coli

Finished Episode 7 last night, and now I really can't wait to watch the last 3 episodes (this is a truly bingeworthy show). I have to say the kids are really good actors, as usually they can ruin a show like this, but they are all believable.

joeblow69

Ok, just finished it last night. While I did enjoy it, I wasn't really happy with the ending. It kind of reminded me of

BGPu

Binged this over the weekend. I liked it but the ending was a bit flat for me. I kind of felt like they could have cut a lot of the dysfunctional white people "This Is Us" style conflict and trimmed 2 episodes and been much more satisfying.

Mr. Flix

I loved the series as a whole, but I agree the final episode was a bit anti-climactic. It didn't go where I expected it to, which isn't a bad thing, but really episode ten didn't quite deliver on the build-up of the previous episodes.

I agree too that a lot of the "family drama" conversations felt bloated at times. I appreciated that the series worked to make the viewer feel invested in the characters, and the writers did a great job giving the members of the family distinct personalities, but a lot of the conversations could have been cut shorter without losing anything.

The creepiness factor for this show is amazing, especially once you realize there are hidden ghosts to find. I got full-body goosebumps more than once when I spotted a ghost hidden in the frame. And the show delivered some well-placed jump scares as well.

Acting was solid across the board, even from the kids, but with a few exceptions. I love Henry Thomas, but he's an awkward actor at times. And the guy who played the eldest son was a weak link. This was especially obvious in episode 6 with the long cuts -- he tended to get over-dramatic as the scenes went on.

One other complaint, and call me a prude if you want, but good grief, did this family rely on F-bombs waaaaaaay too often during their arguments. It really began to lose all meaning after awhile. There's gotta be a better way to say, "I'm being dead serious here!" than dropping F-bombs every other sentence. There's a great drinking game to be had here.

Bottom line: great show with flaws. Part of me wants there to be a second season, but part of me wants them to leave well enough alone. I wouldn't mind seeing the same director and cast coming together for a completely different storyline (a-la "American Horror Story").

funkyryno

Fingers crossed season 2 focuses on her character:

OldBoy

that's a very pretty girl.

Finisher

Yeah I loved 80% of it but the annoying family dynamic (gots to be dysfunction that we beat to death) and the final 10 minutes were unsatisfying. The ending really bugged me because they had a perfect ending there.

coli

Really good recap of the ending:

https://www.esquire.com/entertainmen...ing-explained/


I think most fans will be disappointed with the ending at first (or atleast feel it was anti-climatic), simply because this felt like a movie and you kind of expect that big budget ending.

I choose to focus on the internal story of the characters and think the overriding theme of the show was about all of us and how we deal with love, loss, friendship, pain throughout our lives (through fear). Each of the 5 siblings dealt with those things through the ghosts, or refusing to acknowledge those ghosts.

Some of us put up walls to people we know like Theo. Some of can't handle the daily grind and give into our demons like Luke. Some of us can't let go of the past like Nell. Some of us are hypocritical and judgemental like Shirley. Some of us think we know better then everyone like Steve.

Yes the show was about a haunted house, and it had alot of great scares, but to me it was about a family and how they all dealt with the loss of a parent. That is why the ending will come off as anti-climatic to most people because it really wasn't about the scares or the ghosts, it was really about each one of us (in a metaphorical sense).

I could be totally wrong, but that's how I saw the 10 episodes and thought it was a fantastic show!

actionjackson29

Yeah this is how I felt. The show was about the family. It wouldn’t have been the same show without the family drama.

Gunde

This is what will happen. Flanagan has said that even if Netflix renews the show, the Crain story is over.

E Unit

I really enjoyed the show and thought it had the perfect ending. I agree, this was solely about the family with the horror element thrown in. It went a few times into This Is Us melodrama, but I really enjoyed seeing these actors together. They really worked for me. But I hope they leave this as one and done.

Mr. Flix

This show has really stuck with me in the several days since I finished watching it. I'll likely revisit it again in the future and will probably get the eventual blu-ray. Even my wife, who absolutely despises horror movies/shows, was fully invested in this (albeit while sometimes "watching" with her hands over her eyes). Flanagan knows how to do horror, but he also knows that the best approach to horror is to give the audience characters that they care about. I'm on board for whatever he does next.

funkyryno

I thoroughly enjoyed this, but I felt like the jump scares grew to be rather tedious -- must've been 5-6 per episode. I guess that's what makes a modern day horror show, though.

E Unit

Really? I thought there were hardly any, but that one at the end of the episode where the sisters were driving was pretty crazy. The rest were rather tame, if any.

Mr. Flix

I thought the show relied very, very little on jump scares. Maybe 1-2 per episode, tops. And the ones they did use, like the one in the car mentioned above, were very effective. And none of them were fake-outs like cats or someone suddenly putting their hand on someone's shoulder before starting a conversation.

And I'll also say that this show proved that placing imagery in the background is more much effective at adding tension/creepiness than throwing in a jump scare any day. One scene in particular...

jpcamb

that said the show got me good with jump scares a handful of times not to mention getting chills more than once.

Rex Fenestrarum

I giggled a few seconds after it happened, imagining a family so messed up that something like that would be a routine occurrence.

Then again, I'm the guy who usually says something like "how's this guy gonna explain all this to his boss? Like 'sorry I've been gone for a week, boss, but my daughter was transported to a different dimension and I had to get her back!' Or to the cops? 'Look, the house collapsed on itself into spacetime'" at the end of horror movies.

Mr. Flix

No. Those weren't fake-outs. Those were genuinely things to be frightened of. I was referencing the cliche of using harmless things -- like a cat running out of a closet or someone putting their hand on a friend's shoulder -- to elicit an unwarranted scare.

funkyryno

OK. I guess I was overestimating the number of jump scares. According to this site, which actually tracks jump scares in movies, there are 26 in the series:

https://wheresthejump.com/jump-scare...ouse-season-1/

E Unit

Yeah, I caught some of those, but the ones in bold in that link are the only ones I really got a jolt out of.

Michael T Hudson

Finished it last night. Thought it was ok overall. I did think the sound was amazing.

Carlos_Taco

Watched the first episode. It was alright, quite long with nothing really going on but I liked the last minutes of it, they left interesting cliff hanger. I am going to continue further.

jpcamb

So finished re-watching the series with my kids - 13- and 15 and they both loved it. I will say the final episode was much more satisfying the second time around and I enjoyed it a lot more than the first time through.

funkyryno

Did you catch more of the hidden ghosts on the second viewing?

jpcamb

definitely a lot more but I'm sure I still missed a lot. This show begs for the old VH1 "pop up video treatment"