by Katelyn Lewis

“What new show could I possibly watch that is worth my time?” I thought to myself a few weeks ago. It was a brisk and chilly October evening, which made me want to watch something spooky. I propped up some fuzzy throw pillows behind me, seized my patterned pink blanket and turned on my Smart TV to Netflix. I went through my usual categories: Most Popular and Comedies. I couldn’t find anything that I was in the mood for; until I scrolled through the Recently Added category, where I found a brand new Netflix original series called The Haunting of Hill House.

 The Haunting of Hill House was released on October 12, 2018. The horror Netflix series consists of only ten episodes and one season. This fresh show is based upon the novel The Haunting of Hill Houseby Shirley Jackson, along with the 1999 movie The Haunting. The creator and director, forty-year-old Mike Flanagan, is also known for directing other frightening films such as Absentia, Oculus, Hush,Before I Wake, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and Gerald’s Game. He produced The Haunting of Hill Housewith Trevor Macy, Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey, and Meredith Averill, along with Paramount Television, Flanagan Film, and Amblin Television. The cast of this chilling series includes Kate Siegel, Elizabeth Reaser, Carla Gugino, Annabeth Gish, Michiel Huisman, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Henry Thomas, Timothy Hutton, and many others.

The Haunting of Hill Housetakes you back to the summer on 1992. The series follows the Crain family of seven, who lived in the decaying and haunted Hill House with creaky floors and gothic architecture. The Crain couple had planned to restore and flip the outdated house in hopes of selling it for a pretty penny by the end of the summer. The Crain children began to experience countless paranormal events. Every time one of the children would see something supernatural, the parents would assure them that it surely wasn’t real, although the parents knew that it was. One sudden dark night, their frantic father rushed the children to a hotel on the other side of town. The kids were startled; they had left their mother behind at the Hill House. Twenty-six years after the hauntings in the Hill House, the Crain siblings and their father reunite after the youngest sibling tragically dies in an abrupt incident. The hauntings begin to occur again and the family is astonished. Though there is much tension between the members of the Crain family, they have no choice but to stick together as their past strikes again.

In my opinion,The Haunting of Hill Houseis an excellent series. Mike Flanagan did an outstanding job of casting all different types of people in the series. The characters were very persuasive and showcased a lot of emotion.  There was creepy tension even without the usual suspenseful soundtracks leading up to peak moments. The series includes plenty of flashbacks of the haunting past in the Hill House and then suddenly returns to the present. This allows the audience to gradually fill in the blanks.

The themes of the first and only season include family, suspense, and confinement. Throughout the season, there are scenes that exemplify those themes. In one of the earliest episodes, the father, Hugh Crain, collected his children before rushing from the dangerous house. This shows how his kids are very important to him so he takes extreme measures to keep them safe. There are a lot of scenes that also exemplify the theme of suspense. The audience is left feeling suspenseful throughout the season, as there are many questions that are left unanswered until the end. For example, the Crain children were not able to open the “red room” which is the only room that wouldn’t open in the house, regardless of how many keys that were tried. This created suspense because the audience was left in the dark about what was in the room until the very end of the season. Another suspenseful theme was when Hugh Crain was gathering his children up to leave the house. As Hugh retrieves young Luke from his room, creaky footsteps are heard outside of the bedroom door. They remain quiet as the tall ghostly figure struggles to get the doorknob open. This creates a huge amount of suspense because the audience does not know what the floating man will do next. Lastly, the Haunting of Hill house created isolation. The house itself prevented the family from feeling normal as they experienced paranormal activities, which isolated them from reality. The Crain family were also confined throughout their lives, as supernatural creatures and incidents occurred even after they moved away from the Hill House.

Every episode of The Haunting of Hill Housegrew more interesting and I was intrigued. Each one ended with a cliffhanger, which made it hard to stop binge-watching. One episode turned into two and two episodes turned into three. I had to force myself to stop watching so that I would have more episodes to watch the following day.

  The Haunting of Hill Househas caught the attention of well-known figures. On October 16th, 2018, the almighty Stephen King tweeted, “THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, revised and remodeled by Mike Flanagan. I don’t usually care for this kind of revisionism, but this is great. Close to a work of genius, really. I think Shirley Jackson would approve, but who knows for sure.” On September 25, 2018, Merrill Barr, who writes for Forbesstated, “The Haunting of Hill Houseis decent and very much strives for a more classical horror vibe relying less on gore and more on supernatural scares.”

Once I had finished the only series of The Haunting of Hill House, I decided to find another series to indulge in. I came across Stranger Things, which I had heard positive things about before and decided to give it a try. After all, it was said to have a spooky vibe as well.

 Stranger Thingsis a Netflix original series that was released on July 15, 2016. It is a science fiction, horror, and supernatural series. It currently consists of seventeen episodes and two seasons.Stranger Thingswas created by twin brothers, Matt and Ross Duffer. The Duffer brothers produced the series with Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, Karl Gajdusek, Shannon Tsang, Brian Wright, Cindy Holland, Iain Paterson, and Matt Thunell. 21 Laps Entertainment and Monkey Massacre are the production companies for Stranger Things. The Stranger Thingscast is very extensive and includes well-known stars Millie Bobby Brown, Winona Ryder, Shawn Levy, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Caleb McLaughlin, Sean Astin, Sadie Sink, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, and many more.

Stranger Thingswas inspired by a 1943 government conspiracy called the Montauk Project. The Montauk Project is a theory in which the government conducted secret experiments on the Montauk Air Force Station in Long Island, New York. The conspiracy theory states that the government kidnapped children from Long Island in order to conduct experiments on them and develop psychological warfare. The Montauk Air Force Station is also said to have done bizarre research on time travel. In addition to the theory, in 1982, a man named Preston B. Nichols wrote a book,“ The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time” in which he claims that he was a victim in these experiments.

