I will start talking about the Hauting (1963), but this is a review of the series. There are some minor spoilers below, nothing that will ruin your experience.
Robert Wise created The Haunting in the year I was born. The black and white film is my favorite movie, in what is my favorite genre. It is followed very closely by The Innocents of 1961.
Back in the 80's I watched it for the first time, I was so terrified that I woke up in the middle of the night with night terrors and could only recover after taking a cold shower. I will never forget the sense of dread that gripped me that night, and I do not believe another film can produce it in the same way.
Inspired by the book "The Haunting of Hill House", the saga of Eleanor is unbelievable macabre! The pinnacle of the psychological horror genre! The film does not show anything. It just suggests through shadows, statues, sounds and the tense narrative. When it's over, you do not know if everything happened only in Nell's mind, or if Hill House was really haunted... It does not matter. - Abigail, Hugh Crain, Theo, Luke... alive and dead characters have already invaded your imagination and by this time, you will be completely trapped in the story, possessed by fear and with chills up your spine.
I am a guy who spent a week reading Edgar Allan Poe's horror stories locked up alone in a bicentennial mansion in the woods of Brazil where there was no electric light and where guests were often surprised by bats, tarantulas and scorpions. I love terror and I do not scare so easy. The movie is just plain rough. I did not expect, and I watched alone on a rainy night.
I think the production was so draining for Wise that his next film was none other than The Sound of Music. As much as it deals with a subject such as Nazism, it is a film about children cheerfully singing, smiling and hanging out in the Austrian Alps. I think he was looking for a little lightness after directing this ode to the macabre.
In 1999 they remade the 1963 version, but without the same atmosphere and with CGI overuse. In spite of a great cast, it was a pile of crap. If compared to the original, it's a huge turn-off! The book yielded several adaptations for the silver screen, none compares to Wise's vision. Well, until now.
Netflix just launched a series inspired by the book. I think they tried to make their own version of American Horror Story, but they beat it by far! With the exception of its sugary ending, it is impeccable, a must see, fantastic, wonderful. Very cute little thing that will make you crawl onto your seat, lose your sleep and can only be compared to what Netflix has done best, i.e.: Stranger Things.
The creator is Mike Flanagan, a director/writer who wrote the script of "I Know What You Did Last Summer". Well, this time he climbed so much higher!
Flanagan did not fall into the trap of copying takes entirely as happened with other versions of masterpieces, the most deplorable of all, the Psycho remake of Gus Van Sant. He was clever and only hints Wise's version, despite borrowing lines such as the creepy Mrs. Dudley's... "No one ever comes to the house in the night, in the dark", which is repeated like a mantra all over the show.
There are references everywhere. The library's vertiginous spiral staircase, the hall of statues, the Red Room... The library in fact is virtually the same as it was in 1963. The hall of statues too... and as in 1963, Nell dances alone trough it in a white gown and runs barefoot through the dusty hallways of Hill House... Well, not really alone. There's decay, ghosts and Hill House itself. The evil entity that follows the Crain family through their entire lives, eager to devour their souls.
Computer images and scares are scarce and not invasive, on the contrary. They were used with much subtlety and good taste so as to not interfere with the build up of psychological terror. No exaggeration: The series is nearly flawless, wonderful and will frighten you with revelations and surprises that will leave your body limp and give you those delicious goose bumps! When you go to bed, you will want to leave the lights on, close your eyes tight and wish no one will keep you company. Who knows if the Bent Neck Lady followed you through the screen?
The script is unbelievably clever, the cast fantastic ... new actors and veterans such as Timothy Hutton, the dazzling Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas, Annabeth Gish and Russ Tamblyn who played Luke in the 1963 movie. The child actors are also brilliant Especially the little Julian Hilliard as Luke, Violet McGraw as Nell and McKenna Grace as the remarkable Theodora. Characters who you'll never forget! There are also the Ghosts. The Bowler Hat Man, the deceitful Poppy, Old Hazel and THE BENT NECK LADY! THE BENT NECK LADY!"
I loved watching the show through the very ending and may watch it again. The closing minutes are disproportionately sugar-coated and for that, I will give it a 9. A nice cliffhanger would have been better, but from what I can tell, the story of the Crain clan ends there and what follows is a brand new horror. I can't wait!
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