone, is nearly as good. Michiel Huisman’s Steven, a writer who has made money out of a haunting he says he never saw, gets the dullest material and does what he can with it. Then the frightening. Michael Fimognari shoots the house in browns and blacks, and the trick he and Flanagan play over and over is to put a figure at the back of the frame and not look at it. A shape on the stairs behind a talking child. A face in a doorway nobody uses. We caught one on a second viewing and did not sleep well. Twice we were properly frightened, and both times by things that moved slowly: a woman with her head at the wrong angle at the foot of Nell’s bed, and a tall figure in a hat who comes down a corridor without touching the floor. Nothing jumps. The camera waits, and so do we, and the waiting is what does it. Episode six, ‘Two Storms’, is the reason most critics have been kind, and they are right. It puts the grown Crains in Shirley’s funeral home during a storm and plays out in a handful of unbroken takes, the camera drifting from one argument to the next, with the house in 1992 arriving inside the same movement. Ravi Subramanian, Brian Jeremiah Smith, Jim Flynn and Flanagan himself are credited as editors, and this is an hour in which they have almost nothing to do and Fimognari has everything. Andrew Grush and Taylor Stewart’s score stays on a few piano notes for most of it. Patricio M. Farrell’s house, dark panelling and a staircase built to be looked up, is a character in its own right. The trouble is that there are ten hours of it and the story would fit in six. The adults talk about the house the way people talk about it in therapy, in whole paragraphs, and Elizabeth Reaser’s Shirley is given a strand about her own marriage that the series never quite needs. The last episode stops to say out loud what the house has meant, then says it again with the strings up, and we felt a hand between our shoulder blades pushing us towards a feeling we would have reached on our own. We will not describe the ending. It is softer than what comes before it, and Jackson would not have written it. Set against Flanagan’s own films, *Oculus*, *Hush* and *Gerald’s Game*, this is bigger and warmer, and it forgives its people more than his films usually do. Set against Robert Wise’s 1963 film it is a different animal: that was about one mind coming apart in a few nights, this is about a family failing to come together over a generation, and the two share little but an address. It is a 15 certificate. Watch it a couple of episodes a night rather than at a sitting; the scares want the dark, and the speeches want a night’s rest between them. *Fi1m score 80, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like it, and the praise gathers in one place: the decision to treat the haunting as a story about family trauma rather than a run of frights. The reviews repeatedly find that the Crain siblings’ adult lives are where the dread sits, that the scares are patient and land harder for it, and that the cast holds two timelines together. Flanagan’s direction, his long takes in particular, is singled out, as is Carla Gugino. The reservations are about length. Several reviews find ten episodes more than the story needs, with too much exposition; Vulture, the one mixed notice, calls the pace plodding and the episodes overlong, while allowing that the ghost story lingers. IndieWire agrees on the bloat but still comes down in favour. The spread is narrow, from warm to warmer: The Telegraph at the top calls it revolutionary, and most of the rest settle for calling it good, serious horror. ### Reviews we read (12) - **The Telegraph** (5/5): The critic hails it as by far the most complex and complete horror series of its time, revolutionary in shifting focus to the lasting psychological trauma on the Crain family. Singles out the slow-build terror, rich character vignettes, and strong performances across timelines. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/on-demand/0/haunting-hill-house-review-far-complex-complete-horror-series/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Daniel Fienberg (90/100, inferred): Netflix's 10-episode adaptation delivers sustained scares alongside rich character work exploring family trauma. It stands out for its layered narrative structure across multiple timelines and effective mix of jump scares with deeper emotional resonance. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/haunting-hill-house-review-1149714/) - **The AV Club**, Katie Rife (B+): The show stands out as the most moving depiction of generational trauma in 2018 horror, blending effective scares with deep emotional weight. Its execution layers family dynamics beneath the horror in compelling ways despite some predictable elements. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/sorry-hereditary-but-the-haunting-of-hill-house-is-th-1829659438) - **IndieWire**, Ben Travers (B): The series works best when it moves beyond standard haunted house tropes to deliver an emotionally resonant story about family trauma. It shows Netflix-style ambition with strong performances and creative flourishes but can feel bloated and exposition-heavy. