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MALTATODAY 4 November 2018

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10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 4 NOVEMBER 2018 FILM FILM TOLSTOY'S adage about all happy families being alike, and their opposites essential- ly being the only worthwhile founts of interesting drama certainly finds concrete sup- port in the ten-episode Net- flix series The Haunting of Hill House, loosely adapted from the 1959 Shirley Jack- son novel of the same name and appearing on the popular streaming site just in time for Halloween period viewing. The novel has previously been adapted to varying de- grees of success; the first out of the gate being the superla- tive and stylish The Haunting (1964) by Robert Wise, while the 1999 film of the same name, a star-studded vehicle featuring the likes of Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta- Jones and directed by Jan de Bont, was a star-studded at- tempt at blockbuster horror which will chiefly be remem- bered for some terrible CGI in its final act, more than any- thing else. But in having an ample ten- hour scope to tell the story of the beleaguered Crain fam- ily, Flanagan – who made a name for himself in the hor- ror genre with the features Oculus (2013) and Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016) among others – is able to scoop out the most important thematic and atmospheric elements of the book but proceed to make the story his own. It is a knotted and fraught tale, however, as the Crain family are put through a wringer after Hugh (Henry Thomas, then Timothy Hut- ton) and Olivia Crain (Carla Gugino) temporarily move to the crumbling stately home of Hill House, with their five kids Steven (Paxton Sin- gleton, Michiel Huisman), Shirley (Lulu Wilson, Eliza- beth Reaser), Theodora (Mc- kenna Grace, Kate Siegel) and the twins Luke (Julian Hill- iard, Oliver Jackson-Cohen) and Nell (Violet McGraw, Victoria Pedretti) in tow. It is 1992, and their aim is to renovate the house to then be able to sell it at a profit, which would then enable them to work on their own dream home, "The Forever House," as Olivia dubs it. However, Hill House has other ideas. As the story shifts from the early nineties to the present day, we are made witness to the Crain siblings trying to get on with their lives in the wake of a tragedy that be- fell them at Hill House back in the day. With Hugh es- tranged from their lives, it is the sudden reappearance of the house in their lives – or rather, its ghostly magnetic pull – that forces them to fi- nally confront the past. Those looking for conven- tional jump scares or conven- tional haunting house spooki- ness will almost certainly not be too impressed with Flana- gan's slow-burning chiller. But those looking for finely crafted family drama and vir- tuoso storytelling punctuated by creepy chills will find a lot to enjoy here. While one's mileage on this may vary, the use of two in- terlocking timelines make for great serialised storytelling, as it creates the opportunity for multiple cliffhangers to be occurring at any given time. A skillful and disciplined set of scriptwriters was put into action here – Flanagan helms a few of the crucial episodes himself, with the rest being handled by Liz Phang, Scott Kosar, Meredith Averill, Jeff Howard, Charise Castro Smith and Rebecca Klingel. It makes for a tightly wound exercise in mystery and rev- elation, while never allowing the mechanics to overwhelm character. The seventh episode is a particular formal peak for the series, with a largely uninter- rupted tracking shot creat- ing a claustrophobic mood around our suddenly gath- ered together ensemble, forc- ing them to finally confront what they've kept repressed for so long. Just in time for Halloween, this loose adaptation of the acclaimed Shirley Jackson novel hits the right notes of creepiness and pathos HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE THE HAUNTING HAUNTED MANSION THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL BOO! T H E H A U N T I N G O F H I L L H O U S E ( 16 + ) Teodor Reljic ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The verdict A liberal remix of the source material, Mike Fla- nagan's take on Shirley Jack- son's novel is a masterfully executed slow burn that fa- vours psychological unrave- ling over cheap scares. Ex- pertly unraveling the novel and changing up its para- normal investigator setup for a more expansive family drama, the show achieves an apposite dramatic effect to the source material without straining for literal fidelity. Affecting and well-paced, it all makes for a great chiller, and is a great reminder of just how powerful a meta- phorical force the figure of the ghost can have, if ap- proached with as judicious a hand as Flanagan and his team have applied. The Haunting of Hill House is currently streaming on Netf- lix The fatal crumble of memory

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