It has now been nearly five years since Mike Flanagan splashed onto Netflix with the first of what would become five Netflix original horror series: The Haunting of Hill House. Released in 2018 as an adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel of the same name, the series not only became one the most buzzed about shows of the year, but cemented its place as one of the most beloved horror series to date, with fans still talking about the ending.
Released in 2018, and followed in 2019 by The Haunting of Bly Manor, Hill House centered around the five adult Crain siblings, whose lives remain haunted by the paranormal experiences they had at Hill House as children. The series is split between two timelines – 1992, when the Crain family first moved to Hill House and one fateful night that changed everything, and the present day, as the Crains continue to be haunted by the mansion they fled. The series stars Michiel Huisman, Elizabeth Reaser, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Kate Siegel, and Victoria PedrettI as the adult Crain children, , with Carla Gugino and Henry Thomas as parents Olivia and Hugh Crain. Timothy Hutton, Lulu Wilson, Julian Hilliard, McKenna Grace, and Violet McGraw star as the Crain siblings in childhood.
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Filled with horror, death, mystery, ghosts, a few jump scares, and too many major twists to count, The Haunting of Hill House instantly became a fan-favorite, and while the season finale attempted to give answers, some questions still remain. Keep scrolling to see how The Haunting of Hill House ended.
What happened to Hill House?
Before Hugh sacrificed his life to save his children, he passed the responsibility of Hill House down to his eldest son, Steven, revealing to him exactly what happened the night that Olivia died and finally opening his eyes to the true nature of the home.
“Within, walls continue upright, bricks meet neatly, floors are firm, and doors are sensibly shut. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House,” Steven says in voice-over. “And those who walk there, walk together.”
By the end of the show, Hill House remained standing.
What happened to the Crain siblings?
After a terrifying night in Hill House and the Crain siblings being forced to confront their biggest fears, The Haunting of Hill House ends with a new beginning. Luke is two years sober; Theo has finally opened herself up and is in a relationship with Trish; Shirley has confessed her infidelity and reconciled with her husband; and Steve has reconciled with his wife and they are expecting their first child together. The Dudleys, with Steve now responsible for keeping Hill House standing, are starting over again within the walls of Hill House.
While the ending was happy and tonally off given the nature and tone of the rest of the series, Flanagan originally intended on the final scene being haunted by the presence of the Red Room, alluding to the fact that the Crain’s never made it out.
What happened to Abigail and the Dudleys?
One of the earliest mysteries to pop up in Hill House was that of Abigail. First mentioned by a young Luke, it initially seemed that Abigail was just another ghost. But unlike the numerous other ghosts walking the halls of Hill House, Abigail was real and human and alive until she wasn’t.
The daughter of the Dudleys, who kept her under a watchful eye at all times following the death of their first child during childbirth, Abigail met a horrific and tragic fate in Hill House. In Olivia’s attempt to wake Luke and Nell from a nonexistent nightmare and commit their souls to their new forever home by pouring rat poison into teacups, Olivia’s thwarted plan was successful in taking the life Abigail. Unable to lose another child, the Dudleys made Hugh promise to keep Hill House standing, with Abigail trapped within its walls. In the final moments of the season finale, Horace Dudley brought his wife Clara to the home during her final breaths so that she, too, would remain “alive” within Hill House’s walls, reunited with her two lost children.
The Red Room
Over the course of the Crain family’s single and tragic summer stay at Hill House, the room behind the home’s ever-locked Red Door remained a mystery. While Hugh took a hammer and chisel to it, it remained close, only later to be revealed to have been opened time and time again for each member of the Crain family. For Steven it’s a game room; for Shirley it’s a family room; for Theo it’s a dance studio; for Luke it’s a treehouse; for Nell it’s a toy room; and, for Olivia it’s a reading room. The Red Room, thanks to the Hill House, changes, adapting to what each particular person needs, drawing them in so that it can “digest” them.
“Mom says that a house is like a body. And that every house has eyes, and bones, and skin, and a face,” Nell says in the finale. “This room is like the heart of the house. No, not a heart. A stomach.”
Ultimately, the Red Room gave each character exactly what they needed, keeping them complacent in the face of the paranormal activity going on around them.
Who was the Bent-Neck Lady?
One of the most prominent and terrifying ghosts throughout the series, The Bent-Neck Lady gave way to one of the biggest twists of the season. After being introduced to the Bent-Neck Lady in the premiere, and after being shown how the spirit haunted both a young and adult Nell Crain, it was revealed in Episode 5, “The Bent-Neck Lady,” that the Bent-Neck Lady and Nell were one in the same all along.
The reveal, which is still talked about today, led to many questions from viewers – how could Nell be seeing a future version of herself, the version of herself that eventually falls victims to Hill House? In the season finale, Nell gave fans the answers to their questions.
“Everything’s been out of order…I thought for so long that time was like a line…between the beginning and the end,” Nell says in the final scenes of the season when the Crain siblings are trapped in the Red Room. “But I was wrong. It’s not like that at all. Our moments fall around us like rain.”
When Nell met her fate at Hill House and jumped from the spiral staircase. she jumped through time, unknowingly becoming the specter that haunted her younger self.
How did Hill House become haunted?
With its towering walls and sprawling expanse of dark hallways, Hill House is the archetypal haunted house, and it has the ghosts and stories to prove it. But how exactly did Hill House come to be haunted and why is it evil? Ultimately, this is one question that we do not know the answer to.
Speaking with Thrillist, director Mike Flanagan revealed that he initially intended to tell the history of Hill House, telling the outlet, “we had a whole history of Hill House that we were going to shoot. We were going to open several episodes of the show with this kind of history, split out over the whole season, which would show you the construction of Hill House, the history of the Hill family, who everybody was.”
However, that plan was eventually scrapped due to a tight filming schedule and limited resources. By the end of the series, Hill House remained just as mysterious as it was in the premiere, and was still standing by the end of the show.
