Mental Health in the Haunting of Hill House

Netflix’s hit series The Haunting of Hill House was the topic of many conversations when
it first released due to the show's focus on horror and its overall eerie experience it provides its
viewers. While it is important to acknowledge the genre that the show is based in, I believe that
many viewers miss a more important message that the director Mike Flanagan had in mind
when making the series. When watching The Haunting of Hill House I believe an important
message that a viewer can take away is the importance of focusing on one's mental health and
the fact that it is okay to receive help. It may be a more subtle message for the average viewer
but, regardless of the level that people dive into this series, I still believe people can learn from
the events that happened in the show and realize how important it is to get help with your own
mental health when needed.

The Haunting of Hill House was first released on Netflix in October of 2018, the series
follows the five children of the Crain family as they navigate the horrors that have plagued their
past and have started to appear once again now that they have grown up. The show first takes
place in the summer of 1992 when the family first moved into Hill house, with the hopes of
renovating it for a profit, but slowly they realize that it was a lot more than they originally wanted
to take on.

One of the main focuses in this story is Hill house and the haunting history it has, which
plays a big role in the eerie and horror aspect of the show. A house is meant to be somewhere
where you feel safe and at home, so it is kind of ironic that Hill house does seem to be the root
of the Crain family's problems and instead is filled their lives with horror and tragedy. A quote I
found interesting from the show is “Nell says that the house is loud”, when you first hear this
quote you might just think that it adds to the overall creepy factors of the show, but I also think
that it could provide commentary on how the places you surround yourself with can play a factor
into your overall mental wellbeing. ”... harsh lighting and loud noises can lead to anxiety or
agitation, while dark and cold spaces can lead to feeling unmotivated…”(Lindberg, 2023). When
looking at this quote it makes a lot of sense that the environment of Hill house (which has every
aspect of your typical horror movie house, even with a creepy maid and handyman included)
would play a factor into the deteriorating mental health of the family. This could also go on to
further show how small aspects in someone's life can have a higher effect on someone's mental
wellbeing than one might think.

It is important to mention that since half of the series does take place when the Crain’s
are children it does provide an interesting perspective that allows the viewers to see how they
have grown into the adults that they become. This is interesting when looking at the concept of
mental health because often conditions that people have had children can often follow them and
even progress when they reach adulthood. In a study done by, JAMA Psychiatry where they
took data from a survey done by 1,420 children regarding common mental health conditions
periodically until they reached adulthood found, “...having a diagnosed psychiatric issue as a
child made him or her six times more likely to experience at least one adverse effect as an
adult…” (Basu, 2015). I believe that this is not only an important thing to be acknowledged in
life, but it is also an important concept in the series. One example of this can be seen by looking
at Nell, who is the youngest of the Crain children. During Nell’s childhood she suffered from a
condition that is known as sleep terrors and it eventually followed her into her adult life. This
condition resulted in her also having depression, and tragically played a role in her eventual
suicide. “The cause is unknown but night terrors are often triggered by fever, lack of sleep or
periods of emotional tension, stress or conflict” (John Hopkins Medicine, 2023). This quote
shows some things that can potentially trigger the occurrence of sleep terrors, which makes
sense when watching the series the viewer can clearly see the effects that the house and
surrounding events have had on the young and adult versions of Nell. These sleep terrors and
the “bent-neck lady” (who is later revealed to be herself) can be an important metaphor for what
it is like to live with mental illness and trauma from the events that happened in her childhood. I
believe the director chose to portray Nell with this condition in order to fully show how conditions
can progress over the course of someone's life and further illustrate how important it is for one
to advocate for themselves and receive help when needed. In the series Nell did not receive
help with her condition until she reached adulthood, but after a tragic event concerning her
husband she stopped receiving this help. This could be seen as a warning of what could happen
if you don't advocate for your needs and acts as a warning for potential effects of these choices.

