Horror movies and TV shows are scary no matter what — but when they take place close to where you live in real life, they become even scarier. Netflix's newest horror series, The Haunting Of Hill House, is dropping on the streaming platform just in time for Halloween. So where is The Haunting Of Hill House set? Though fictional, the supernatural mansion is not something I'd ever want to go near.
The Haunting Of Hill House was originally a 1959 novel by author Shirley Jackson, according to The Daily Dot. Since then, it has been turned into two movies, both called The Haunting, in 1963 and in 1999, The Verge reported. As per IMDb, both the novel and the 1963 movie are set somewhere in Massachusetts, southwest of Boston. And according to The Journal of Anomalous Science, the 1999 version is set in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. So, unsurprisingly, Netflix's The Haunting Of Hill House is also set somewhere in Massachusetts.
Something about New England just makes it the perfect setting for a horror story. Perhaps the Salem witch trials of the 1690s are to thank for that. And I'm not the only one who thinks Massachusetts is the ultimate backdrop for horror — several other spooky films set there including Lizzie, Shutter Island, Sleeping with the Enemy, The Witches of Eastwick, and ParaNorman. Yes, I did just put ParaNorman on this list of Massachusetts' scariest movies.
All 10 episodes of the spooky series hit Netflix on Oct. 12. But, based on how frightening it is, I'm not sure if you'll want to watch it all in one sitting. The Haunting Of Hill House tells the story of a group of siblings who all grew up in Hill House, a famous haunted mansion, according to Thrillist.
The show flashes between the five siblings as children living in Hill House, and years later reuniting at the house as adults after one of them commits suicide, according to IndieWire. Naturally, they are forced to face their macabre pasts when they return to the house, putting an emphasis on family relationships in addition to plain old horrors, according to Polygon. In fact, IGN's review of the series claims that The Haunting Of Hill House's focus on the family dynamic gives the show a bit of a This is Us vibe. But don't worry, the family drama doesn't take away from the horror aspect at all. It's still terrifying as hell.
Mike Flanagan, who created, directed, and executive-produced the series, wants viewers to know that this show is going to be even eerier than the average horror flick. "In 90 minutes, you can get away with scaring people three of four times," Flanagan said in a behind-the-scenes video shared on Twitter. "For something like this, over ten hours, the rules are very different."
So even if you are usually able to make it through horror movies and shows without covering your eyes, The Haunting Of Hill House just may change that.
