Yes, There Are Ghosts Hidden In The Background In ‘The Haunting Of Hill House’
Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House has been terrifying viewers since it dropped globally on October 12. In fact, the show has been that scary at points that viewers have even taken to social media to describe how sick they have felt while watching it — or of how many times the show made them jump in fright or yelp in surprise. However, it is the ghosts in the background that are now being discussed. In fact, some viewers are looking at it like some warped version of Where’s Waldo.
The storyline of The Haunting of Hill House itself is completely traumatizing. A family, who fled a haunted house, have now grown up and are still living with the consequences of what happened all those years ago. The family is now partially estranged and there are many complications that have arisen as a result of the traumatic experiences they had in Hill House.
In each episode, the story develops not only via the current day events but also flits back to the past in order to reveal just what happened in the house before they suddenly fled its clutches. During the flashbacks, viewers started to notice that ghosts would randomly appear in the background of scenes. In fact, there appear to be a lot more ghosts than those explored in The Haunting of Hill House.
Here Are All the HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE Ghosts You Probably Didn't Catch https://t.co/3vzHlLgBIr pic.twitter.com/cnvl7l1Dvc
— ComicBook NOW! (@ComicBookNOW) October 23, 2018
Fans took to social media to discuss the fact that there was just as much to be seen in the background as there was in the foreground. And, according to Vulture, that was entirely intentional.
Mike Flanagan, who helped create The Haunting of Hill House, revealed that “dozens” of ghosts were hidden throughout the series.
“We actually hid dozens of ghosts throughout the series, in plain sight, in the deep background of shots,” Flanagan explained.
“We don’t call any attention to them, but they’re there. If you look in a door frame, or under the piano, or behind a curtain in a lot of otherwise ordinary scenes, you’ll see someone there.”
And so, viewers went back to re-watch the series and identify the background ghosts.
The creators of the Haunting of Hill House did a lot of things perfectly and greatly but one of my favourite things about the series is the fact that almost every episode had a hidden ghost just standing around in the background unnoticed.
A thread of my fave hidden ghosts: pic.twitter.com/XFo0t9GYXP
— Iris (@irisvicencio) October 17, 2018
IGN has listed 29 instances where ghosts have been located in the background of shots. Some of these ghosts are very easy to see, others are very well hidden. Some ghosts are seen standing quite close to characters in these screenshots. At other times, it is hard to identify and the ghosts blend in with the surrounding scenery, giving viewers pause as they try to work out whether they are seeing a ghost or merely something that could be mistaken for the human form.
In addition, some viewers have noticed that these statues also turn their heads during some shots.
The haunting of hill house did anyone notice some of the statues heads would change the direction they were looking? #TheHauntingOfHillHouse
— Leslie VanAllen (@Leslie_Say_Chez) October 22, 2018
So, if you thought you were seeing things while watching The Haunting of Hill House, chances are, those things you saw were actually there.
The Haunting of Hill House is currently streaming globally on Netflix.
