"THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE".......SHIRLEY, YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS.......

The Haunting Of Hill House (2018)    It's maddening to get a handle on this mini-series, freely adapted from the classic Shirley Jackson novel.......(considered one the greatest haunted house books, and the basis of the equally classic 1963 film version "The Haunting")

               We admired the hell out of it.......and would have easily given this 5 stars.......if it were only about 7 hours shorter.......

                Some brilliant acting on display.........and some meaty dialogue and characters for the actors to turn into many bravura moments.......

                Technically stunning.........some truly breathtaking displays of editing, scenic design and camerawork.........

                 Scary?  Oh boy, is it ever. One nightmarish sequence after another and enough jump-scares to make you spill twenty or more bags of microwave popcorn.......

                 Anything we didn't like about it?

                 Yes.  Clocking in at 10 episodes of 60 to 70 minutes each......it's just too goddamn long. 

                 This could have made a superb 3 hour film, but at 10 punishing hours, it starts to wear you out with non-stop horror, tragedy and overall family dysfunction.  (After a while, you start resenting the jump-scares, like sitting next to someone who's perpetually poking you in the ear with their finger)

                  These days, we realize it's all about the binge when it comes to TV viewings.........but it doesn't make for better TV.........even when a mini-series maintains a high level of excellence like this one, the sheer bloat of the thing threatens to undo its artistic merit.

                  We're starting to fear that streaming turns us all into Mr. Creosote from the Monty Python film........one more episode in the binge and we'll explode.....

                   But let's return to the good stuff. Creator-director Mike Flanagan executes a bold, hugely ambitious re-imagining of Shirley Jackson's story.  He transforms Jackson's collection of ghost hunters, who functioned as a kind of metaphorical damaged family into an actual family.

                   The series than sprawls into intricately edited time shifting.........from the young family's past trauma as the Hill House ghosts torment them to their current days.......where the the now adult children of the family, even safely away from the house,  still can't escape the horror -  the house's vile apparitions continue to haunt them.

                    Throughout this long, tortuous, familial journey, Flanagan cleverly cherry-picks his way through all the well-known sequences and dialogue from the Jackson novel........(including everyone's favorite, the housekeeper Mrs. Dudley intoning how she won't stay in the house after sunset.....in the night.....in the dark....)  Anyone familiar with the book or the '63 film will have enormous fun spotting them.

                    Our only quibble here (and we've pointed this out when posting about other horror films).......we understand that jack-in-the-box scares are a major part of a horror filmmaker's arsenal.
But when you start to spread too many of them across 10 hours of material........it becomes lazy, repetitive......and tiresome.

                    A fine scary feast, this one......a gourmet banquet of goosebumps. Way overdone and way, way, way too long......but well crafted in every minute. No horror fan dare miss it. 4 hair-raising stars (****).....make sure you watch it......in the night......in the dark.