Another way I believe that the director also pushed on the idea of how important it is to
acknowledge health is through other actions of Stevan. While he was one of the only children to
embrace and accept that his family has struggled with their mental health, he also saw it as a
“sickness” that he didn't consider to be normal. I believe that this is an important concept that
the director was trying to convey through this character and it brings up major concepts
surrounding mental health. The one of which is, it is really important to not discriminate against
those who struggle with their mental health, instead you should recognize that it is a very real
thing that many people do struggle with all over the world. I think because of Stevan’s exposure
to his mothers condition when he was at a young age he was never able to fully grasp the
concept of what mental health is and he never came to realize that it is a very normal thing. The
CDC even shows, “More than 50% will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some
point in their lifetime” (CDC, 2021). This shows that mental health and mental illness is
extremely common and about one in two people will experience this at some point in their life. I
believe that recognizing the fact it is a common and very normal occurrence is an important step
to accepting and being able to help with your loved ones and your own mental wellbeing. I am
sure that every person has known or currently knows someone who has struggled with their
mental health at one point in their lives, so being able to accept it and not steer away is very
important. I think the director chose to portray Stevan this way in order to show how ignorance
can push others away from you and the director uses his character as a warning to the viewers
of what can happen.

In the end, the audience is never really clear about whether the events in hill house were
real or just made up by the Crain family. A similar pattern can surround mental health, there are
so many questions and everything is different for every single person and there is still so much
research to be done regarding this area of health. Regardless of this I think it is so important to
be able to learn from the events in the series and to look further into your own mental health and
realize how important it is for you to get help when needed.

Sources

“About Mental Health.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease . . .
Control and Prevention, 28 June 2021,https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/learn/index.htm.
Basu, Tanya. “Children with Mental Health Problems Are Also at Risk as Adults.” Time, Time, . .
15 July 2015, https://time.com/3955745/childhood-mental-illness/.

“Nightmares and Night Terrors.” Nightmares and Night Terrors | Johns Hopkins Medicine, 19 . .
Nov. 2019, https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/nightmares .
-and-night-terrors.

Sara Lindberg, M.Ed. “How Your Environment Affects Your Mental Health.” Verywell Mind, . . .
Verywell Mind, 23 Mar. 2023, https://www.verywellmind.com/how-your-environment- . . . .
affects-your-mental-health-5093687.

Reflection

How did the process of writing an analysis allow you to discover more about your
subject or your personal perspective?
Ever since the show first came out I have always really enjoyed it, but I never really dove
deeper into the choices that the director made or looked for any hidden messages. It was
actually really enjoyable for me to look closer at the show, and since I have already seen it
before it made rewatching it a new experience. When writing the analysis I also learned a lot
about the concept of mental health. I already knew a decent amount going in, but by doing the
research and the writing I was definitely able to expand my knowledge of the topic.

Did framing your subject within a paradigm allow you to discover new perspectives on
it? Why or Why not?

I think by choosing a paradigm it did help me to see a new perspective. When you watch this
show you typically focus on concepts to do with the genre that it fits in, but by focusing on my
paradigm of mental health I was able to see the show in a completely new way. I also think the
paradigm really helped me by giving me a direction to go in and what to focus on, especially
since there is so much content in the show and trying to start was a little hard.

How did your paradigm allow you to say what you would not have been able to say
otherwise?

The paradigm helped me by showing the audience where I was going with my analysis. It also
gave me a sort of jumping off point where I could start my analysis. This helped me to focus on
what aspects from the series alluded to the concept of mental health and ignore information that
was irrelevant to the topic.

How did the research process influence your writing?

The research process was kind of stressful for me at first because the topic of mental health can
be very broad and has a lot of different parts to it. But it was also very helpful to give me an idea
of what I wanted to talk about in my analysis, this also helped me to look at what evidence from
the show further showed the concepts that I found in my research.

Based on how much work you’ve done for this project, the rubric, and what you perceive
as its quality, what grade do you think you deserve? Explain why. How proud are you of
your work?

I believe that I put in a lot of effort into this project, I believe that I included everything that the
rubric mentioned. I also think that I really took the feedback that I got from the workshop that we
did in class and I used it to really change and make my analysis better. My first draft focused on
way too many concepts and aspects from the show and was around 600 words over the word
count. But after getting feedback I was able to cut it down to fit in the word count and now it only
focuses on the most important parts. Overall for this project I think that I deserve an A for the
amount of effort that I put in, and also because I am very proud of how my final analysis turned
out. I have never written an analysis before and I think that I did a very good job on this project.
What else do you want your instructor to know? What additional context is there for this
project?

There is nothing else I want the instructor to know, and there is no additional context needed.