Mike Flanagan’sThe Haunting of Hill HouseandThe Haunting of Bly Manoron Netflix are both horror masterpieces. Whereas the first one is a masterclass in jump scares and hidden figures, even reportedly causing some of its viewers to faint, its slow-burning spiritual sequel is a testament to Flanagan’s brilliant manipulation of grief as a means to terrorize his audience. Common in both, however, isthe abundance of spiritspresent in every episode.
BothHauntingseries have a way of using real-life trauma to enhance the viewer’s fear. Whether it be death, addiction, betrayal, abuse, murder, assault, or infidelity, these themes seep underneath the architecture of each scare. With Flanagan’s latest Netflix horror series,Midnight Mass, out with positive reviews, and Halloween always around the corner, we decided to take a look at theHauntingseries 13 scariest moments.
Updated May 2023: This article has been updated to provide even more content for your enjoyment byNikole Finger.
14The Bent-Neck Lady Reveal
The Bent-Neck Lady inThe Haunting of Hill Houseis one of the freakiest images ever put onto screen in both TV and film, not only because of how the ghost looks, but also because of the context behind it. It represents suicide — tragedy in the most extreme form. Further, it is a symbol of how close the twins were in the series, marking the final separation between the inseparable pair.
Not only is it the figure that was haunting Nell Crain (Victoria Pedretti) her whole life, however, but it also turned out to be the figure herself as an adult. When Nell finally hangs herself, she sees all of those events — those hauntings — revisiting them one by one as if she’s descending level by level in a hell of her own creation, back in time to her youth until she finally enters the end of her existence. Suddenly, she’s gone. The scene leaves some viewers frozen in fear, some shaking in terror. This may just be one of the scenes that caused viewers to faint. While the story in itself is chilling,Pedretti’s dedicated performancetakes the horror to a new level.
13The Final Night at Hill House
Olivia Crain’s (Carla Gugino) death is shocking, to say the least. Did she kill herself or did the house kill her? Either way, it was the point of no return in the stages of her descent into madness — the house has a way of driving its residents insane, as Mr. Dudley (Robert Longstreet) the groundskeeper warned the Crains. So when Hugh Crain (Henry Thomas) grabs the kids to take them to the car and escape that fateful night, he says something that leaves that seers itself into the viewer’s mind. “That’s not your mother,” to a figure with a lopsided gait, limping and stopping down the hall, attempting to claim her children and keep them together in the house as they’re on the way out. In the midst of all this madness, seemingly every ghost in the series begins close on the Crains.
This is one of the craziest scenes simply due to the overwhelming abundance of ghosts and the over-the-top nature of Olivia’s state. Much like Pedretti,Guggino is a talented actresswho uses every aspect of her performance to sell her character, making her unnerving behavior as Olivia all the more terrifying.
12The Ghost of William Hill/The Tall Man
When Luke (Julian Hilliard) encounters The Tall Man who we would come to know as Mr. Hill (Fedor Steer) himself, it is one of the most horrific moments in bothHill HouseandBly Manorbecause of the tension that Flanagan fills in the scene to the point of seeming suffocation.
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Earlier in the series, Luke takes Mr. Hill’s hat, which the latter clearly does not like. So after Hugh tucks Luke in bed, Luke hears a clicking noise and footsteps, peeking to see it is Mr. Hill, an exaggeratedly tall figure hovered slightly above the ground, looking for his hat, opening each door with his cane until he finally arrives at Luke and Nell’s room. Nell is sound asleep, so Luke hides under his bed, frozen in fear, afraid to even breathe — the terror is built up masterfully in this drawn-out scene. As Mr. Hill glances under his bed, we see his haunting face.
11The Storm
The Storm is not only arguably the most technically astounding accomplishment in TV and film history due to its one-shot nature — aside from a few cuts — but also because ithas several jump scaresas it switches between two time periods seamlessly due to the extended set ofHill Houseand the built-in funeral to the side of it. This allows the characters walking into the hallway of the funeral home to travel back in time as they enter the house on set without CGI.
When Luke disappears and no one knows what happens to him for a period of time — one of the painful experiences in Luke’s youth that would arguably contribute to him becoming an addict (however, that’s a controversial and debatable thing to argue because addiction is also a genetic thing that can run in the family) — we see characters at their most vulnerable, driving the audience to be in their most vulnerable state as well.
10Steven Sees Nellie’s Ghost in His Apartment
Steven Crain (Michiel Huisman) claims he’d never seen a ghost up until this scene. However, that’s entirely untrue because he saw the clock repair man at Hill House, who he always thought was hired by his family, but no one really knew why he was there, repairing a perpetually broken clock. As an adult, he finally knowingly sees a ghost when he runs into Nell right after she kills herself.
