Netflix orders modernized 'Haunting of Hill House' from Mike Flanagan

[Kane52630]

 

[Kane52630]

Victoria Pedretti can’t act, period. Completely over-acting in this season. A million smiley or frowny faces every 13 seconds. And was she playing a valley girl or was she from Europe because her accent was weird. She was better as Nell but that’s probably because she wasn’t in the first season much. As my friend says about her “She’s all mouth”. The English and Scottish accents were mostly parodies across the board.

This season was pure sleepy trash. Sulky and melodramatic for the entire duration. Including the score which trying SO hard to pull on the heartstrings in every scene. The “scares” weren’t there for me. Very corny CGI horror that has no effect. Nothing gets under your skin. It’s the problem I had with his Doctor Sleep. Muschietti and Flanagan are terribly overrated within this genre. Hill House was much better in the second half though.

I honestly thought this was a gruelling season to watch. Self important, over dramatic monologues that never seemed to end. Annoying kids (I was hoping Damien from the Omen would throw his sister down the goddamn well after the 85th time she said PERFECTLY SPLENDID!). Ugh.

0.5/5 horrendous waste of time.

 

[Captain Tired]

YOU ARE TEARING ME APART, PETER QUINT!

 

[Kane52630]

 

[DarkKnight88]

You may just be confirming shauner111's criticism even more lol

 

[Kane52630]

It's only confirming that shauner can't see talent.

 

[shauner111]

I can also make 10 wide smiley faces in every scene. She has no subtlety or range. She’s just a pretty face. #ShesAllMouth

 

[Calvin Ellis]

I can also make 10 wide smiley faces in every scene. She has no subtlety or range. She’s just a pretty face. #ShesAllMouth

Lol to some that can be a good thing.

 

[Prison Mike]

Just finished the season. Overall this was a step down from Hill House. The first 4 episodes were pretty boring and doesn’t start to pick up until episode 5. Thankfully there’s only 9 episodes in the season. On a more positive note, I liked how everything came together at the end and the reveal of the narrator and wedding party was a nice touch. Victoria Pedretti was very good and the highlight of the entire season (much like the Hill House season). Same with Oliver Jackson-Cohen. I hope these two return in the next Haunting series.

 

[Erik20]

I enjoyed this but I think it was too long. I got kind of bored at times those last 2 episodes. (Especially episode 8)

Hill House left me wanting more, but now after this I'm fine if it ends here

 

[DarkKnight88]

Yeah, it should've been less than 9 episodes. I think tighter storytelling would've made it stronger at something like 5/6 episodes. Follow the British lead.

 

[Prison Mike]

I think that origin episode of the Lady of Bly Manor could have been told in a half hour.

 

[Persona]

Man, I loved that episode.

I guess for someone who wants a lot of plot movement, yeah, this could be frustrating.

For me I didn't feel like time was being wasted because so much was going into the character work. And a lot of shows simulate a lot of plot with frivolous dramatic beats that don't fully connect to each other. Here the story was very thought through and calibrated.

The story build up is there from the beginning, it's just kind of subtle until episode 5 begins to reveal the true form of it. In hindsight there was so much story foundation being laid in those first four episodes, but you can't always see the ghosts in the room with you, though you may feel their presence and see the effects they have. Sometimes you have to wait a while for them to reveal themselves.

 

[Prison Mike]

I just remembered that Flanagan did the same with Hill House where the second to last episode was an origin of sorts (they showed what happened to the mother during the last night they were staying at the house). I guess this is some storytelling mechanism he uses. Not bad, but it did kind of halt the progression of the plot. The Hill House origin episode was way more exciting for me though than the Bly Manor origin episode.

 

[CaptainWagner]

I'm a sucker for period horror, so I was very much onboard with the origin episode. We need more old-timey work in the genre, bonus points for being in black and white.

 

[Kirmit]

As a season overallI wasn’t a fan but I have to say the origin episode for the Lady of Bly
Manor was amazing.

 

[Prison Mike]

I was just happy to see Kate Siegel again

 

[DarkKnight88]

I was just happy to see Kate Siegel again

Being married to the director kind of helps with appearing in all that he does - although, where was she in Doctor Sleep!?

 

[DarkKnight88]

The story build up is there from the beginning, it's just kind of subtle until episode 5 begins to reveal the true form of it. In hindsight there was so much story foundation being laid in those first four episodes, but you can't always see the ghosts in the room with you, though you may feel their presence and see the effects they have. Sometimes you have to wait a while for them to reveal themselves.

What's weird is the over-explanation of episodes 6 and 7. I mean, we pretty much figured it all out and here are two long one hour episodes to over-explain it all anyway. At least that's how I felt.

I guess with Hill House, I loved all the family members. Here, I didn't fall in love with any character really, so I didn't care to see every little bit of things explained that we figured out earlier. Especially involving Peter and and Rebecca, two very unlikeable people.

 

[flickchick85]

The origin ep was probably my favorite episode here. Loved it.

 

[Sawyer]

Just finished. Didn’t want to post here before it was done for fear of being spoiled.

I liked it quite a bit, but I do think I preferred Hill House overall. I think I engaged with that cast of characters more, and without getting into the scary/not scary debate that seems to be so prevalent when it comes to these things, I think Hill House did do a better job of immediately establishing the stakes whereas this was a slower burn. That being said, I was just as moved by Bly Manor’s ending as I was by Hill House.

Also got a big kick out of Flanagan’s use of his regulars. Doctor Sleep’s Jack and Wendy

Spoiler

as Flora’s parents

and Hill House’s Theo

Spoiler

choking out her brother, sister and father

.

 

[Sawyer]

I honestly didn’t even notice it was him when I was watching, then when I hit up Wikipedia when I was done, it blew my mind.

 

[flickchick85]

I honestly didn’t even notice it was him when I was watching, then when I hit up Wikipedia when I was done, it blew my mind.

I have met the man twice and didn’t even recognize him til the end of the show.

 

[Holy Slapper]

I found the Hill house family members very uninteresting and unrelatable. Plus the atmosphere was too depressing at times. That was never the case with Bly Manor. I can't remember the last time I saw a more likeable character than Dani Clayton. Her character development was..perfectly splendid which made the ending only more heartbreaking.

 

[Sawyer]

I found the Hill house family members very uninteresting and unrelatable. Plus the atmosphere was too depressing at times. That was never the case with Bly Manor. I can't remember the last time I saw a more likeable character than Dani Clayton. Her character development was..perfectly splendid which made the ending only more heartbreaking.

Don’t... don’t you dare.