Haunting of Hill House: It's Not As Bad As It Is In Your Head
by Ayla Roback and Liam Burke
*You can read or listen to the audio of the article below.
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”
Background on Haunting of Hill House
Haunting of Hill House was originally a gothic horror novel by Shirley Jackson, published in 1959. Shirley Jackson is an American author that was known mainly for her works of gothic fiction, horror, and mystery. Some of her other books are: The Lottery & We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
The Netflix series version was released in October of 2018. Mike Flanagan, creator of the series, is well-known for writing and directing within the horror genre. Some other films he has made are: Oculus (2013), Gerald’s Game (2017), and Doctor Sleep (2019)
This modern reimagining of the Shirley Jackson novel follows the Crain siblings who, as children, grew up in what would go on to become the most famous haunted house in the country. Now, adults, they are forced back together in the face of tragedy and must finally confront the ghosts of their past. Some of those ghosts still lurk in their minds, while others may actually be stalking the shadows of Hill House.
This story is very well-written and the series is sort of a unique gem of the horror genre, with minimal jump-scares, gore, or cheap "monsters," instead has some classic scary movie imagery, some ghosts lurking in the background that you have to watch very closely to see, and new twists we have not seen before. The show really grapples with the reality of the power that fear holds over our lives and mental health. The show brilliantly and subtly illustrates (with many very real situations) how we can allow our phobias to grab hold of us, steal our joy, and ultimately in some cases, steal our lives.
The follow-up series to Hill House, Haunting of Bly Manor, loosely based on the 1898 horror novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, is set to be released to stream exclusively on Netflix on October 9th! It is said to be a little different than Hill House but will bring back some of the first series (including some of the cast) and have lots of new spectral surprises in store.
Throughout the series, the Crain family all have their own ghosts to deal with, some literally.. Let’s start by diving into episodes 1&2, and then we’ll be working our way through the series-- doing a brief episode recap, and highlighting any important plot points and character development!
SPOILER WARNING!!!! For those that have yet to watch: we’re going to be going through each episode, and breaking down the story. So, if you don’t want it spoiled before you watch-- watch first, and then come back and follow along with us as we break down the show by episode!
TRIGGER WARNING! While this show is not typical of the horror genre, there isn’t much bloody gore and there is one sex scene, some instances of strong language, traumatic content including death, suicide, addiction, drug abuse, violence, an allusion to sexual abuse, and some scenes that probably would not be suitable for all ages.
EPISODE BREAKDOWNS
Haunting of Hill House (2019) Season 1 synopsis
1&2 “Steven Sees a Ghost” & “Open Casket”
“Steven Sees a Ghost” starts off with a typical creepy house horror movie set up. We are introduced to Nell (the youngest) after she has a nightmare of a “Bent-Neck Lady” and get a small glimpse of the family’s last night in Hill House, as the father, Hugh, (Henry Thomas/Timothy Hutton) and children are escaping. This episode centers around Steven (Paxton Singleton/Michael Huisman), the eldest and a writer, who has always been skeptical of the supernatural.
In Episode 1, Steven is investigating an incident of a woman that says she's being haunted by her husband's ghost, doing research for his next book. He tells the woman that he doesn't believe in the word Supernatural and prefers the term "Prenatural" (things we can't yet explain). Later, Steven gets into an argument with Shirley (Shirl) the second eldest (Lulu Wilson/Elizabeth Reaser). They’re arguing about his book that he wrote about their family’s story. She believes that he took advantage and capitalized on their family trauma (the death of their mother, Olivia (Carla Gugino), and he believes that Olivia was mentally ill and that all of the “ghosts” the family thinks were responsible for her death were all inside of their mother’s head: “Our family has a disease that’s never been treated because it was easier to listen to your crazy stories about an evil house." He later says: “Ghosts are guilt. Ghosts are secrets. Ghosts are regrets and failings,” Steven explains. “But most times . . . most times a ghost is a wish.”
