‘The Haunting of Hill House’: How’d They Pull Off That Terrifying Long-Take Sequence from Episode 6 — Watch
“The Haunting of Hill House” is terrifying. Thinking about how director Mike Flanagan and the cast and crew of the new series pulled off a centerpiece tracking shot longer than some entire Netflix episodes is even more terrifying.
A new behind-the-scenes peek into the making of “The Haunting of Hill House” breaks down some of the logistics and emotions that went into making that part of Episode 6 (“Two Storms”) work. Light on spoilers for those who may not be at that point in the show yet, this overview still manages to show how all the moving parts had to be just right for the plan to work.
There’s a list of things going on in this shot that Stefon would be proud of: spirits appearing out of nowhere, kids in wheelchairs, moving statues, a dripping fireplace flue, plenty of flashlights. Flanagan describes how the set was built specifically to accommodate this episode and that many of the camera movements were written into the script itself. Of course, he didn’t make it easy, particularly when including a gigantic family confrontation right in the middle of all the organized chaos.
There’s interview clips with stars Carla Gugino, Timothy Hutton, and Michiel Huisman, but this quote from executive producer Trevor Macy might hit hardest: “When you’re sitting at the monitor, watching this happen, you start to get 10, 11, 12 minutes in and you start like, ‘Oh God, please let us get through this!'” Even though he’s joking, you can imagine all the anxiety that the weeks leading up to that final shoot brought with it.
Watch the full video (including Hutton’s cool hat) below:
“The Haunting of Hill House” is now available to stream on Netflix.
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