'The Haunting of Hill House' almost had a very dark and different ending
18 October 2018, 13:02
'The Haunting of Hill House' had a ending that divided audiences, but it was almost quite dark and different, according to director Mike Flanagan.
Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House had plenty of hidden ghosts, utterly devastating twists, and moments that made it one of the most compelling new shows on the platform this year. You probably have your own thoughts on the episode 10 ending, but the show's prolific director, Mike Flanagan, revealed that The Haunting of Hill House almost had a completely different finale.
Spoilers ahead, folks.
In the final episode of the season, the characters get an uncharacteristically hopeful ending. Leigh is finally pregnant and Luke is celebrating two years of sobriety.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Mike Flanagan revealed that the Crain family almost didn't get quite such a hopeful ending.
"We toyed with the idea for a little while that over that monologue, over the image of the family together, we would put the Red Room window in the background. For a while, that was the plan. Maybe they never really got out of that room. "
Flanagan says that the night before they were gonna shoot, he had a last minute change of heart.
"I felt like it was cruel. That surprised me. I'd come to love the characters so much that I wanted them to be happy. I came in to work and said, "I don't want to put the window up. I think it’s mean and unfair."
"Once that gear had kicked in, I wanted to lean as far in that direction as possible. We've been on this journey for 10 hours; a few minutes of hope was important to me. "
It sounds like Mike Flanagan wanted to protect the characters as much as fans did!
Showing the window in the Red Room would have signaled to fans that the house had ultimately won, trapping one or all of them in a warped dream state similar to visions at the beginning of the episode.
That might have been a sufficiently horrifying way to end the season, but it would have felt incredibly dark.
