Disclaimer: Spoilers ahead
The Haunting of Hill House is one of the best originals Netflix has come up with this year. It is definitely the best horror show we have witnessed in a very long time.
However, the cathartic ending to the show could have been very different if creator Mike Flanagan had not changed his mind.
Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, he admits that final monologue was supposed to have a Red Door in the background, making it so that the family never really got out of the house.
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.
But his guilt about the cruel ending did not let him proceed with it.
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.
Imagine the horror if the Crains had never left the room! That would have been one gloomy ending!