5 Ways The Haunting Of Hill House Was Underrated (& 5 It’s Overrated)

It’s difficult to create a horror tv series that can keep the suspense and tension lasting over multiple episodes. As such, sometimes, when a series does accomplish this feat, they sometimes go unnoticed and slowly rise to become underrated, such as The Haunting Of Hill House.

While this terrifying Netflix original has gained a fan base, it’s accomplishments and amazing scares go unnoticed by many. Yet, there are some instances throughout the season where many wonder if Hill House isn’t underrated but instead overrated. Here are five ways The Haunting Of Hill House was underrated and five ways it’s overrated.

10 Underrated: Storyline

The number of horror films and shows that have been released over the years is staggering, with new properties coming out basically every month. However, not all these films and series carry new stories, and instead utilize tired old ideas and tropes.

Haunting Of Hill House, however, has the advantage of having a unique spin on an overdone story. Hill House takes the tired out ghost story trope and spins it on its head, creating a family drama hidden within a masterfully done horror tale.

9 Overrated: Ghost’s Backstory

Despite its unique spin on a ghost story, this also causes Hill House to suffer from the issues of backstories, specifically with its ghosts. Generally, filmmakers want there to be a sense of mystery to its ghostly villains, leaving the audience’s own imagination to fill in the gaps.

Yet, despite leaving some definite gaps in the ghosts’ backstories, there are perhaps too many gaps. Some ghosts are explained while others leave more questions than answers for many viewers, taking the horror away from the mysterious specters.

8 Underrated: Unique Scares

Crafting a good scare used to be what horror films and series thrived themselves on for years, creating unique scares that no one would see coming. As the years wore on, Hollywood slowly began to rely on cheap scares such as jump scares to drive scary stories.

Luckily, Hill House manages to avoid this stumbling block for the most part. Every hall and room of this haunted house and tale are filled with fascinating scares that keep the suspense up and hidden ghosts that leave viewers white-knuckling their seats.

7 Overrated: Typical Scares

Now, despite being able to leap over the pit that so many films fell into it, the unique scares of Hill House cover up some of the lesser ones, ones that many ignore or overlook. While this would seem like a positive, it actually has a negative effect on the show.

Burying things like jump scares or fake out spooks tends can be fine on their own, but when they start to pile up and nearly overtake the unique ones, then that’s a problem that must be dealt with.

6 Underrated: Two Storms

Hollywood is always pushing how far they can go with different filmmaking techniques, whether through editing, effects, or camera usage. Understandably, the long take, an uncut shot, is without a doubt the pinnacle 0f pushing filmmaking and something only a few can pull off well.

In the sixth episode, “Two Storms”, the Crain family reunites for a funeral in a masterfully shot episode that has multiple shots that are truly works of art, with a nearly fifteen-minute long take kicking the episode off in glorious fashion.

5 Overrated: Side Characters

Without a doubt, the main characters are key in driving a story forward and without them, a show or movie would simply fall apart. Yet, while the main characters of Hill House strive to make the show the best it can be, some of the side characters manage to pull the showdown.

Although many like a few of the side characters, from the groundskeepers to even the ghosts, sometimes these side characters can steal the limelight, pulling attention away from the intended story and muddying the intended purpose.

4 Underrated: Bent-Neck Lady

So many times in pieces of horror stories, the same old monsters seem to appear time after time, but not in the way one would think. While the likes of Jason aren’t popping up in every horror film, characters who carry the same attributes are always appearing with little difference.

That being said, The Bent-Neck Lady is a horror creature unlike any seen before. A terrifying apparition that haunts the youngest of the Crains, Bent-Neck Lady is a grotesque and horrifying monster that horror fans have come to love.

3 Overrated: Glaring Questions

Even the most fulfilling and well thought out films and series will still leave viewers with questions, thoughts of either what will happen next or rather, why certain characters didn’t do something differently. On their own, these questions mean nothing.

When they begin to stack up and grow, however, the questions can grow over time to the point of swallowing what was once a perfect story and smashing it to pieces, ruining it for many, a problem Hill House sometimes encounters.

2 Underrated: Emotional Weight

It’s easy to create a scary movie, less difficult than one may think. However, to make a horror movie that does more than scare, that manages to convey emotions besides horror and fear, truly makes for a fantastic horror tale.

While the scares allow Hill House to thrive and grow, the emotional weight behind the Crain family drama propels the story forward. By the time the story reaches its climax, viewers expecting to be screaming in fear find themselves shedding a tear at the family coming together.

1 Overrated: Abrupt Ending

Usually, ending a season is among the most important things to deal with in a show, something that can either make or break. When Hill House reached it’s season one finale, many deemed it a perfect ending and yet, overlooked the abruptness about it.

The show, although handling the emotion and drama better than most, seemed to bring the terror to a screeching halt towards the end, ending the horror without any real explanation and simply jumping to the end, an act that hopefully, the second season won’t repeat.

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