The trigger that kicks off the series is when Eleanor (Nell), the youngest, (Violet McGraw/Victoria Pedretti) calls everyone after an apparent period of silence and everyone (other than Hugh-- their father) either misses her call or ignores it. We get a very brief introduction to each of the siblings, first in a scene from their childhood-- the last night in Hill House, before Olivia dies. And a scene of Steven and Luke in Luke’s treehouse, and Steve with Hugh dealing with the aftermath of that one night at Hill House. And then as adults, we see a glimpse of each of the sibling’s lives. We see Shirley (Shirl) at work as a mortician and owner of a funeral home, Theodora (Theo) (McKenna Grace/Kate Siegel) at a club where she meets a girl and has a one-night stand, and is very cold, disconnected, and distanced emotionally from her. We see Luke (Julian Hilliard/Oliver Jackson-Cohen) very briefly towards the end of the episode outside of Steven’s apartment apparently stealing from him, and then Nell, in flashes throughout the episode, but most vividly in the end scenes: in Steve’s apartment as a “ghost,” and in Hill House, dancing around the dark empty rooms.
Episode one ends with Steve’s terrifying vision of an undead Nell in his living room, as he experiences the supernatural. And we are left with a few unanswered questions: 1) who or what is behind the mysterious red door that we see Shirl and Nell in front of in the house, 2) what happened to Nell, and 3) what exactly happened in Hill House on that one fateful night?
“Open Casket” centers around Shirl. We get a few flashbacks (including that creepy box of kittens bit), and we gain some insight into how Shirl came to her profession. Essentially, because of the trauma and all of the unpredictable and sudden deaths in her childhood (first the box of kittens) and then with Olivia (her mother)’s suicide, Shirl feels in control in the environment where she is “fixing” the dead and restoring them to a “frozen” state. Shirl is so controlled, that she even decides to do the autopsy and restoration of her sister (Nell’s) body.
We see flashbacks of adulthood with the siblings--the siblings all together checking Luke into rehab, and presumably a little while after--Nell’s wedding. We learn that Luke and Nell (the two youngest) are twins. These instances in the flashbacks sort of show Shirl as the cemented caretaker and “mom” figure for her siblings after Olivia’s death.
One of my favorite quotes from the series comes from Theo when she says to Shirl: “Welp, be sure to let your imagination get the best of you. That's the first step. Imagine the worst thing possible. Assume it's true. Then go from there.”
In episode 2, we are introduced to a few new mysteries-- 1) who is the man that Shirl sees in the funeral home? 2) what events led up to that one terrible night that the family left Hill House?
Episodes 3&4 “Touch” & “The Twin Thing”
“Touch” is centered on Theodora (Theo), the middle child. We see flashbacks of her in the house. First with the creepy ghost touching her arm, then dancing by herself in a makeshift dance studio room, and then the scary dumbwaiter scene with Luke. We see a few of her psychic abilities developing.
We see her at work as a child psychologist, working with a young patient that nobody has been able to reach. She uses her ability of touch and realizes that the girl has been being sexually abused by her foster father.
We also get to see a little more of Nell’s wedding, and get to know and understand Theo more through this episode. We also learn that Theo was in on Steve’s writing of the book and got her cut of the money, without Shirl knowing. We finally see Theo’s wall break down as she feels what her patient felt. We see her showing emotion and after she touches Nell’s body and feels what happened to her, we see Theo reconnect with her feelings, the one-night stand from episode 1, and her siblings. Episode 3 ends with another quick flash of that last night in Hill House.
“The Twin Thing” is centered around Luke. In this episode, we see a lot of creepy kid drawings from Luke (there’s the scary movie bit!), we hear a particularly disturbing story from Luke’s AA meeting, and we get a little insight into Olivia’s “color storms” and psychic ability.
Luke tries to save a friend, Joey, from relapsing in rehab, while staying sober himself. We see him struggle a LOT and this episode, we can sort of feel an overwhelming sense of dread along with Luke-- as if something is lingering and coming for him.
We gain a little more understanding of Luke, Steven, and Steven’s marriage over the particularly awkward dinner scene with Steve, Leigh, Luke, and Joey as they refuse to help them (again) get on their feet.
This episode ends by showing us that the twins have a psychic connection. Luke can feel what Nell feels. When she feels fear, he can feel it too, which now explains why he numbs his feelings with drug use.
