8 / 10. Truly creepy with good scares, but a tonal change leads to a whimpering ending

Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House was created and directed by Mike Flanagan based on the 1959 Shirley Jackson novel.

The plot alternates between two timelines, following five adult siblings whose paranormal experiences living at Hill House in the summer of 1992, 26 years earlier, continue to haunt them in the present day. Flashbacks detail the supernatural events leading up to a terrifying night at the mansion that year, and how their experiences affected them. into adulthood.

The labyrinthine Hill House itself is gloriously creepy, with the statues and old decor and there are cleverly hidden ghosts in many scenes. I always think I see things in the background in horror films and this time I really did.

The splintered timeline of past and present intertwined works well in setting up the characters and then showing us events at Hill House. I truly felt for Nell and Luke (Julian Hilliard as a child, Oliver Jackson-Cohen as an adult), and even though Luke did some despicable things as an adult, I wanted him to get better and find peace. Nell (young and adult versions - Violet McGraw and Victoria Pedretti) definitely had the best scary moments.

Carla Gugino played Olivia, the mother, beautifully as a haunted soul, and by the end I think the story could be even be seen as not quite the ‘haunted’ house story it starts out as.

Theo was my favourite character (young - Mckenna Grace, and adult - Kate Siegel), I liked her no nonsense approach to the events and the glove thing was amusing.

‘The Bent-Neck Lady’ – Episode 5 was the best episode story wise and for creepy value.

Episodes 9 and 10 took on a different tone and the story became more sad than scary, and while it wasn’t a bad ending per se, I think this reduced the impact of the build-up of the terrifying tale into a whimpering ending.