Trivia / The Haunting of Hill House (2018)

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• Casting Gag:
  • Henry Thomas, whose most famous role is as a child actor in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, plays the Supernatural-Proof Father to a group of kids who are traumatized by ghosts in the very early 90s. During the treehouse scene early on, a close-up of (young) Luke's drawing also features an E.T. lunchbox.
  • Timothy Hutton, who won an Oscar for a brother affected by suicide Ordinary People in the 80s and also appeared in 90s horror like The Dark Half, plays the older Hugh, who is grief-stricken following the apparent suicide of his youngest daughter, and is involved in supernatural goings-on from the 80s to present day.
  • Russ Tamblyn appears as Nell's psychiatrist, Dr. Montague, based lightly on the character from the book. Not only did Tamblyn play Luke in the original The Haunting, he was also Dr. Jakoby in Twin Peaks, the therapist of Laura Palmer, another disturbed young woman on an inevitable path towards death at the hand of hostile supernatural forces. In the Netflix version, Dr. Montague is a sober, professional, compassionate therapist whose counselling to Nell falls tragically short - the polar opposite to Dr. Jakoby, a creepy and manipulative monster whose "treatment" only hastened Laura's death and ended up diverting the subsequent investigation.
• Creator Breakdown: Mike Flanagan admitted that the production was the most stressful one of his career, and he ended up losing 40 lbs as a result.
• Creator In-Joke:
  • The Lasser Glass from Oculus can be seen on the wall in Hill House. Mike Flanagan directed both.
  • Theo can be seen reading The Lottery in Episode 2 - another book by Shirley Jackson.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Josh Campbell, an amputee missing one leg, plays the basement ghost whose leg was burnt off.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Downplayed. Henry Thomas wore blue contact lenses as the younger Hugh. Timothy Hutton does not, as he has grey eyes; this was a stylistic choice so that Hugh Crain would enter Hill House with Innocent Blue Eyes that turn steely grey as he distances himself from his family.
• Enforced Method Acting: For the notorious Jump Scare in Episode 8, there were several more lines scripted between Shirley and Theo, while Victoria Pedretti was secretly told to jump in early - their scared reactions when Victoria jumps in early are entirely genuine.
• Fake American: Michiel Huisman is Dutch and Oliver Jackson-Cohen is British playing American siblings. Both hide their accents pretty flawlessly.
• Fake Guest Star: Anthony Ruivivar as Kevin, Shirley's husband, and Samantha Sloyan as Leigh, Steven's wife, appear in eight episodes each, as many episodes as most of the main actors do.
• Method Acting: Both Kate Siegel and Mckenna Grace kept separate journals as their respective versions of Theo at different points in her life. Then they swapped the journals and read the other's to help get into character.
• Never Work with Children or Animals: For Shirley's kittens, they opted to use mechanical ones out of respect of this trope.
• Playing with Character Type: Mckenna Grace is once again playing the younger version of a supernaturally powered heroine - having done so in Once Upon a Time and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and in Captain Marvel (2019) (which would be released a few months later). However, this time, Theo has a more mundane power instead of being a super-powered girl. She also gets to be much more active as a character, rather than only appearing in A Minor Kidroduction. She's also brunette rather than blonde.
• Production Posse: Mike Flanagan is again working with wife Kate Siegel (whom he worked with on Absentia, Oculus, Hush, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and Gerald's Game) and a plethora of frequent collaborators. There's Carla Gugino (Gerald's Game), Elizabeth Reaser (Ouija: Origin of Evil), Henry Thomas (Ouija: Origin of Evil, Gerald's Game), Lulu Wilson (Ouija: Origin of Evil), Samantha Sloyan (Hush) and Annabeth Gish (Before I Wake).
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: Lesbian protagonist Theo is played by Kate Siegel, who's bisexual.
• Real-Life Relative: Kate Siegel (Theo) is married to director Mike Flanagan. His brother James plays the funeral director that meets with Young Shirley in the second episode.
• Remake Cameo: Russ Tamblyn plays Dr Montague. He had played Luke in The Haunting (1963).
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: Not only do the Crain siblings look like they could really be related and the offspring of Olivia and Hugh, but for the most part, they also have uncanny resemblances to their child actors.
• Tuckerization:
  • The character Shirley who did not exist in the book is of course named after author Shirley Jackson.
  • Steven likewise has no counterpart in the book is named after Steven Spielberg, because Amblin TV had brought the project to Mike Flanagan.
  • Harris Funeral Home is named after Julie Harris, who played Eleanor in The Haunting (1963).
• Star-Making Role: This was Victoria Pedretti's first ever professional acting role and the success of the series and acclaim for her performance launched her career practically overnight.
• Underage Casting: Nell is in her early thirties when she dies; her actress Victoria Pedretti was about a decade younger when filming.
• What Could Have Been: The series director Mike Flanagan revealed that the story was originally planned to have a much darker ending. It would have played out basically the same, except during the shot of the entire family celebrating together, the window of the Red Room would have been in the background, implying that they never managed to actually escape the house. He realized that he had become too attached to the characters and wanted to give them a proper happy ending, so rewrote the story so they actually did escape.
• Word of God:
  • The creators confirmed that the five Crain siblings are meant to represent the five stages of grief, from oldest to youngest. Steven is Denial, Shirley is Anger, Theo is Bargaining, Luke is Depression, and Nell is Acceptance.
  • It was also confirmed that the person who put buttons on Nell's eyes was Olivia, since Olivia knew how much Nell loves buttons.