Maybe I’m just being a crusty curmudgeon. I can be, sometimes. But I have no interest at all in the new THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE series from Netflix. For one thing, it’s on Netflix, and since I can’t livestream I might have a tendency to not pay much mind to anything Netflix offers digitally, unless it’s STRANGER THINGS, and then I curse it voluminously until the latest season becomes available on DVD. My lack of enthusiasm for THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE has a more credible reason behind it, though: it has already been done, and perfectly. There can be no topping it. Robert Wise’s THE HAUNTING, released in 1963, was a masterpiece. That’s not hyperbole. It’s one of the finest ghost stories ever committed to celluloid. Attempts to remake it have proven to be disasters. Remember 1999’s remake, also titled THE HAUNTING? No? Count yourself lucky.
Granted, the creators behind the new series claim they want to make it different. They aren’t trying to do a retread. This just makes me think of Rob Zombie’s attempt at remaking HALLOWEEN, though. The parts of Zombie’s film that were original to him were fine, but every time he ventured too close to John Carpenter’s seminal film his efforts fell flat. Like, really flat. I don’t see how this new Netflix series can avoid that same fate.