Netflix is going to update a classic ghost story in upcoming The Haunting of Hill House series.
The mother of almost all ghost stories is coming to streaming TV. Shirley Jackson’s 1959 horror novel The Haunting of Hill House is one of Stephen King’s favorite books. It was made into a classic piece of early sixties cinema and will be now haunt Netflix in a modernized form.
The 10-episode series based on The Haunting of Hill House will be written, produced, and directed by Mike Flanagan, who directed Oculus, Hush and will adapt King’s sadomasochistic game play novel Gerald’s Game into a movie. Flanagan will produce with his producing partner Trevor Macy for Amblin TV and Paramount TV.
The Haunting of Hill House has been made into two feature films called The Haunting, one in 1963 which was written by Nelson Gidding and directed and produced by Robert Wise. It starred Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, and Riff from West Side Story, Russ Tamblyn. It was remade and panned in 1999. It was also adapted for the stage and performed at the Liverpool Playhouse in 2015. It was parodied in Scary Movie 2 (2001).
The book centers around Hill House investigators Dr. Montague, who is an occult scholar looking for something more tangible than book smarts; his assistant Theodora; a ghost whisperer named Eleanor, and the young, rich heir who will be stuck with the haunted real estate Luke. They think they’re looking for ghosts, but the house is looking for them.
Jackson's novel is more of a story of terror than of horror. It ties the events that make for a haunting of a house into the psyches of the people investigating it.
Normally, paranormal investigators don’t quite have the diabolical fun and frights that find their way into film and TV shots.
“Having done several Paranormal Investigations, I have yet to encounter anything like this,” Brenda Jablonsky, a paranormal investigator from Indiana who will host the upcoming podcast "Crimes Against Spirit," told Den of Geek.
The normal routine for a supernatural sleuth is a lot of hurry up and waiting. That’s not necessarily true for people how live in haunted houses.
"I thought I was buying my wife her dream home,” Philip Siracusa, the author of The Horsefly Chronicles: A Demonic Haunting, told Den of Geek. “I didn't know I was buying my family a nightmare."
The allegedly haunted house in Pennsylvania is said to sit on an desecrated burial ground, and the spirits are still hungry.
"These days when I cook I make one meal for my family, another one for my ancestors and a third one for the Indians," Julia Siracusa, who lived in the house so long she goes by the nickname “the real haunted housewife,” added.
While the Horsefly house hasn’t gotten quite the reputation of the hauntings at the center of films like Poltergeist and The Conjuring, investigators still think twice before knocking three times.
"My friend Juila [Siracusa] invited me to visit her real haunted house and I am such a chicken shit medium that I asked her to check and see if their family ghost/demon said it was okay,” admitted Marie Bargas, a celebrity psychic who was recently tapped to investigate the house.
But what do the strange amateur sleuths think of the film?
“A remake of this movie would be interesting to see a hard to stop watching kind waiting for the next shoe to drop,” said Brenda. “I found the original suspenseful and exciting ,with the technology of today I think it would be a great show to see. As a fan of horror movies it will be a block buster.”
The Haunting of Hill House will be the first time Netflix has worked up a scripted series for Amblin TV. It is the series the rising channel has done for Paramount TV. They previously worked together to bring out 13 Reasons Why and the upcoming Maniac, which stars Emma Stone and Jonah Hill.
The Haunting of Hill House is still in the early stages of development.
SOURCE: VARIETY