There's a complex theme throughout the story concerning the house's complicity in all of the kids' failings as adults. This is where the real-world scares begin to manifest themselves into the plot. A prime example of this is Luke (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). As an adult, Luke is a drug addict who struggles to get clean. As we learn more about his childhood, we're given glimpses of a neglected kid whose parents never believed in his nightmares. 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.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. The slow camera pans through the dark-ominous hallways of the old mansion create a mood that is perfect for the Halloween season. The creature designs are horrific too, like a crooked-neck lady with stringy black hair and a muffled voice.
While the children are the narrative spine of Hill House, a family tale wouldn't be complete without the parents. 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). Olivia struggles to find a sense of purpose in a big old house with nothing to occupy her mind. Gugino delivers some of her best work here, effectively embodying the characteristics of someone who may be slowly losing her mind.
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. 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.