Hello horror fans - and welcome back to the scariest channel on YouTube - Top 5 Scary
Videos - your little one stop shop of horrors for all things terrifying and spooky that
creep their way onto the silver screen.
What’s going on guys - as always, I’ll be your horror host Jack Finch - as we address
something very dear and important to me, perhaps the best cinematic horror creation of recent
times - Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House - as we take a look at it’s Top
5 Scariest Moments.
Roll the clip.
Now - I’ve got a hell of a lot of stuff to say about this show, because when we boil
it all down - it really is one of the most important pieces in horror cinema in the past
few decades.
Mike Flanagan’s interpretation of Shirley Jackson’s 1959 gothic horror novel is near
perfection for the genre - and with nearly ten hours worth of screen time, we felt every
ghost, jump scare and bump in the night right alongside Stephen, Shirley, Theo, Luke and
Nelly.
Be warned, guys - there’s plenty of spoilers ahead - so if you haven’t yet seen The Haunting
of Hill House, please - pause this video for another day, stop what you’re doing - and
go and watch it!
Before we jump into that though - you know the drill by now guys, if you’re a fan of
this video, Hill House, Mike Flanagan - or just Top 5 Scary in general, then be a dear
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On with the show.
Kicking off at Number 5 - Luke See’s William Hill
Now - I’m not going to sneak any bias into this list, because the entire cast of characters
and the Crain family are absolutely amazing in this show - but I’ve got a real soft
spot in my heart for Luke, that poor kid saw so much stuff through those foggy little glasses
that it’s no doubt his mind needed a thorough ten episodes of healing.
It reached a climax in Episode 4 - The Twin Thing, where a mysterious old bowler hat ushered
forward a tall, floating man into the hallways of Hill House.
There’s a lot of set up to this scene that you just don’t get without first planting
the seeds, and Mike Flanagan nails it with this long, panning three-minute set piece.
The thing that is most terrifying though - is the uncanny visual of the actual ghost, William
Hill - with his long gangly cane and his bowler hat, floating listlessly across the floorboards.
It’s not a jump scare, nor is it over produced gore - it’s pure, numbing terror seen through
the eyes of a child - and there’s nothing more fear inducing than that.
Next up at Number 4 - The Dumbwaiter Scene
And of course, again - it has to feature our boy Luke.
Poor kid.
There was something in this scene that just hit me right in the pit of the stomach, right
from the moment where young Theo found him sitting mischievously in the house’s antique
dumbwaiter.
We know where it was heading from the off - and none of it was good.
It also demonstrated some real, masterful patience from director Mike Flanagan.
It was so easy to just throw ghosts and the paranormal into every spooky scene in the
show, but instead - we had to wait until the end in this instance - where it was already
too late, and there was no turning back.
Although it set up a lot of character development for young Theo - Episode 3 Touch - proved
to us that at Hill House, even the most inane structural devices can lead to moments of
pure and utter horror.
What made it even more impressive, was that we didn’t learn anything about the ghost
in question - it was left lurking in the dark depths - in essence, a throwaway scene - but
it demonstrated to us that there was a lot more to that house than we could ever hope
to find out.
Coming in at Number 3 - Two Storms.
Yes.
The entire episode.
Because this was the moment for me where I thought - holy moly, this show is a cut above
the rest.
An 18 page scene before a single editing cut - roughly 23 minutes worth of footage, that
played out in a long, almost stage-play performance - creeping its way throughout the corridors
of Hill House and the hallways of Shirley’s funeral home, bound together by one haunting
childhood memory - and the stark, thunderous reality of death and a grieving family.
When the thunder claps and we see Mrs. Hill sat bolt upright in the bed, it’s worth
so much more than a deliberate cut - because we understand what’s at stake.
When the lights cut and we see that Nelly has disappeared - we know exactly where it’s
heading, because we’re right alongside the Crain family, feeling their hearts racing
and their hands shaking on the flashlights.
Really, honestly - Mike Flanagan put so much sweat and effort into this scene and we as
an audience reap such a masterful demonstration of a director at the top of his game.
Heart Pounding stuff.
Next up at Number 2 - Nelly’s Death
All of them - over and over again, because oh my word - what an incredible reveal, and
what an absolutely dear in the highlights level of fear this scene produces.
For me, this was the moment where all of those tiny little seeds planted earlier started
to sprout and make sense - the two clicks of the porch light, the locket - the sleep
paralysis.
This is the moment where we knew Nelly was an incredibly important character in the show
- but perhaps not for the reasons that we first thought.
This is the moment where the ghosts of the past met the present - and reality became
that little bit more horrifying.
But again - the stage had already been set.
Since episode 1, we knew that we were only being shown fragments of this story - from
the perspective of both adults and children, coming to terms with their own metaphorical
and literal ghosts - and Nelly’s, the youngest of all the Crain children - was inevitably
the most important.
Olivia warned Hugh to pull down those ropes when Nelly was still a kid.
She also promised Nelly that she’d inherit the locket.
One day this would all be hers - and it was.
And finally - at our Number 1 spot - The Car Scene.
Yeah - you know the one I’m talking about.
Sorry about that.
Gets me every time.
In Episode 8, Witness Marks - a few people I was watching this scene with ended up throwing
their drinks against the wall - and trust me, they were pretty seasoned horror fans.
This is no PG-13 stuff.
It’s interesting - because out of the entire 10 episode series - there’s 2, maybe 3 jump
scares throughout the whole thing.
With a show with such intense suspense building and terrifying payoff - you don’t need to
rely on the oversaturated use of cheap tricks that inevitably gets watered down after the
first ten times.
No, this show is better than that.
It also leads to one of the best monologues in the entire series, and Theo’s bleak interpretation
of death - an ocean of nothing, just numb and nothing and alone.
But it also plays out in a more deliberate way, because this is the first time we really
start to see the ghost of Nell assert her influence on the remaining feuding siblings.
I almost read this scene as an annoyed sibling telling Shirley and Theo to quit arguing,
and I don’t think that’s too far from the truth.
Because, well - she certainly got them to shut up.
Well - unfortunately guys, that’s all we’ve got time for in today’s video - cheers for
sticking around all the way to the end.
Let us know your Hill House scariest moments in the comment box down below.
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To continue on with your horror binge - feel free to hit that playlist floating shortly
above.
As always, I’ve been your host Jack Finch - you’ve been watching Top 5 Scary Videos
- and until next time, take it easy.