Episodes 5&6 “The Bent-Neck Lady” & “Two Storms”
“The Bent-Neck Lady” centers on Nell and revisits the Bent-Neck Lady. While a few moments through the series gave me the creeps, this episode especially left me shook, it was by far the best episode in the series to me.
We see bits of Nell’s life, from the first night in Hill House when she first sees the Bent-Neck Lady to her therapy sessions, that creepy scary movie moment with the wallpaper, her dating and living with her psychology tech turned boyfriend Arthur, their wedding, the sudden death of her husband, more therapy (My fellow Twin Peaks fans will appreciate the easter egg of Doctor Jacoby-- aka Doctor Montague, portrayed by Russ Tamblyn). We also see the rift develop between the siblings with Steven writing the book about Hill House, the morning after Olivia’s death, and the hours leading up to Nell’s own death, filling in a lot of missing pieces and blank space we had forgotten about, timeline-wise.
This episode had a lot of sweet moments in it too. I loved seeing Nell’s wedding and some of her happy moments, and that conversation between her and Mrs. Dudley (Annabeth Gish) about her cup of stars that she finds in the toy room.
“No, dear. Use your cup of stars. Insist on your cup of stars. Once they've strapped you into being like everyone else, you'll never see your cup of stars again.”
Even when the house is about to devour Nell and she’s about to commit suicide, we see her happy because she is home, with her family again, which is what she always wanted.
I think this episode is especially poetic because we see Nell, as she's falling to her death, become the very thing that has haunted her from childhood. Something that had her frozen in petrified fear (written off as sleep paralysis) she could not get away from and eventually, it took her life.
In “Two Storms,” the siblings reunite at Nell’s funeral. A lot of confrontation and anger as Hugh comes face to face with his children. This episode switches back and forth between the funeral and to Hill House on the night of a big storm. We see a lot of scary movie tricks during the storm-- a lot of flashlight scenes in the dark and leading us to wait for jump scares, but no real action happening. This episode felt more like a filler than anything, but it was definitely necessary for character progression for the siblings and for Hugh.
We see a little insight into what Hugh remembers and experienced in the house, and with Olivia, and at the end, we see Nell as a ghost at her own viewing, watching her family fight and bicker and again, as in her life, not being seen.
Episodes 7&8 “Eulogy” & “Witness Marks”
“Eulogy” is a lot more about Hugh. We see his interview with the police following Olivia’s death, we see him dealing with the aftermath of the storm, and on the day of Nell’s funeral. Olivia appears to him throughout, during conversations with the kids. We see flashbacks of Hugh beginning renovations on Hill House and finding a body in the wall.
We see Olivia’s reading/drawing-room and start to see her losing grip on reality while sketching up blueprints and plans of the house. We also learn more about the Dudley’s. Shirl and Hugh see a zombie-like ghost at the funeral home after the Forever Home model that Olivia made gets smashed to the floor.
“Witness Marks”-- it’s Halloween night! A staple in scary movies- gotta have some fun Halloween stuff! Episode 8 opens with Steve and Leigh at the doctor’s office. We see Olivia appear to Steve and we learn that he decides he doesn’t want to have kids.
Later Steve goes up the staircase where he sees an old man repairing an old clock and sees him go to play video games in a game room and restoring an old vanity as a gift for Olivia at the suggestion of Mrs. Dudley. Olivia sees something in the reflection, flips out, and smashes the mirror of the vanity.
Hugh and Steve go on a drive to find Luke after he disappears from Nell’s funeral. Shirl and Theo are supposedly ding-dong ditched while they’re “home alone” at the funeral parlor and that one car scene-- the only jump scare in the series. Gets me every time. More scary movie stuff. In the last scene, we find out Luke has returned to Hill House and he’s on a mission to burn the place down…will the house allow that?
Episodes 9&10 “Screaming Meemies” & “Silence Lay Steadily”
The last two! “Screaming Meemies” is all about Olivia. We see all of her in-betweens and visions, meeting the ghost of Poppy Hill (Katie Parker) in her sitting room and hearing all about the screaming meemies and Poppy's own struggle when she lost her child. We see Olivia struggling with her grip on reality and her sanity as the fear of losing her children grows with the increasing visions.
