I agree with your takes on Sabrina and Haunting of Hill House. (Although I think I liked Haunting of Hill House a lot more than you did...in some respects I prefer it to the book and Robert Wise film, but that's mainly because I'm not a fan of the "bleak" ending, and am scared far easier -- hence the reason I can't watch a lot of horror films, although am a sucker for psychological horror.)
Episode 6 was insanely good, and scary. S P O I L E R S
I think that's the episode that had the moment that unnerved me the most and I literally screamed along with the characters. (When the mother breaks the forever house model and is scrambling to pick up the pieces on the floor. It's how they did it...the pain of seeing someone you love in that way, and dead...mixed with the wish of wanting to see them again, but god, not like that.) The other moment that really bugged me...was when we got the reveal of who the bent-necked woman truly was...that was just plain brilliant.
Also, the ghost with the walking stick and bowler hat..was truly frightening.
What worked with Hill House is how each of the scares and ghosts were "personal" to the characters hopes, dreams and fears...and the fears were far more realistic ones, not schlocky scares. No skeletons jumping out of closets. (Well outside of the thing in the basement.)
Also the puzzle nature of it...the room that appeared to be whatever anyone who was in it at the time desired. Yet, weirdly no one but the people who need it to be that are there at the time.
The ending, I have mixed feelings about. I found the last line to be wishful thinking on Steven's part...because it can be read one of two ways. They may walk together - but in a house that is a mirage and not what it appears. With ghosts that are rather cruel and selfish. And each are stuck isolated in rooms, stuck in certain moments of pain and wishful thinking. Their fears have placed them permanently in the house. I think that is in a way a shout-out to both Kubrick/King's The Shining which claims Jack Torrent, and Jackson's Haunting of Hill House that claims poor Eleanor.
That said...I wish they hadn't done the scene with the Dudley's returning to Hill House and being reunited with their kids...it made the house seem almost gracious, which was a direct contradiction to the themes of the series and everything that came before. I'd have edited two things out of it -- Steven Crain's line and those that walk it's halls walk together no longer alone, and the scene with the Dudley's. And just left us with Hugh, Olivia and Nell standing in the red room as the door slowly shuts on them, locking them inside it for an eternity.
This is a series I want to discuss to death. Because there's bits in it that are rather brilliant. And other's that..I think required a bit of tweaking (although I admittedly like melodrama.).
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Date: 2018-11-10 03:51 am (UTC)Episode 6 was insanely good, and scary.
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
I think that's the episode that had the moment that unnerved me the most and I literally screamed along with the characters. (When the mother breaks the forever house model and is scrambling to pick up the pieces on the floor. It's how they did it...the pain of seeing someone you love in that way, and dead...mixed with the wish of wanting to see them again, but god, not like that.) The other moment that really bugged me...was when we got the reveal of who the bent-necked woman truly was...that was just plain brilliant.
Also, the ghost with the walking stick and bowler hat..was truly frightening.
What worked with Hill House is how each of the scares and ghosts were "personal" to the characters hopes, dreams and fears...and the fears were far more realistic ones, not schlocky scares. No skeletons jumping out of closets. (Well outside of the thing in the basement.)
Also the puzzle nature of it...the room that appeared to be whatever anyone who was in it at the time desired. Yet, weirdly no one but the people who need it to be that are there at the time.
The ending, I have mixed feelings about. I found the last line to be wishful thinking on Steven's part...because it can be read one of two ways. They may walk together - but in a house that is a mirage and not what it appears. With ghosts that are rather cruel and selfish. And each are stuck isolated in rooms, stuck in certain moments of pain and wishful thinking. Their fears have placed them permanently in the house. I think that is in a way a shout-out to both Kubrick/King's The Shining which claims Jack Torrent, and Jackson's Haunting of Hill House that claims poor Eleanor.
That said...I wish they hadn't done the scene with the Dudley's returning to Hill House and being reunited with their kids...it made the house seem almost gracious, which was a direct contradiction to the themes of the series and everything that came before. I'd have edited two things out of it -- Steven Crain's line and those that walk it's halls walk together no longer alone, and the scene with the Dudley's. And just left us with Hugh, Olivia and Nell standing in the red room as the door slowly shuts on them, locking them inside it for an eternity.
This is a series I want to discuss to death. Because there's bits in it that are rather brilliant. And other's that..I think required a bit of tweaking (although I admittedly like melodrama.).