#Hill House

[wistfulpoltergeist]

Episode 3

Hill House was deserted. Nevertheless, Amadeo couldn't ease the feeling of being watched.

The manor, with its transfixing, cumbersome interior impending over him, seemed watchful under its disguise of silent sleeping.

Anxious to dispel the idea, Amadeo gave himself a quick tour.

He opened as many curtains as he found to let in some light.

Eventually, he lost his way in the labyrinth of rooms inside rooms and suddenly walked out to the entrance hall from where he started.

Strange... I could swear I was on the other side of the house. 

Cold sweat ran down Amadeo’s chest, and the hair on the back of his neck stood up.

Despite the golden rays of twilight seeping through the windows, the interior stood dim and dusky. Shadows crept into the corners and the hollow doorways gaped at him in suspense.

Amadeo turned his gaze upstairs, imagining he saw someone standing there with his hand resting on the balustrade.

That was just a picture on the wall.

♫The Cure - Lullaby♫

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[eggsaladstain]

thinking about how mike flanagan's first netflix series ended with the crain family together, both in death and in life

and his last netflix series ended with the entire usher bloodline 6 feet under, buried side by side (with lenore in the same row as madeline and roderick instead of the row below with frederick and the others) but no more a family in death than they were in life

the haunting of hill house and the fall of the house of usher feel very much like two sides of the same coin - a home built with love will stand for centuries, but a house built without that foundation will crumble and leave no survivors

[mobydyke]

[sexting] no live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.

[rorytelling]

Leave it to Mike Flanagan to pump out a masterpiece every Halloween and then disappear for a year

[kkillustration]

I’m staying at Hill House. Wish you were here!

[jijingka]

i’ve been reading the haunting of hill house 🫣

[mikelogan]

No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within. It had stood so for a hundred years before my family moved in, and it might stand for a hundred more.

[lovelaceisntdead]

Fuck it Hill House titties get their own post.

[madamairlock]

It's been five years and Theo's breakdown in the grass because she can't feel anything is still one of the most heartbreakingly relatable things I have ever seen in my life.

[thatweirdgirlyousatnexttoinmath]

It's been almost five years since The Haunting of Hill House came out on Netflix. And it has irrevocably changed my life.

The depiction of grief. Addiction. Depression. Loss. Identity. Family relationships. Family dynamics. Healing your inner child. Having to deal with your inner child. The fact that in some ways you never really grow up, you're that exact same person inside that is dealing with all these increasingly complex and difficult things, trying hard to not let the child in you react because you know it shouldn't.

Thinking about Theo taking her gloves off. Nell going to therapy, putting in work, and still having her demons chase her around all the way to the end. Shirley's entire life and career being based around wanting to help people in their darkest moments the way someone helped her (though isn't that what they all do, too? Especially Theo). Luke as the youngest, being left behind or not believed and eventually having to find ways to self-soothe, which as an adult are not as health-friendly as other options out there. But it's what he had to do to cope. And Steve... everyone knows a Steve.

I know people have commented before about the five Crain siblings and the five stages of grief. But they also each experience those themselves, and in some ways the five of them simply display how much grief and living can do to a person. Juxtaposing the entire modern part of the series with them as children reminded me how much the things I do now can also be drawn back to little Me. The decisions I make, what scares me, who I reach out to. What haunts me? I may not have a big scary terrifying Death House in my past, but I mean... we've all got our version of a big scary terrifying Death House.

The tragedy of Hill House, the complicated love that's shown, the connections and relationships we have with our families, the world, ourselves. I cannot, will not, should not, would not forget it.

[wistfulpoltergeist]

Episode 4

Silly country superstitions. They’re getting on my nerves. It's just a house, a grandiose old, creaky house. No more, no less.

Still, he jumped with his heart pounding in his ear when a car signalled outside. His first thought was, “Rogers! They must have remembered leaving the doors open and came to check on that.”

He rushed outside, surprisingly fast, as if running away. From what?

A 1983 ochre Ford truck parked beside Amadeo’s BMW Alpina, and a strong-built brunette in glasses stood out of the car, watching him with concern. He held a smartphone as if about to hang up on someone.

“Hi, glad you’re back. My guests are just about to arrive,” Amadeo greeted them, panting.

“Amadeo Goldfield?” the brunette inquired.

Another, taller man, came out of Ford and banged the door shut.

“We are your guests.” His voice came in a low bass.

The rock version of the one in glasses, he carried long, wavy, brown hair and a wild squint...

♫Ray Parker Jr. - Ghostbusters♫

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[druidcore]

don't mind me just getting emotional about the way art makes echoes and like lenore's bravery saving lives in the years to come, edgar allen poe's art, which was inspired by the artists before him, inspires art that will inspire art that will inspire art –– that forms a bloodline of its own, traceable for history and far more lasting than money ever could be.

[persephone-plasmids]

I feel like Hill House and House of Usher are teaching the same moral using opposite techniques.

[thatsashitplan]

[mortal-song]

thinking about hill house, “no live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed by some to dream,” and the way this became the foundation of every mike flanagan series since. these characters exist under conditions of grief in all its forms. that’s their reality. grief for the dead, grief for the living, grief for themselves, for the dreams laid to rest, the hopes never realized… in hill house, every sibling dreams of something better. they dream of a life — or a death — in which they are unburdened. the shape of this wish is different for each of them, but the wish itself is omnipresent. as kids it manifested in each variation of the red room, something they could “live” in. as adults it manifested as the ghosts they choose to ignore, the ghosts that heal them once they’re seen.

then you have bly manor, where the dream remains the same but the angle and approach are new. hannah dreams just so she can be seen in death. she dreams of the life she could have had with owen, of the love that life left unfulfilled so she plays it out as a ghost. and this tethers her to the physical realm until her ghost, her wish, is acknowledged. rebecca regrets. rebecca is an outlier. she regrets the nature of her death and the life that was stolen from her, but in her death she dreams for those she can push away from her own fate. dani and jamie dream of a life in which they are together, unharmed, and they get to revel in this for a while, and it’s good and it’s peaceful until fate rears its head. but the wish was seen, and so the regret doesn’t exist. hill house says “you have to live / there is no without, i am not gone.” and bly manor says “here is how to live again, even though our roads will meet at the same place.”

and then in the midnight club, this theme persists. and it persists. these kids all exist with the knowledge that they soon won’t. so they dream, they tell stories every night and live out their hopes, put pieces of themselves into the world just so that these pieces can stick around after they’re gone. hill house says “a ghost is a wish / we are all stories in the end,” and the midnight club responds with “a story never dies.” and that’s just how these shows are now. hill house laid the foundations, and every show of mike’s now stands on them. these narratives all haunt each other. if one character starts a thought, a character in a different story will finish it. if one character can’t remain within a dream, a character in another story will live and die in it. the dreams are always different, the grief is always different, but the foundations are the same and the end result is, too: live — choose love and live until your soul is taken. despite, despite, despite.

nobody can exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality, so they dream instead,

[mikelogan]

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE (2018) dir. Mike Flanagan

Henry Thomas as Hugh Crain requested by @jera-stargazer