I guess we should avoid open spoilers for some times. I’ve only seen the first episode, but I can say that it was really good. I loved Hill House when it dropped and have been looking forward to this one ever since.
Anyone else start watching?
I just added it to my watchlist about 4 minutes ago. Good timing for the thread.
I’m going to change the Title to [No Spoilers]
It’s on the list. I’m not a big horror aficionado (I’m too much of a wimp) but I loved the Haunting of Hill House, so I’m willing to give it a shot.
I watched the first episode and liked it. It was slow but it was good. A building sense of creepiness.
Just saw it pop up on my Netflix home page last night. I will start watching today during my lunch break. I loved the Hill House series, hope this is just as good.
3rd episode seems extra slow. But still watching.
It does seem slow to me as well. We’re up to episode 5 and it all just seems like set up, set up, set up, with a little bit of creepy stuff thrown in and the creepy stuff hasn’t been all that scary so far, imo. I’m enjoying it and my wife and I are trying to guess what’s going on but it hasn’t been creepy AF like Hill House was.
I’ve seen four of them and so far, I’m waiting for a massive “bent neck lady” type reveal or development.
Nothing yet.
100% agree.
I can’t get past Elliot from E.T. talking like Alfred Hitchcock.
I was literally (yes, I know how to properly use that word) going to look around for something to stream. And I see it’s by Mike Flanagan whose excellent Absentia I watched(for the 10th time) just yesterday. Very excited!
Doctor Sleep was amazing as well. Gerald’s Game was good, but not as good as Doctor Sleep.
Watched ep.1 last night and I enjoyed it. I don’t mind the slow burn; I’m confident it’ll have nice creepy story payoffs as ‘Hill House’ did.
I have a question-- it’s hardly a spoiler since I’ve just seen the first episode and it’s just a minor point of clarification I’m wondering about, but I’ll spoiler-blur it just in case:
So Carla Gugino shows up at a wedding on 2007, and starts telling a ghost story about Bly Manor from 20 years before, saying that it’s not her story, or she’s not connected to it.
Then, in a scene where Dani and the others are eating at the kitchen table, a woman called ‘the gardener’ walks into the kitchen and doesn’t acknowledge Dani, even though they haven’t met yet. She looked so much like Carla Gugino that I thought at first it was her, but on second glance I don’t think it actually was. I even checked IMDB-- Gugino is listed only as “The Storyteller” and there’s no other character listed as “the gardener”, though maybe “the gardener” has an actual character name I didn’t catch.
So my question is (a 2-parter I guess) was “the gardener” character supposed to be a younger version of “the storyteller”, and was Gugino playing both parts? “The gardener” character only appeared briefly in ep.1, so I didn’t really get a good look at her.
Edit to my above spoilered question:
So I happened to just read a review of ep.1 on AVClub, and it said the gardener (who has a name, it turns out- Jamie) was played by someone different than Carla Gugino-- Amelia Eve, who in her IMDB pic looks nothing like Carla Gugino. Still, Jamie looked enough like the storyteller to me in ep.1 to wonder if they were supposed to be the same character 20 years apart.
I’ve seen 7 episodes and it is inferior to Hill House quite a bit. Well made, but nothing too amazing.
I just finished E4. I like it but as with all horror movies, I notice things that are just kind of stupid. One thing for sure that I’ve noticed is how VERY unflattering the 80s fashions were!
I do have a question - At the end of E2 Miles passes out because he sees Peter Quint in the window. In E3 it shows the policeman in the hallway with a picture of Peter that he hands back to Hannah. Where did the picture come from? I know he took the picture but I’m wondering who brought it to the policeman. I don’t think Danielle knew who the man in the window was yet, so how would she know to tell Hannah to find a picture of Peter? Maybe I missed something somewhere along the line.
That question is answered later in the series, it’s not a big deal, but it is a spoiler.
We finished it last night and my opinion stands. It’s a good enough story with some interesting bits and some melancholy story building as it develops but it just doesn’t bring the creepiness or scares like Hill House did. I guess that’s fine but there’s nothing comparable to that scene in Hill House where the girl falls through time and then sees herself.
Couple things though:
[spoiler]
The ghost grabbing Peter and drags him away was one of the best scenes and it did it was creepy.
Dani’s dead boyfriend seemed like a missed opportunity. I don’t know, maybe I missed something. He’s following her and showing up in mirrors, then she throws the glasses in the fire and he’s gone. I guess it shows some resolution to her feelings and becomes a comment on her being able to leave the past behind but it seemed like a bit of a sidetrack to the main story.
What happened with Uncle Henry’s evil doppelganger? He shows up a couple times and then it’s dropped I think. Was there any resolution to that?
Also my wife and I guess that Hannah was a ghost. She wouldn’t eat and she carefully avoided refills of tea. There were a couple other things that we guessed about but it didn’t seem disappointing that we figured them out - more like “aha we got the clues.” [/spoiler]
Whoops.
Sorry about the non-spoiled spoiler, everyone. I couldn’t figure out how to do it until after I was past the edit window. Don’t look! Darth Vader’s his dad!
if you guys like Flanagans work, the film Oculus was excellent.