I Usually Can't Watch Anything Scary, but Here's Why I'm Hooked on The Haunting of Hill House
If you told me I'd spend 48 hours binging The Haunting of Hill House , I would've said, "there's no way in hell." I'm not a fan of scary things. I refuse to enter a corn maze, I'll cry if you jump out at me from behind a wall, and I walked out of The Dark Knight Rises in high school because I was too freaked out. A Batman movie, y'all — we'll revisit what's truly wrong with my psyche at a later date. Yet somehow, last weekend I found myself pressing play on the Netflix show that's giving fans collective nightmares. So, is The Haunting of Hill House scary? Yep, and I'd absolutely watch all 10 episodes again.
The psychological and emotional drama is more piercing than any scream could ever be.
Hill House, based on the novel by Shirley Jackson, follows the five Crain siblings: Steve, Shirley, Theo, Luke, and Nell Crain, as they confront the traumas inflicted by living in a haunted Massachusetts mansion as kids. Sure, the show still subscribes to eerie music and quick jump scares, but the psychological and emotional drama is more piercing than any scream could ever be. The Crains deal with addiction, abuse, infidelity, loss, betrayal, and depression just as much as they deal with the inexplicable terrors of their childhood home. As a fan of shows like This Is Us and Parenthood, the familial bond and tension kept me watching when the spookiness would've normally kept me at bay.
If you're a scaredy-cat like me, don't count this show out so quickly. Yes, it'll keep you on the edge of your seat. Yes, you may have to sleep with the light on for a couple of nights. You'll also think about the bond you share with your parents, the way you talk to your siblings, and the relationship you have with the home you grew up in. This show goes deeper than a few screaming meemies, and because of that, I'll sleep soundly . . . just maybe not tonight.