
See also: List of House cast members Main cast Sela Ward, who would return as the main recurring character of season two, appeared in the final two episodes as Stacy Warner, House's former girlfriend. While there were possibilities of the character returning, he was generally disliked by viewers and critics and therefore not brought back to the show. His character was brought in after Universal Studios president Jeff Zucker threatened that the season would be cut short by six episodes if a "boss" character wasn't added. Ĭhi McBride joined the cast as Vogler in five episodes of the season. Vogler does this to show House he can control him: "I need to know that whatever I ask you to do, however distasteful you find it, you'll do it". Through this donation, Vogler becomes the new chairman of the board and orders House to fire one of his team members. The season's sub-plot revolves around billionaire Edward Vogler making a $100 million donation to the hospital. Gregory House and his team as they solve a medical case each episode. If the horrors that dwell inside Hill House are real or simply figments of its inhabitants' imaginations, Flanagan is in no hurry to confirm it, and the show is all the better for it.The first season of House premiered November 16, 2004, and ended May 24, 2005. Like her children, Olivia is deeply affected by the house, but is there really something hiding in the shadows, or are her symptoms a result of a troubled marriage and the pressures of raising five kids? The ambiguity is a through-line that Flanagan uses in Season 1 as an effective way to create doubt in the mind of the viewer.

Gugino delivers some of her best work here, effectively embodying the characteristics of someone who may be slowly losing her mind. Olivia struggles to find a sense of purpose in a big old house with nothing to occupy her mind.

Carla Gugino (Watchmen) plays Olivia Crain, a formidable matriarch in the eyes of her kids, and husband, Hugh, portrayed as an older man by veteran actor Timothy Hutton (Leverage). While the children are the narrative spine of Hill House, a family tale wouldn't be complete without the parents. The creature designs are horrific too, like a crooked-neck lady with stringy black hair and a muffled voice. The slow camera pans through the dark-ominous hallways of the old mansion create a mood that is perfect for the Halloween season. If you're thinking that Hill House sounds like a demented version of NBC's This is Us, there are certainly similarities in both shows' examination of how a past trauma can inform a person's future - but fear not - Flanagan doesn't shy away from the scares, especially in the flashbacks with the kids. In a typical horror scenario, the things that go bump in the night are always easier to blame, but when it's your own mother and father who are at fault, it's all the more frightening. As we learn more about his childhood, we're given glimpses of a neglected kid whose parents never believed in his nightmares. As an adult, Luke is a drug addict who struggles to get clean. A prime example of this is Luke (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). This is where the real-world scares begin to manifest themselves into the plot. There's a complex theme throughout the story concerning the house's complicity in all of the kids' failings as adults. When the kids are young and still at the titular house, they're plagued with visions of ghosts, zombies, and even a creepy slender man with a bowler hat - and while some of these terrifying creatures follow them into adulthood, many of the demons they face are of their own making, like the guilt that comes from extra-marital affairs and drug addiction.

#House season 1 episode 12 series#
Under the careful guidance of series creator and director Mike Flanagan (Oculus), The Haunting of Hill House skillfully balances real world scares with supernatural ones. Each timeline is impactful throughout the season, due to the strong performances from both the young and adult cast members. In terms of its narrative structure, The Haunting of Hill House resembles Lost, bouncing through time to offer different points of view from each of the children at various stages in their lives. It all starts with the kids (we begin with five), who, after growing apart, are tragically brought back together after one of them dies. Through 10 emotionally-charged episodes, the series centers on the Crain family, and the lifelong scars that come from growing up in America's most famous haunted house. The Haunting of Hill House, Netflix's adaptation of Shirley Jackson's seminal 1959 gothic-horror novel of the same name, avoids the blood and guts from most titles that we see this time of year, and instead, favors something that is perhaps more existential, but nonetheless terrifying - specifically, the difficult journey of a family trying to come to grips with the ghosts of their past.
