Haunting of Hill House (No Spoilers)

awookiee

Sorry to create a thread on a 2 year old show when essentially season 2 just came out but I'm now just watching it for the 1st time and want it give some thoughts.

I'm 5 episodes in and I am absolutely blown away with the quality The Haunting of Hill House is written, scripted, and acted. I knew it was talked up a lot when it first came out but I was never really drawn to it. I'm not typically a horror fan but this show is 100% a character drama 1st and adds that horror element after. 

I especially want to call out the use of objects, motions, and sounds to transition between past and present. I've never seen a series or movie use it consistently throughout like this show does. I'll be caught up on Hill House by the end of the day and be starting Bly Manor either tonight or tomorrow. Can't wait to listen to Aron and Cecily's coverage during their spooktacular from 2018 and I have to imagine Bly Manor will be part of their coverage for this year

JoshTheBlack

Oh man. Episode 6 is a doozy!  It was shot to appear as though it was one take. (It wasn't, really, but they did a great job disguising the cuts!)

Truly a work of art!

I'm 7 episodes in to season 2. It's excellent.  I don't think it lives up to my memory of season 1, but it doesn't fall very short of it. 

I'm in for whatever Mike Flanagan throws at us next. 

awookiee

Yeah episode 6 was shot extremely well. The scene that really stood out was when they just kept circling the entire group of them arguing over and over and over. I'm with you on Mike Flanagan and I'm not typically a big horror fan but if something gets enough hype I have to check it out. Glad to hear Bly Manor is good. Fun fact... Mike Flanagan is married to the actress that plays Theo. 

asmallcat

I LOVED Hill House, even though I thought they fumbled the ending a bit, but I generally give horror movies/shows more of a pass on that as it seems to me that satisfying endings in horror are more difficult than any other genre. The tension building and ghost design was absolutely top notch. They managed to make a skeleton legitimately spooky. A skeleton! The cartoon Halloween monster! Just a top tier show IMO.

I am liking Bly Manor less, although still liking it. I'm 5 episodes in, and (this is gonna sound like a weird complaint) I feel like they're doing too much character work and not enough tension and atmosphere, and the ghosts this time around are far less interesting. It looks like it's ramping up, so hopefully it finishes with a band, but definitely not living up to season 1 IMO. 

bizmarkiefader

asmallcat said:

I am liking Bly Manor less, although still liking it. I'm 5 episodes in, and (this is gonna sound like a weird complaint) I feel like they're doing too much character work and not enough tension and atmosphere, and the ghosts this time around are far less interesting. It looks like it's ramping up, so hopefully it finishes with a band, but definitely not living up to season 1 IMO. 

Bly is a character drama with some ghost stuff in it, even more so than Hill House. I liked it but it helped going in knowing it was going to be slower and more about sad interconnected love stories than trying to be scary. I'm sure there will be a spoiler thread at some point but I bet it will be really divisive and people going in expecting The Conjuring are going to be disappointed.

JoshTheBlack

I finished it over this week.  I really liked Bly Manor.  It is not horror.  It is a love story/character drama with horror elements, but it is NOT horror.

awookiee

asmallcat said:

I LOVED Hill House, even though I thought they fumbled the ending a bit, but I generally give horror movies/shows more of a pass on that as it seems to me that satisfying endings in horror are more difficult than any other genre. The tension building and ghost design was absolutely top notch. They managed to make a skeleton legitimately spooky. A skeleton! The cartoon Halloween monster! Just a top tier show IMO.

I am liking Bly Manor less, although still liking it. I'm 5 episodes in, and (this is gonna sound like a weird complaint) I feel like they're doing too much character work and not enough tension and atmosphere, and the ghosts this time around are far less interesting. It looks like it's ramping up, so hopefully it finishes with a band, but definitely not living up to season 1 IMO. 

I am at the same point in Bly Manor, 5 episodes in and I think it's good but not great. Still not 100% sure how I feel about using some of the same actors for different characters. I think Victoria Pedretti (Nell from Hill House) is playing Dani well but it just feels weird. I'm not really watching the series for the horror side of it so the character over horror focus isn't bothering me but Bly Manor just doesn't have it's hooks in me the way Hill House did immediately. 

Cecily

JoshTheBlack said:

I finished it over this week.  I really liked Bly Manor.  It is not horror.  It is a love story/character drama with horror elements, but it is NOT horror.

It's a *love* story.

asmallcat

So, I finished this over the weekend (had family visit for like a week - don't worry it was my brother and he did the whole test before he left, test when he got here, quarantine until results, etc - and we had already started and he hadn't so I couldn't really watch it while he was here), and once I accepted it was not a horror story in the same way Hill House was, I quite enjoyed it. Lots of great character moments. The ending felt a little to neat and wrapped up, but still a very good follow up to a great first season. Excited for whatever this show does next. 

awookiee

asmallcat said:

So, I finished this over the weekend (had family visit for like a week - don't worry it was my brother and he did the whole test before he left, test when he got here, quarantine until results, etc - and we had already started and he hadn't so I couldn't really watch it while he was here), and once I accepted it was not a horror story in the same way Hill House was, I quite enjoyed it. Lots of great character moments. The ending felt a little to neat and wrapped up, but still a very good follow up to a great first season. Excited for whatever this show does next. 

I will certainly be following what Mike Flanagan does in the future. After seeing the whole story played out I agree, it was a very good story with very compelling characters but I still can't put it on the same pedestal that I put Hill House on. It was still high quality TV and storytelling but didn't live up to the quality that Hill House was delivered at.