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/shows/haunting-of-hill-house-netflix-review-season-1-1202010900/) - **Empire**, Boyd Hilton (70/100, inferred): The series is an ambitious, slow-burn horror update that prioritizes atmosphere and character over jump scares. It excels in building a creepy Gothic mood and making viewers care about the troubled Crane siblings across timelines. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/haunting-hill-house-review/) - **Variety**, Daniel D'Addario (70/100, inferred): The series succeeds as a modern horror story that emphasizes overcoming trauma and family discord over pure frights. It is singled out for its insightful post-haunting focus on the siblings' adult lives and memories as the true source of dread. [Read](https://variety.com/2018/tv/reviews/haunting-of-hill-house-review-netflix-1202953629/) - **Vulture** (65/100, inferred): The series delivers strong scares and unsettling imagery once it builds momentum but suffers from a plodding pace and overly long episodes. It succeeds as a ghost story that lingers in the mind despite its flaws. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2018/10/the-haunting-of-hill-house-netflix-review.html) - **The Ringer**, Miles Surrey (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it Netflix’s first truly great horror series, a successful fusion of family drama and scares that works like a haunted version of This Is Us. They single out the insidious, living haunted house and Flanagan’s technical direction, especially long takes, for praise. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2018/10/15/tv/haunting-of-hill-house-netflix-horror-series) - **Collider**, Adam Chitwood (85/100, inferred): The series is a deeper, more emotionally devastating family drama than expected, more in the vein of Six Feet Under than pure horror. Flanagan excels at character work and emotional payoffs while delivering scares. [Read](https://collider.com/haunting-of-hill-house-review-netflix/) - **/Film**, Chris Evangelista (85/100, inferred): It blends supernatural horror with psychological family drama in an emotionally powerful way, remaining true to the spirit of the source material. The focus on grief, trauma, and strong performances, especially Carla Gugino, stands out. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/561218/the-haunting-of-hill-house-review-a-terrifying-blend-of-supernatural-horror-and-psychological-drama/) - **Den of Geek** (4/5): The series blends supernatural horror with emotional family drama in the style of This Is Us, delivering genuine scares alongside explorations of trauma and addiction. Viewers seeking ghosts will find more depth in the haunted lives of the characters. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-haunting-of-hill-house-review-spoiler-free/) - **Digital Spy**, Josh Winning (75/100, inferred): Flanagan's adaptation forges a fresh family-driven narrative that balances scares and emotion with reverence for the source while adding new elements. It is at times gripping and moody but not always fully successful in its mix of horror and heart. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a866893/haunting-of-hill-house-netflix-review/) ## Details - **Created by:** Mike Flanagan - **Creator:** Mike Flanagan - **Director:** Mike Flanagan - **Writer:** Mike Flanagan, Jeff Howard, Meredith Averill, Scott Kosar, Liz Phang, Rebecca Klingel, Charise Castro Smith - **Teleplay:** Mike Flanagan - **Novel:** Shirley Jackson - **Cinematography:** Michael Fimognari - **Editor:** Jim Flynn, Brian Jeremiah Smith, Ravi Subramanian, Mike Flanagan - **Music:** Andrew Grush, Taylor Stewart - **Production design:** Patricio M. Farrell - **Producer:** Dan Kaplow - **Cast:** Michiel Huisman as Steven Crain; Elizabeth Reaser as Shirley Crain; Kate Siegel as Theodora Crain; Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Luke Crain; Victoria Pedretti as Nell Crain; Timothy Hutton as Hugh Crain; Carla Gugino as Olivia Crain; Henry Thomas as Young Hugh Crain - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 12 October 2018 - **Genres:** Mystery, Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9RP7j6ltHM ## Where to watch in the US - Netflix: streaming - Amazon Prime Video: buy, hd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Haunting* (1963): Robert Wise’s version of the same novel: one woman, one house, no explanations offered. - *The Innocents* (1961): Deborah Kerr, two children and a country house, and nothing you can prove you saw. - *Lake Mungo* (2008): An Australian mock-documentary about a drowned girl; grief as the haunting, done on nothing. - *Hereditary* (2018), Fi1m 83: Another family that cannot talk to each other, and a house that listens. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/hereditary.md) - *The Others* (2001), Fi1m 80: Nicole Kidman keeps the curtains drawn in a house where the children may not see daylight. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-others.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/the-haunting-of-hill-house