There Are Loads Of Hidden Ghosts In Haunting Of Hill House

Netflix

As Netflix‘s new spooky show continues to do wonders for the underwear market, some viewers are picking up on even more scary details hidden within the series.

The show, The Haunting Of Hill House, already has a 9.1 rating on IMDb, (at the time of writing) and is described as: ‘Flashing between past and present, a fractured family confronts haunting memories of their old home and the terrifying events that drove them from it.’

However, some eagle-eyed viewers aren’t just watching the fractured family. They’ve also been seeing haunting faces and apparitions flash up in the background of some scenes, an occurrence confirmed by one of the show’s creators.

Taking to Twitter, one person wrote:

WTF Im watching @haunting theres a face behind the mum. Did anyone else notice this?? It disappears after the next scene. I got goosebumps looking at this.. [sic]

To which the show’s writer and director, Mike Flanagan, said:

Someone spotted one of the hidden ghosts… there are a LOT. Watch those backgrounds! [sic]

Since then, people have been seeing the scary background figures everywhere.

Check it out:

The show’s official Twitter account eerily replied too, simply saying:

We’re everywhere.

The show must be doing something right though, as master of the horror genre, Stephen King himself, called it a work of genius.

Also taking to Twitter, the author said:

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, revised and remodeled by Mike Flanagan. [sic]

I don’t usually care for this kind of revisionism, but this is great. Close to a work of genius, really. I think Shirley Jackson would approve, but who knows for sure. [sic]

Shirley Jackson is, of course, the author of the book on which the new Netflix series is based.

She published The Haunting Of Hill House in 1959, and it was instantly recognised as one of the best ghost stories ever written.

It’s notoriety only being reinforced thanks to Mike Flanagan’s adaptation.

If you’ve not seen the series or are still working your way through it, stop reading now, as there may be spoilers ahead…

Episode 10, the final part in the drama, ends on a relatively positive note, despite a rather heartbreaking monologue from one of the protagonists.

However, that monologue almost didn’t make the cut.

Writer and director Mike Flanagan told The Hollywood Reporter:

We toyed with the idea for a little while over that monologue, over the image of the family together, we would put the Red Room window in the background.

For a while, that was the plan. Maybe they never really got out of that room. The night before it came time to shoot it, I sat up in bed, and I felt guilty about it. I felt like it was cruel. That surprised me. I’d come to love the characters so much that I wanted them to be happy.

I came in to work and said, ‘I don’t want to put the window up. I think it’s mean and unfair’. Once that gear had kicked in, I wanted to lean as far in that direction as possible. We’ve been on this journey for 10 hours; a few minutes of hope was important to me.

Should stories like this end on a hopeful note? You decide.

The Haunting Of Hill House crept onto Netflix as of October 12.

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Charlie Cocksedge

Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.