 Stranger Thingstakes place in the 1980s, in the small fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana. Very strange incidents in this town lead up to the disappearance of a child named Will. Will’s friends, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas go on a hunt for Will, although the town’s sheriff had strictly demanded that they stay away from the case. Along the way, they find new friends to help them out, including a bald girl named Eleven, who has incredible powers. As time passes, more and more odd incidents occur throughout the town, ripping the community apart little by little. Supernatural occurrences start to happen every day in Hawkins. First, a twelve-year-old boy goes missing from his home. Then, a naive teenage girl goes missing at a party. Hawkins residents claim to see supernatural things. A random body is found shriveled up in a lake. The state police lie to the public about a false death. Will’s mom is said to have gone crazy as she rips apart her house to try and communicate with her son, not knowing for sure if he is dead or not. The sheriff and his department are overwhelmed, as things like this don’t happen in their small town.

I must say, Stranger Thingswas a great series for those who enjoy eighties-based television. I personally felt that it was comparable to the 1985 movie The Goonies, in which a group of young boys go on an adventure to explore their curiosities.

The main recurring themes of the first season are mystery and suspense.In one of the earliest episodes, Will suddenly disappears and nobody can find a trace of him. The town is left clueless. This is just one example of how mystery is shown throughout the series. There are also many suspenseful moments that lead up to moments that stun the audience. For example, when Will’s friends are in the dark quiet woods searching for him near where his crickety bicycle was found, there is a shocking moment when Eleven pops out in front of them out of nowhere. These two themes are shown throughout the season frequently, keeping the audience on the edge of their seat.

WatchingStranger Thingsteleported me back to the tubular eighties; a time period that really interests me. The big wooden television boxes with antennas, “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by The Clash, the grainy filters over the scenes, and the Star Wars toys created heavy nostalgic vibes. Not only do I feel like I am back in time, but this is a popular concept that is well known to the extensive fan base of Stranger Things.

Stranger Thingshas grasped the attention of relevant figures.  Like The Haunting of Hill House, Stephen King has also tweeted about Stranger Things. On July 17, 2016, Stephen King tweeted, “Watching STRANGER THINGS is looking watching Steve King’s Greatest Hits. I mean that in a good way.” Hilary Duff tweeted on August 8, 2016, “Today at work should be interesting … I stayed up all night watching #strangerthings wow is it ever addicting @netflix.” Emily Nussbaum, a journalist for The New Yorker, reviewed Stranger Thingson August 22, 2016, and stated, “ It’s spooky but not scary, escapist but not empty. It’s a genre throwback to simpler times, with heroes, villains, and monsters. Yet it’s also haunting, and has a rare respect for both adult grief and childhood suffering. It’s an original.”

 The Haunting of Hill Houseand the first season of Stranger Thingsboth have many similarities. They are alike in the genre. I find both of them extremely suspenseful due to constant cliffhangers. The average running times of each are relatively close. The Haunting of Hill House average episode runs from 42 to 71 minutes, while the episodes in Stranger Thingstend to run between 42 to 62 minutes. Each of these Netflix originals have provided me with moments when I covered my eyes with my pink patterned blanket frantically or screamed “Don’t do it!” at the screen. I must say that I was never really much a fan of horror shows or movies but I am a fan of these two shows.

The Haunting of Hill House and Stranger Things do have some differences between them. They both are considered supernatural, however, Stranger Thingsis considered more as science-fiction whileThe Haunting of Hill Houseis considered horror. To break it down a little more, The Haunting of Hill House is Netflix’s first true classic horror series, whereas Stranger Thingsis a horror-science hybrid. Stranger Things deals with supernatural creatures, while The Haunting of Hill House deals with ghosts and hauntings. As for the overall feel of Stranger Things, it has more humor thanThe Haunting of Hill House. The Haunting of Hill Houselooks back on the past in a leery and dark way, unlikeStranger Thingswhich looks on the past with nostalgia.

Stranger Thingshas been out since 2016, whereas The Haunting of Hill Househas been out only for a few weeks. Stranger Thingshas raked up Emmy Awards, Kids’ Choice Awards, Guild Awards, MTV Movie Awards, and more. The Haunting of Hill Househas not yet been nominated for any awards. The Haunting of Hill Houseis newborn so I am not surprised that Stranger Thingsis more known to the public eye. In my personal unpopular opinion, Stranger Things is a teensy bit overrated and I hope that The Haunting of Hill House will get a turn in the well-deserved spotlight.

Although Stranger Thingsis more known because it has been around longer, I believe that The Haunting of Hill Housewill quickly catch up to it. According to Rotten Tomatoes, The Haunting of Hill Househas a critic rating of 91% out of 58 critics. Also according to Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of audience members out of 907 enjoyed The Haunting of Hill House. This creepy series has only been out for a few weeks. As for Stranger Things, which has been out since 2016, critics on Rotten Tomatoes have rated it as 95%, with the specific numbers and audience unknown.

As I log back into my Netflix account, I see that I’ve completed season one of Stranger Thingsand season one of The Haunting of Hill House. I’m not afraid to dive into a new genre of television and movies now because of these two series. I can now answer my initial question; What show could I possibly watch that is worth my time? The Haunting of Hill House and Stranger Things. Not only did I find one magnificent series, but two. If you ever get some free time and you find yourself in the mood for a little spooky entertainment, I highly recommend both The Haunting of Hill Houseand Stranger Things.