Stephy Watches The Haunting of Hill House

 Hello There!

So, it's Spooky Month. Which I figured that means I should talk about spooky things. Because... That's what people do? Do people really just watch and read horror stuff in October?

Anyway!

The Haunting of Hill House

Yes, I did screen shot the show's page on Netflix. I don't own the DVDs (yet) so this was the best option...

How can a house, just a collection of bricks, wood, and glass have that much power over people?

Dr. Montague

I will try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible.

About/Summary

The Haunting of Hill House is a horror mini-series created and directed by Mike Flanagan. It originally aired on Netflix in 2018. 

The show follows the Crain family (parents, Hugh and Olivia, and their five children, Steven, Shirley, Theo, Nell, and Luke), who in 1992 lived in Hill House while Hugh and Olivia, were fixing it up to sell it. Which would have been okay, if the house wasn't evil and full of ghosts. 26 years later the family is still poorly dealing with the aftermath of that summer.

Content/Trigger Warnings

Animal Death

Suicide

Sex

Child Sexual Assault

Drug Use

Major Character Death

Child Death

Murder

Blood and Gore

Tropes

I was going to list all the tropes that I noticed while watching the show, but... my observational skills are sometimes shit. And there are so many tropes that I don't even know. So, here's a link to the TVtropes listing of all the tropes in the show. I'm just going to talk about a few of them.

Character Focus - I really liked how most of this show's episodes focused on one character. You got five episodes for each of the kids, and then two episodes for the parents. It really let you get to know all of the characters and see what they went through.

Dark is not Evil - The house is haunted, but not all the ghosts are evil. And I like that. Why do ghosts always gotta be the bad guys? Sometimes they're just dead people who like to chill out and be spooky.

Reusable Lighter Toss - I fucking hate this trope. Like, do these people not realize how expensive Zippo lighters are? I don't care how cool it looks. Also, Luke is the one who just tosses the lighter away. I do not believe that man has a lighter. Guess he could have bought it on the way... Ya know, the trope makes sense if you headcanon that Luke bought the lighter on the way... 

Characters/Casting

All of these characters are flawed as shit. They're likable, but also very frustrating. Casting was great. And the child actors did a fabulous job. Which is usually pretty hit-and-miss. No insult to child actors, but sometimes they're just not that remarkable. But these kids did a fantastic job. 

Atmosphere/Setting

The whole show is spooky as fuck. Even scenes that aren't supposed to be that spooky have an unsettling feeling. 

The major setting is Hill House, which is fantastic looking. And spooky as fuck at the same time. Fantastically spooky.

Adaptation?

This is inspired by the book by Shirley Jackson. I haven't read the book so I have no thoughts on this topic really. 

Plot

The plot is twisty and turny. There is a nonlinear narrative, which means it bounces around in the timeline and you just have to keep up. Which wasn't too hard as long as you pay attention. 

How diverse is it?

Slightly diverse. 

The main characters (The Crain Family) are all white. One is queer though, so yay for that. A lot of the side characters aren't white people. 

Costuming

Costuming was good. I mean, it was a modern(ish) story so there wasn't a lot of elaborate costumes. Aside from a few of the ghosts. Which, Poppy's outfit was *chef's kiss* As was Nell's wedding dress. And the costuming for the 1992 bits was pretty spot on. 

Overall Thoughts

I loved this show. And it is definitely one that I can't put on as background noise because it always sucks me in. One reason being the hidden ghosts. Here and here are videos about those. Every time I watch it I try to see how many I can spot. Another reason is that it is a very good fucking show. But sad. Seriously. This is not a happy show. It is sad. Very sad. It is more sad than scary most of the time. In my head, it is filed under "spooky show that made me cry". 

One of my favorite scenes is the "did you just punch me in the book?" scene. It makes me laugh every time. The dialogue. Theo and Shirley's facial expressions. The fact that it is a little bit of comedy in the middle of some drama-heavy spooky shit. The whole scene is just *chef's kiss*

That's all for this one. See y'all on Saturday.

Six Streaming Recommendations

 I am still not sure about that title... But I got nothing else right now so I'm gonna go with it for now.

I stream a lot of stuff. I have access to a satellite but I mostly just watch Schitt's Creek repeats on it when our internet goes out. I also have a massive amount of DVDs and blu-rays. But honestly, I stream more than anything because it is more convenient. 

I thought about doing a post for every cool show, movie, and YouTube channel I come across, but I wasn't sure I could stretch me rambling about one thing into a long enough post. So! A list post!

Here's how it's going to work. I will list six things, what platforms you can stream them on, and then I will ramble a bit about them. Hope you enjoy it and maybe find something new to watch.

CJUGames (Linky Link! )

Available on: YouTube

Warnings: He plays a lot of horror games. So, any warnings you think those might have, apply.

