Now that it's October, you can expect plenty of new spooky content to fill your evenings. One that horror fans are particularly excited about is The Haunting Of Hill House, a new Netflix original series dropping on Oct. 12. And if you think the title sounds a little familiar, you're probably wondering: Is The Haunting Of Hill House based on a book?
Your suspicions are correct! The Netflix series is based on Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel of the same name, according to Deadline. However, the upcoming series is not the ghost story's first jaunt to the screen. There were 1963 and 1999 feature films based on the book, both of which were called The Haunting, Deadline reported. There are also two stage versions of the book: one written by F. Andrew Leslie in 1964, as per Google Books, and a 2015 adaptation by Anthony Neilson, which was written for a production the Liverpool Playhouse in England, BroadwayWorld reported.
Jackson's book tells the story of four people investigating a haunted mansion called Hill House for signs of spirits, according to Amazon. Netflix's The Haunting Of Hill House turns the four main characters into a group of five siblings who grew up together in the famously haunted Hill House, according to IGN.
The trailer, which Netflix shared to YouTube last month, starts out by showing the main characters as children. “What if I dream you sent us away into the dark and we get hurt?” one of the kids asks her mother, as eerie horror movie music plays in the background. "And my heart breaks right in half and I can't feel anything happening?"
“What if I’m so sad and scared of the dark out there that I put poison in me for years and years until my blood turns into poison?” another child is heard saying in the trailer, as the music picks up. The trailer then transitions to showing four of the children as very disturbed adults who have returned to Hill House after one of the siblings passing away, according to IGN.
"We're not like any other family. We're different. 'Cause of where we grew up. Hill House," one of the siblings says as an adult, later in the trailer. "Your mother, she was not crazy. Neither was your sister, neither was your brother, neither are you," an older man tells them. "It's that house."
The series, which will consist of 10 episodes, was created, directed and executive-produced by Mike Flanagan, Filmoria reported. Flanagan has worked on horror films including Hush, Absentia, Gerald’s Game, and Before I Wake, according to IMDb, so he definitely knows what he's doing here. The Haunting of Hill House has a powerhouse cast, including Carla Gugino (aka the mom from Spy Kids!), Timothy Hutton, Michiel Huisman, Elizabeth Reaser, Henry Thomas, Mckenna Grace, Violet McGraw, Kate Siegel, Victoria Pedretti, Lulu Wilson, and Paxton Singleton, Den of Geek reported.
If you're looking for a scary way to spend your Halloween, The Haunting of Hill House is sure to shake you to your core. Maybe don't eat any popcorn during this one, guys.
