Seven Haunting Moments from Haunting of Hill House

As Halloween draws closer, many fans of horror and ghost stories find themselves returning to watch some of their favorite spooky stories. Few horror series have claimed as many long-standing fans as writer and director Mike Flanagan’s Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House. In the series, the Crain family, made up of two parents and five children, moves into Hill House to renovate it — however, they find that the house has intentions for them as well.

In one episode, a young Luke consoles his terrified twin sister Nellie by teaching her to count to seven, each number representing a member of their family. He tells her that seven is a special number that keeps them safe. In honor of the seven Crains and the seventh anniversary of the chilling series’ release, here are the seven moments from The Haunting of Hill House that still haunt us seven years later.

---

1. Steven Sees a Ghost (Episode 1)

While working one night, Steve receives a frantic call from his father. Hugh fears for Nell’s safety and begs his eldest son to look after her. Steven returns to his apartment to Nellie already waiting inside. He immediately chastises her for her neediness just as he receives another phone call from their father. As Steve begins to tell his father that Nell is at the apartment, Hugh interrupts him to inform him that Nell is dead. Steve turns around to find his sister right behind him. Slowly, her eyes become an unseeing white and her skin takes on a gray complexion as she screams.

Despite earning fame and fortune from writing horror novels, Steve believes that there were rational explanations for the tragedy his family experienced during their time at Hill House. He maintains that he never once saw a ghost. Beyond the inherently frightening visuals, this moment sets the stakes and dread for the rest of the series. While the Crains try to move on from Hill House, it becomes abundantly clear that Hill House is not done with them.

---

2. Face to Face with a Ghost (Episode 4)

As a child in Hill House, Luke is awakened from sleep one night by a slow, rhythmic thud outside of his and Nellie’s bedroom. He creeps to the door and, upon opening it, finds an unnaturally tall, lanky ghost floating and using a cane to navigate the halls. He quickly dashes to his bed and crawls beneath it. The rest of the scene takes place from Luke’s vantage point as he sees the door slowly open, and a pair of floating shoes comes closer to his bed. The ghost begins to leave, but Luke’s exhale of relief draws its attention.

The shoes slowly pivot to face the bed and draw closer. A long-fingered hand pulls back the quilt and Luke comes face to face with the ghost and screams. Dread is once again masterfully wielded in this scene. What makes this moment even more terrifying is its relatability. Many fans of the show can likely recall moments that they felt afraid and sought refuge underneath their bed as a child. While many found sanctuary and no threat on the other side, this scene completes the nightmare scenario that so many children feared at one point or another.

---

3. The Bent-Neck Lady (Episode 5)

Nellie was the only member of the Crain family who ever encountered the Bent-Neck Lady. She first saw her as a child, standing at the foot of her bed one night and floating over her as she tried to sleep on the couch another night. Even after Nellie leaves Hill House and grows up, the Bent-Neck Lady makes appearances during painful moments of her life. Nell more or less accepts that she has sleep paralysis and allows that to explain the apparition.

When the Bent-Neck Lady appears when her husband suddenly dies, however, she begins to question whether or not the Bent-Neck Lady is real. She returns to Hill House to prove to herself that it is just an old house. Her fears are instead confirmed as Hill House finally claims another Crain. In death, Nell revisits moments from her life in reverse, but from the perspective of the Bent-Neck Lady. Nell learns that she had been her own ghost all along. The realization is shocking for both Nell and viewers alike, as the Bent-Neck Lady’s looming presence suggests that Nell was doomed to become a fixture at Hill House all along.

---

4. Destruction of the Dream House (Episode 7)

The day of Nell’s funeral draws to a close, and Theo and Hugh are the only two Crains who stay behind following a family argument. Theo investigates a dirt trail leading into Shirley’s office with Hugh close behind. Inside they find the dream house that Olivia had built, and which Shirley treasured, in shambles and covered in grime. As Theo sifts through the wreckage, Hugh hears and then sees Olivia’s mangled ghost crawling out from behind the desk, wordless and wheezing. He quickly grabs Theo, who only shakes out of her freeze response and screams when she’s safely in Hugh’s arms.

