Netflix Recommendations 2.0 *READ FIRST POST*

Finished watching Haunting Of Hill House today, and it was pretty good. I really liked Absentia, Flanagan's first film, and found his next two features (Oculus and Hush) to be disappointing executions of interesting premises. Gerald's Game from a couple of years ago was a promising improvement (a couple of weaknesses but those were in King's original story, to be fair).

The first half of the series has a few more clunky jump scares than I'd like, and , but overall this was a pleasant surprise and a pretty effective horror story, albeit more drawing inspiration from Jackson's novel than adapting it in any meaningful sense. The parallel unfolding of past and present storylines is handled well with some clever transitions between the two, and there are a few details like that work at a subconscious level to enhance the tension and unease. Most importantly, by virtue of being a limited series rather than a film, there's space to examine and get to know the characters; the cast, even the youngest child actors, give good performances.