Towards the end of the episode, we see her mental break where she hosts a tea party for Nell, Abigail Dudley (Olive Elise Abercrombie), and Luke in the red room. She poisons the tea and plans to take Nell and Luke with her but instead, only Abigail is poisoned before Hugh discovers them and takes the kids out of the house, leaving Olivia behind (the last night in Hill House that we saw in the beginning) and we see her choose to “wake up” as she commits suicide. We then see the family when they first move into Hill House.
The season’s finale, “Silence Lay Steadily,” fills in all the gaps. Beginning with the red room-- which we discover changes for every person-- sort of like the Room of Requirement in Harry Potter. For Olivia, it’s her reading/sketch room, for Theo- a dance studio, for Steve- a video game room, for Nell a toy room, and for Luke- a treehouse. None of these rooms actually existed to anyone else, except in the instance of Luke’s treehouse, which Steve saw. *Steve has always been able to see and experience the ghosts and supernatural, he just didn’t believe, and so it didn’t appear out of the ordinary to him.
We now know what happened on that last night in Hill House when Olivia died, what happened to Nell, and a little more history about the siblings, and what happened in between… but what happens now?
Steve has strange flashbacks and visions of a pregnant Leigh, which gave me timeline whiplash, and he wakes up inside the Red Room of Hill House.
We then see what actually happened to Luke when he tried to save Joey, who the man was that kept appearing to Shirl in the funeral home (hey James Lafferty a.k.a. Nathan Scott-- One Tree Hill!), and see Theo reconnecting with the one-night stand girl-- all three waking up in the Red Room.
We see Luke relapse and then see his vision of Abigail, Nell, and Olivia in the brighter, almost idyllic version of the Red Room. Nell’s ghost tries to save them while Poppy and Olivia appear to Hugh. We see the aftermath of that one night that Hugh had to deal with-- Olivia’s body, and the Dudley’s discovering that Abigail was dead. We also see Hugh striking the deal that the Dudley's could stay on the property with Abigail if Hill House was kept empty.
Everything is neatly tied up-- Steve talked to Leigh, Theo abandoned the gloves and is in a relationship with one-night stand girl, Luke made a full recovery and stayed clean and sober for two years, Shirl came clean with her husband, Kevin, Mrs. Dudley died in the house to stay with her babies, and then in the last scene, the house lights up again.
Overview/recap
Overall, I really did like this series. The ending was wrapped up a little too neatly for most horror fans, but I kind of enjoyed that it wasn’t what we expected. It was different in that the story was laid out so I couldn’t see every twist and turn. I loved the switches between timelines and perspective shifts, and that the ghosts weren’t always right where you could immediately see them. It approaches the idea of “what was real and what was imagined?” without discounting the memories and experiences of the characters.
So how does the story of Haunting of Hill House tie into the reality of mental health?
* I preface this segment by saying that I have very limited knowledge of mental health professionally, but from my own experiences with depression, anxiety, and PostPartum Depression, an interest in mental health and an obsession with finding the root cause of things, and some research, this is what I have learned:
Social phobia is defined as the extreme fear of social situations where the individual is afraid of being judged by or embarrassed in front of other people. These are some of the most common phobias, affecting nearly 3% of the world’s population. Nearly 45% of people with social phobias will develop Agoraphobia from the fear of having an anxiety attack in public and embarrassing themselves. This is why many of these phobics try to avoid social situations completely.
Nearly 17% of people with social phobias develop depression. The majority of them turn to medication, even substance abuse with illegal drugs (nearly 17%) or alcohol (nearly 19%).
Specific phobias are characterized by an irrational or unwarranted fear about a specific situation, object, or animals. In some cases, these objects of dread can prove to be dangerous. Specific phobias begin during childhood and can persist all throughout one’s life. More research is needed to isolate the gene responsible for triggering such phobias. However, phobia statistics collected so far show that individuals with a parent or close relative suffering from specific phobias are likelier to develop the same phobia.
How does all of this relate to the Bible, and what do we do with it? Some of you might be saying: “Alright cool, scary stuff and some mental health facts. But what about the Bible in Bible + Pop Culture?” And to you I say, bear with me a little longer. We’re already pretty deep into this at this point, we're almost there!