The father and daughter are too shaken to explain to Shirley what had happened. Theo sobs as Hugh reassures Shirley that he can fix the house. Olivia’s appearance was gruesome in and of itself, but the undertones of her appearance are even more sinister. The dream house represented a hopeful future for their family, and one that Shirley had clung to for years. In destroying it and appearing to Hugh and Theo, Olivia’s ghost reminds them that that dream was shattered, and that Hill House would never let the Crains be the happy family they had once been.

---

5. The Storm Before the Funeral (Episode 6)

A storm rolls in as all the anger and pain and secrets the family buried over the years finally surfaces the night before Nellie’s funeral. The assembled Crains argue and shout at one another, seeking to be heard instead of understanding one another. While the two older children look for explanations and solutions to a sudden power outage, Hugh stays behind and sees Nell’s ghost. As he roams the dark halls, the story shifts to the past when Nellie went missing during a storm at Hill House.

No rational solutions are found to the power outage. Hugh, Shirley, Steve, and Luke argue about Hill House, and their shouting is interrupted when Nellie’s casket crashes to the ground and the power comes back on. The past and present collide as a young Nellie tearfully tells her family that as they looked for her in the storm, she was there the entire time. In the present, Nellie’s ghoulish spirit stands beside her coffin. She watches her family walk away, torn apart by grief and rage, as her voice as a child says, “I was right here … the whole time. None of you could see me. Nobody could see me.”

For so long, the Crains found their own ways to operate around their grief and loss, building lives that carefully sidestepped the pain they had endured. By avoiding confronting what was broken in their family, however, they doomed themselves to never have a chance to fix it. Between the claustrophobia of the two storms, the darkness in the family finally being brought to light, and Nell’s haunting, heartbreaking presence, this episode stays with viewers long after the credits roll.

---

6. Sisterly Rage (Episode 8)

Shirley and Theo drive to Hill House, hoping to save Luke from a similar fate as their mother and Nellie. The tension between the sisters is palpable as they try to come to an understanding of the previous night’s events. Both women only become angrier and more desperate. Their quarreling is brought to an abrupt halt when Nell’s ghost, veins black and eyes a milky white, bursts forward from the back seat between her two older sisters, screaming in fury.

This moment is often described by fans as one of the biggest jumpscares of the series, but what makes it so horrific is the sheer emotional weight of the scene. As the two sisters let their trauma and Hill House itself fracture their family further, Nell appears, screaming and breaking up the fight immediately and setting her two living sisters on a path of painful acceptance and reconciliation.

---

7. Hugh’s Sacrifice

Inside the Red Room, the four adult Crain children are trapped and Nellie’s ghost appears. She helps them understand their time at Hill House, and tells them that she loved them, and they loved her, and then she is gone. Hugh stands helplessly outside and pleads with Olivia’s ghost, corrupted by Hill House, to let them go. He finally opens the door and helps his children to the car. On their way out, Steve stops suddenly, seeing something but saying nothing.

When only Steve remains, Hugh shows Steve what happened the night his mother died. Viewers also see what stopped Steve in his tracks: Hugh’s body beside the stairs where both Olivia and Nellie died. Steve finally understands what protecting the children he loved so dearly had cost his father. Steve sees that the ability for the family to heal was not without a cost, and that love lives on even when it appears that it is lost.

As Steve exits the house that he is now responsible for, he finally sees every ghost that inhabits Hill House. The spirits, silently witnessing his departure, are the embodiment of the pain the house had caused. This moment is perhaps one of the most haunting moments in the series. Viewers feel the daunting weight that Steve and his siblings must face. Each Crain child finally recognizes the truth of Hill House and must reconcile the lives they are living now with a past they finally understand.

---

The Haunting of Hill House remains an acclaimed series seven years later for many reasons. Mike Flanagan masterfully wields dread, uses highly effective jumpscares with discretion, and knows that few things are more haunting to people than the pain of the past. He approaches horror with nuance and a heart, and crafts the haunting at Hill House into a layered metaphor for how grief and trauma left unexplored can haunt an entire family.

What are your favorite moments from the show? Join the conversation with other horror fans over at Sideshow Social Network or in side.show/geekgroup, and don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!

Stir up the spirits and face the monsters within … Spooktacular has been unleashed once again!

Put the EEK! in geek during Sideshow’s Spooktacular 2025, a celebration with ghastly giveaways, deathly deals, eerie exclusive perks, and more. Join us from October 23 – October 31 by visiting side.show/spooktacular and don’t forget — sleep is for the weak!