This is a scary moment because he’s alone in his apartment and the last person he expects to see is his little sister. Further, when he tries to talk to her, she doesn’t respond and makes several inhuman jumps toward him. And then he gets a call right after her visit, informing him that she has killed herself. It’s extremely effective screenwriting by Mike Flanagan and sends chills down the viewer’s back.
9Luke Gets Trapped in the Basement
We may never know who the zombie apparition was inThe Haunting of Hill Houseunless Mike Flanagan makes a direct sequel set in the same house. That notion almost makes the scene in which Luke gets trapped in the basement more frightening. How did this person before Luke get trapped here? Was there a murder years ago in the house that was left unsolved? An unlucky, former groundskeeper or maid, perhaps? Would Luke have seen the same fate had his siblings not known he was trapped down there?
There are rumors circulating online thatthis zombie apparitionis Edward Hill, the son of Hazel Hill. Hazel’s suspected involvement in bootlegged alcohol during prohibition may explain why her son was locked in the basement, doomed to suffer from the illegal and potentially unsafe activity they ran underground.
Regardless of how the corpse got there, the combination of claustrophobia, Luke’s fear of almost everything as a kid, especially of being abandoned, and our lost zombie ghost chasing Luke with no room to run, coming so close to him that he could tear the boy’s shirt, are perfect ingredients for a chilling scene that will make viewers want to crawl out of their skin. Poor Luke.
8Nell Haunts Olivia in the Morgue
Nell has a knack for haunting after she dies. When she haunts her mother, Olivia, it’s almost equally as terrifying as when she haunts Steven. In this scene, she is on the morgue table, seemingly having been performed on, pumped with chemicals, and prepared by Theo (Kate Siegel) for the funeral. It’s a premonition, but it’s also, in a sense, a flash-forward.
An element of the work Theo does — and part of the work that all morticians do — is close the jaw shut with wire. So when Nell wakes up, she’s pale and dead-looking, sitting up on the cold metal table. She attempts to talk to her mother, but she can’t with her lips bound. She snaps the wires off, so she can warn her mother.
It’s a painful scene to watch, not only because of the physical pain and fear involved but also becauseof the grief and trauma. Olivia tried to do everything to prevent her children from dying, and she always wanted to keep them together as a family, but the house made sure that didn’t happen when it systematically broke them apart.
7Nell Screams While Shirley and Theo Drive
When Nell screams in the car, it’s yet another Nell haunting scene involved with her siblings, perhaps the biggest jump scare of the series, and the fasted burning appearance of her apparitions. One can argue she didn’t want her sisters to bicker. Regardless of the intention behind her scream, she almost caused the car to run off the road, and some viewers to have a heart attack in the process. It was the last thing audiences expected in a banal scene about sisters arguing. Nell’s facial features also look extremely exaggerated, with her mouth over-stretched, adding to the scene’s frightening moment.
6The Ghost in the Attic of Bly Manor
When Flora Wingrave (Amelie Bea Smith) plays in the attic and sings that tune she loves to sing — which fans got a preview of during the marketing of the film through a creepy interactive phone call — there’s a horribly disfigured mannequin-like figure that attempts to hum along with her. Its face is almost gone like the Lady in the Lake’s, and it attempts to crawl towards the girl, fighting for life, a light that isn’t on inside of it anymore. They are a lost soul that the child is overtly indifferent to. She seems to know more about the secrets of the manor than the other residents.
It’s one of the first scares we get to see out of the novella upon whichThe Haunting of Bly Manoris based by Henry James, titledThe Turn of the Screw. And it’s…not exactly “perfectly splendid.”
5Peter Quint’s Death
When Peter Quint (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) finally dies, it’s not only satisfying to see an abusive monster die at the hands of what is seemingly also a monster, it’s completely shocking to see the brute force of what the Lady in the Lake has become. She grabs him with one arm, and he’s helpless to her overpowering strength as she drags him to the lake. And so, he becomes yet another “victim,” (he very much deserved what he got) ofBly Manor. Anothersoul is stuck in the lakewith the woman he killed — the poor Miss Jessel (Tahirah Sharif).
While the scene may have shocked many viewers, Quint’s death was actually foreshadowed in one of the earlier episodes. After catching him in a bedroom with Rebecca, disgracefully using Charlotte’s (Alex Essoe) personal belongings, Hannah (T’Nia Miller) threatens that she will throw Peter into the lake by his ear if he ever does something like that again. It’s not long after that he ends up being dragged to the lake by the mysterious Lady in the Lake.
