TV
The Haunting of Hill House ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I am very jaded and it takes a lot for a TV show of movie to genuinely scare me. I’ve been watching scary movies since I was a little kid so things like Freddy Kruger or Jason from Friday the 13th don’t frighten me in the least. Since I’ve been watching movies like that since elementary school, to me most horror movies or TV series are more boring that frightening — and don’t get me started on the total yawnsville of most new horror. So when I heard about the latest Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House I figured it would be yet another of the long line of horror “things” I’d find dull.
And after the first episode I figured I was right.
The series starts off kind’a slow following the Crain family over two time periods, one in 1992 and the other present day. And because the show jumps around a lot between time periods at first it’s a bit hard to follow. In many ways, that first one felt like a typical modern horror series with slick visuals but a shallow story. But there’s something that happened at the end of that episode that genuinely gave me a fight, it’s something that got my heart beating a little faster and left me contemplating watching the next episode ASAP.
And later that night when I went to bed I was still thinking of the show. And even later on when I woke up at 3AM and was still thinking about The Haunting of Hill House, and also thinking, “Wouldn’t it be scary if the thing at the end of the episode reached out and grabbed my leg from under my bed,” that I knew this series was something special.
What starts off as a happy family in the 1990s turns into something more dark and fractured by 2018 in The Haunting of Hill House. The stereotypical nuclear family with mom, dad, two brothers and three sisters, don’t talk much anymore, and whatever communication they do have is indirect. What drove them apart is something that happened to them at Hill House, an estate the family was trying to flip back in 1992, that left the mother of the family (Carla Gugino) dead. The kids all swear that they saw ghosts before what was left of the family literally drove off with nothing more than the clothes on their backs the last night they spent at the house.
When sister Nell (Victoria Pedretti) starts seeing ghosts again present day and takes her own life, the family is forced back together to confront their past which is spilling over into the present whether they like it or not.
I think the ideas of The Haunting of Hill House are just as scary as the visuals, and the visuals are pretty darn scary. Ideas like a fractured family, siblings lost in their lives and looking for help but finding none and a father so far removed from his kids he hasn’t spoken to them in years is just as terrifying as the things the kids see in the house. Be it a creature that lives in the basement, the “bent neck lady” or the tall man that thumps along the halls at night are all things that left a chill up my spine.
One thing that The Haunting of Hill House does that most other horror movies and TV series don’t/are too afraid to do is that it actually delves into the realm of sadness. Whether it’s the sadness over the loss of Nell, which as the series progresses feels less and less like a suicide from mental illness than something much darker, or even the sadness of a once close family fractured and scattered to the winds after what happened in 1992 The Haunting of Hill House is just as sad as it is scary.
And I shouldn’t forget those ghosts.
They’re scary, there were a few times when I caught a glimpse of one hiding in the background that I nearly jumped out of my seat. And there are times when the characters of the show don’t see them, but the viewers do which added a point or two to my blood pressure. It’s one those things where there might be ghosts anywhere in the house/background of scenes at any time, and because of that it adds a layer of tension to scenes that generally would be tension-free.
There has been talk about how the ending of the first season of The Haunting of Hill House is a let-down, that it doesn’t fit with the rest of the show. Which I think is total bunk. It fits perfectly well and if you’re paying attention to everything that’s going on it’s really the only place things could’ve ended up.
One thing is I’m not quite sure where The Haunting of Hill House is going to go from here? It’s one of those shows everyone was talking about for a while and I can only imagine Netflix is going to want another season of it. But the first season ended here so perfectly, and there is an ending, there’s no cliffhanger that would easily lead to a second season, I kind’a hope that The Haunting of Hill House is a one-and-done show, even if it means we might never get to spend time with the Crain’s again.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 ⭐⭐⭐
It’s crazy to say, but I’m almost happy that the TV series MST3K was cancelled back in 1999. It’s only because the show went away nearly 20 years ago that it could have been brought back by Netflix in 2017 with the second season having debuted there last Friday. The revived MST3K still “feels” like genuine MST3K circa 1993 but with some smart updates for the 21st century. The basic premise is the same with a guy (Jonah Ray) trapped on a satellite who, along with his robot friends is forced to watch bad movie after bad movie by an evil scientist (Felicia Day).
MST3K is basically an excuse for some really talented comedians including Ray, Baron Vaughn and Hampton Yount who play the robots to riff and make fun of these movies while they run.
It’s a smart idea that I’m surprised hasn’t been copied 1,000 times since MST3K went off the air but somehow hasn’t –– maybe getting ahold of those bad movies is harder than it looks? Anyway, the simple fact that after one of the most successful Kickstart campaigns in history reignited interest in the show and Netflix went ahead and picked MST3K up and began streaming it on their platform, means that since the series first premiered 30 years ago we’re still getting new episodes of it and that’s a good thing.
Movies
Once Upon a Deadpool trailer
They Shall Not Grow Old trailer
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part trailer
Aquaman trailer
The Lion King
What To Watch This Week
Tuesday
The latest Predator movie The Predator is available on digital download this week.
Wednesday
The sixth (!!!) season of Vikings begins Wednesday on History.
Books
Star Trek: The Art of John Eaves
A collected work of Star Trek designer and concept artist John Eaves is due out this week.
Over the past few decades, John Eaves has had a major impact on the look of the Star Trek Universe and played a pivotal role in shaping Gene Roddenberry’s vision. Starting with his work on Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Eaves has worked as a production designer, illustrator, and model maker across the franchise. He has been responsible for creating many of the props and ships, and helped develop the Federation design, from the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC–1701-E to the U.S.S. Discovery NCC–1031.
Star Trek: The Art of John Eaves represents the most extensive collection of designs and illustrations created by Eaves across the Star Trek Universe. Featuring fascinating pencil sketches and stunning concept art, this visually dynamic book gives fans a unique in-depth look into Eaves’ creative vision and the wealth of his remarkable work at the center of this spectacular franchise.
The Reading List
The Dark Side: An Oral History of The Star Wars Holiday Special
Cool Movie & TV Posters of the Week
Black Panther 
The Lion King