The Bible has quite a lot to say about fear, but of a ton of reading, when getting ready for this podcast, I chose a few verses that really spoke to me:
For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.
But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.
*Interesting to note that character Luke struggles with addiction all of his life, up until his death, and this passage was taken from the book of Luke.
For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
My Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
Things to Think On
We have talked a lot, I’ve talked a lot and thought about this for months now, and there’s a lot to unpack but here are some of the main thoughts I want to leave you with:
A lot of times, people aren’t believed when they say they are dealing with the supernatural. People are automatically Steven-- skeptical and unwilling to believe because there has to be a “rational” explanation. But aren’t there some things that we saw, we can't explain away as just “in our heads”? How often have we experienced the supernatural and like Steven, explained it away with “I imagined it” or “that didn’t actually happen?”
How often are things worse inside of our minds than they actually are in reality, because we let the fear in, as Olivia did with the fear of losing her children, manifesting that fear and then losing herself and her children? Even small things like Shirl, assuming the worst and working from there?
Do we let fear creep in and infect our entire life? Nell struggled her whole life with the paralyzing fear of the Bent-Neck Lady, and then became the very thing she feared. How could this apply to our lives, with our own fears and even insecurities that we obsess over?
How often do we romanticize things and memories from our past because we just want them so badly to be that way, like Nell when returning to Hill House? Poetic that that very romanticized dream of Nell’s, of her family being together in the house is what crushed the life from her and thrust her into her fall as the “Bent-Neck Lady.”
Do we make like Luke or Theo and numb ourselves to those negative feelings, instead of feeling too deeply, so that we can’t be afraid or hurt anymore?
While there are very real things that we cannot explain that is supernatural, how much of it is also that we are unwilling, as a society, to deal with mental illness in the proper capacity and chalk things that we don’t want to explore as “inexplicable,” “unbelief,” or “scary?” How many times do we try to hide or avoid our own issues or those of others for the sake of appearances? Are we afraid of being seen as a non-believer if we challenge what we believe? Are we fearful of what we will uncover within the "walls" of our hearts and minds, as Hugh was?
“Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.”
There’s a lot to be learned from the Crain family! Don’t let go of your cup of stars, you have to face your fears, and reach out when you’re struggling. Whether it be fear of rejection, self-doubt, a fear of failure, fear of loss, fear of feeling, fear of abandonment, fear of not being needed, a fear of death, or a fear of living-- all of them can be overcome, with a little help. While some of our fears are rational and very real, we cannot allow them to deter or distract us, and ultimately, decide our fate. We need to remember that we are not alone. We need to feel all of the things-- negative and positive feelings, but don’t let fear overtake you or consume you. We are all in this together.
Additional Resources
https://www.vulture.com/tv/the-haunting-of-hill-house/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Haunting_of_Hill_House_(TV_series)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6763664/
https://www.fearof.net/phobia-statistics-and-surprising-facts-about-our-biggest-fears/
Listen Here
Intro + Episodes 1-4
Episodes 5-10
Mental Health & Scripture Discussion
Resources
We’ve created a free downloadable PDF to explore the article deeper. It contains discussion questions about the topic in general terms that will give you a jumping-off point for beginning a conversation.
The second page contains a way to see the topic from a biblical perspective.
And finally, to go deeper into the subject, we have chosen a few curated resources to explore from other authors’ and thinkers’ research or perspectives.
Read. Engage. Enjoy!
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Depending on how a gem is held, light refracts differently. At B+PC we engage in Pop Culture topics to see ideas from a new angle, to bring us to a deeper understanding. And like Pastor Shane Willard notes, we want “…Jesus to get bigger, the cross to get clearer, the Resurrection to be central…” Instead of approaching a topic from “I don’t want to be wrong,“ we strive for the alternative “I want to expand my perspective.”
So, we invite you to engage with us here. What piqued your curiosity to dig deeper? What line inspired you to action? What idea made you ask, “Hmmm?” Let’s join with our community to wrestle with our thoughts in love in the Comment Section! See you there!