‘The Haunting of Hill House’ Trailer: Mike Flanagan Scares Up a Netflix Series
After terrifying audiences with last year’s Gerald’s Game, filmmaker Mike Flanagan has returned to Netflix for another horror adaptation starring Carla Gugino. The first trailer for The Haunting of Hill House has arrived, teasing Flanagan’s new series based on the beloved Shirley Jackson story of the same name. In addition to looking spooky AF, the series looks like a real bummer — but like, in a good way.
It seems that Flanagan has updated the setting of The Haunting of Hill House, which follows five siblings who are forced to return to the haunted-as-s—t house they grew up in when their youngest sister takes her own life. That’s a pretty heavy description, and as you can see in the first trailer, the series has quite a bit on its mind beyond the usual jump scares. The cast includes Gugino (who gave an incredible performance in Flanagan‘s take on Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game), Michiel Huisman (Game of Thrones, Treme), Timothy Hutton, Elizabeth Reaser and Henry Thomas (as in Elliott, from E.T.). Here’s the official synopsis:
The Haunting of Hill House is a modern reimagining of Shirley Jackson’s legendary novel of the same name, about five siblings who grew up in the most famous haunted house in America. Now adults, they’re reunited by the suicide of their youngest sister, which forces them to finally confront the ghosts of their own pasts… some which lurk in their minds… and some which may really be lurking in the shadows of the iconic Hill House.
Flanagan isn’t the first filmmaker to take a crack at Jackson’s famous horror story, which previously served as the inspiration for Robert Wise’s 1963 film, as well as 1999’s The Haunting — directed by Jan de Bont and starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Liam Neeson. But Flanagan has taken some generous liberties with Jackson’s story, which centered on four people who visit the Hill House in search of evidence of ghosts.
The Haunting of Hill House debuts on Netflix on October 12.