The Haunting Of Hill House: 5 reasons the show is also for non-horror fans

Netflix’s new Original horror series, The Haunting of Hill House, is an impressive series that works within the genre to innovate and make itself stand out as a horror show that can be enjoyed by fans and non-horror audiences alike.

While not being a fan of horror in anyway whatsoever, I was pleasantly surprised by my love for The Haunting Of Hill House. The series, headlined by Carla Gugino and created by Mike Flanagan, follows a family and how their experiences one summer in an old house ended up affecting the rest of their lives, relationships, and family dynamics.

While the show is supposed to be an all-out horror drama, and don’t get me wrong there’s a lot to be scared of here, it’s still a highly engaging generalized show. It needs to be watched for its characters, performances and innovative use of storytelling that can appeal to non-genre audiences.

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A familiar concept that allows the audience to fill in the blanks

For non-horror audiences, the premise of The Haunting Of Hill House is going to be one that is quite familiar, and very much a staple of horror; the haunted house. It’s what we decorate our houses as for Halloween. It’s a formula that’s seen many horror movies, or even standalone episodes in shows such as Supernatural. The haunted house is a very recognizable and familiar idea that casual audiences can be familiar with.

The makers of The Haunting of Hill House use this to their advantage by having the story be about a haunted house, but solely as a plot device, and not the plot itself. The story of the show is more about the family who spent a summer in that house. It’s about what they experience at this house that the series explores in the future when the kids of that family are all grown up. The narrative switches back and forth from the past to the present day, to unfold what happened, and how it affected all the characters involved.

Creator Mike Flanagan and the writers use the idea of the haunted house to have the audiences fill in the gaps of events, by insinuating ideas that we’re already used to being in the horror genre. ‘What happened in that house? Well, something with ghosts. Obviously’.

The meta-reference of horror within a horror

One of the kids who survived the literal haunting ends up growing up to become an actual horror writer. After a scary and traumatizing summer at Hill House, Steven Crain (Michiel Huisman), is now a struggling writer, who exploits his family’s experiences and trauma in that house for his own career; much to the anger and resentment of his siblings. The book of his family ends up launching a successful career for Steven as a horror writer.

As a means of his writing, Steven researches and meets with people claiming to have had supernatural experiences themselves, which he then debunks. So a horror show starts off with one of the characters essentially rationalizing and scoffing at supernatural experiences. And this is one of the lead characters. And this is only Episode 1.

In many ways, Steven mirrors that part of audiences who roll their eyes at and aren’t fans of horror. I have to confess that this character, and his views on ghosts, really spoke to me, given that I usually don’t watch horror due to the repetition of the same ol’ tropes and formulas. But this show is different.

The scares are atmospheric and not jump-scares

While an effective horror is one that scares and freaks the living daylights out of us, there are many ways of achieving this. The usual methods are through jump-scares; build-ups in a scene through music or camera work that results in dramatic events resulting in a fearful reaction. Or even a shocking thing that happens in a scene that’s otherwise calm and quiet; the unexpected scare. The other ways are more explicit, through graphic content such as scary ghosts, creepy settings, gore, and blood.

But The Haunting of Hill House is scary not because of what is happening on-screen, but rather how it’s happening and how it’s making us feel as it’s happening. The situations and how the characters deal with them, and the vibe that’s being presented on-screen is what’s really scary, and not isolated ‘scary’ events.

The show is very effective in creating and framing scenes in ways that enhance the experience. As the camera pans through a room, I’ve caught myself leaning to one side, hoping to glimpse more than what’s there, as if I was actually trying to peek into the next room to make sure it’s safe to enter.

The typical dysfunctional family, but with ghosts

The characters and writing of The Haunting Of Hill House are among the best things that I’ve ever seen in anything out of the horror genre. The entire premise of the show can be simplified as being the story about a dysfunctional family, with their drama and emotional baggage, that happens to have been traumatized by a haunted house.

The show expertly delves into the lives of the characters, their thoughts and emotions, relationships, and how they were affected by the events of their youth. Their relationships with one another is also a treat and can be incredibly relatable. Despite the setting of the larger genre story at play, the scenes of siblings bickering feel very much out of a usual family drama.

More than any other aspect of The Haunting of Hill House, it’s this aspect that is the easiest to watch and continue watching for.

Being a series helps

That fact that The Haunting of Hill House is a TV series and not a 2-hour movie really helps sell it to a non-horror audience. A movie needs to set up its characters and their dynamics in 10-15 minutes before jumping into the crazy supernatural horror elements. Whereas the long form storytelling aspect of being a Netflix show allows the audience get to know the characters, letting them become their own person, with their own histories and lives, before putting them in scary and horrifying situations.

The Haunting Of Hill House is a great watch and an incredibly well-made horror series. So much so that it definitely has broader appeal and can be very much enjoyed by a non-horror audience.

Are you a non-horror fan that was impressed by The Haunting Of Hill House? Let us know in the comments.