CJU (I think his name is Chris, but there are already too many Chrises in my head so it will always be CJU to me) does video game playthroughs. Mostly horror games. His earliest videos don't have commentary, but I much prefer the ones with commentary. He's a funny guy. He has the same sort of sense of humor as me, so it's almost like watching a friend play the game. He does entire playthroughs from beginning to end. And most of the time he reads all the notes and such that you come across in games, which I like. I especially like his videos because I DO NOT like playing horror games for the most part. Too scary. But I love the plots and such for so many of those games. So, I want to see what happens, but my pansy ass will never get far enough in the games to actually know what happens. I enjoy all of his playthroughs, even if the game is shit or something I'm really not interested in. I highly recommend checking out his channel. He is funny, well-spoken, and has a nice voice. And it is fucking hilarious watching him slowly lose his mind during some games. Mother is a good example of this.

Hawkeye

Available on: Disney+

Warnings: Violence. Previous major character death

I thought about starting off with something else from Disney+. There are so many great options on there and I wasn't sure if I wanted to start with something from the MCU. But fuck it. Y'all are gonna have to deal with me gushing about Hawkeye.

Clint Barton became one of my favorite comic book characters around the time that the first Avengers movie came out. Before that, I barely knew he existed. Now the boy is in my top five comic book characters. 

I started reading the Matt Fraction Hawkeye run and was gone for the dumpster fire that is Clinton Francis Barton. And the more I watched the MCU the more I was sad that they weren't utilizing him at all. Much less showing off his character and abilities.

And then the show came out.

Oh. My. Gods.

There was just so much good with the show. Katie Kate and Lucky and the Tracksuit Mafia and the trick arrows. There was humor and heartbreaking moments that were both well done and not overused. 

And Laura Barton! Oh, that woman deserves so much love. She is so awesome and the show lets that awesomeness shine with little screen time.

The show gave me the Hawkeyes I have been wanting for years. And I was very happy during every episode. Even while I was crying at a few spots.

Harley Quinn

Available On: HBOMax

Warnings: A lot of profanity. Mentions of bestiality (Batman fucks bats, yo). So much violence. Temporary character death.

This show is one of the best things I've seen in a while. It has two seasons as of this writing and both are fucking great. Animation is great. Voice acting is spot on. Plot, characters and all of that is fantastic. And the lack of Joker is just the best. I mean, he's there, but not often enough that I got annoyed. I am so tired of seeing Joker in fucking everything...

The show is hilarious and fun. Not "too dark" as people say a lot of DC stuff is. Though, it is very, very, very Not For Children. Unless you want your kid to know that Batman fucks bats...

Only Murders in the Building

Available On: Hulu

Warnings: Murder. It is in the title, guys.

This show is about a murder. A murder in a building. Shocking, I know.

But seriously, this show is about Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez) who live in an apartment building where a murder happens one evening. For various reasons, the trio of true crime podcast fans decide to do a podcast about the murder. Hilarity and mystery follow.

I was worried at first that Selena Gomez wouldn't be able to shine next to the legends that are Steve Martin and Martin Short. I enjoyed her immensely in Wizards of Waverly Place years ago and didn't want her to fade into the background of this show. Which she did not. 

The show is a comedy and murder mystery and it blended both together fabulously.

Inside Job

(sorry, no trailer for this one, have a picture of my kiddo with their stuffed Mothman, for reasons. Mothman reasons.)

Available On: Netflix

Warnings: Drug use. Some violence. Some death of minor characters.

I'm not gonna lie, I watched this show for Mothman. I'm a weirdo from West Virginia that is obsessed with cryptids. I saw a trailer and thought it looked fun and planned to watch it at some point. Then I saw that the Mothman was going to be in it and I went from "I'll watch that at some point" to watching the entire series within a week.

The show is an animated workplace comedy. The workplace just happens to be a government agency that keeps all those wild conspiracy theories (which happen to be true) under wraps.

the show is a delight. Well written and quite amusing. Characters are fun and not annoying. 

Downside is that Mothman only shows up for, like, one episode. Need more of him.

Murder, She Wrote

Available On: Peacock

Warnings: Murder. Lots of murder.

I never really watched Murder, She Wrote when I was younger. But, then I started watching Pushing Up Roses talk about the show and I just had to watch it. Got the Peacock app just so I could watch it. Though, I do use the free version. I can deal with ads for Jessica Fletcher outsmarting everyone.

For those that are unaware, this show is about Jessica Fletcher, a murder mystery writer, who just keeps stumbling across murders that she, for some reason, helps solve.

The show is surprisingly wholesome considering at least one murder takes place per episode. Jessica has various nieces and nephews and friends and former students that she visits. And she is a kindly aunt type of person to damn near everyone. 

Some parts of the show aren't super believable, but c'mon, it's a fun little show. Also, I adore the friendship trio of Jessica, Seth, and Amos. Was sad when Amos left. But his replacement is pretty good as well. 

That's all I got this week. Let me know if you liked this format or if I should just ramble about one thing at a time.