‘The Haunting of Hill House’ Recap: ‘Silence Lay Steadily’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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Sometimes a story outright blindsides you both emotionally and mentally in ways you never expected and well, I won’t lie, I struggled initially in writing this recap because the finale of The Haunting of Hill House did both of those things with incredible ease, leaving me in a scattered place once the end credits began to roll simply due to the fact that ‘Silence Lay Steadily’ turned out to be a different kind of horror finale, one that quite frankly continued to shatter tropes and clichés for the genre by providing me and all of you with a hauntingly beautiful ending to a powerfully ugly story and well, a day after watching this one, I am still in awe of everything it managed to accomplish.
 
In fact, said accomplishments are what we need to focus upon today because I am hard pressed to think of an ending for any other horror story out that offered up such a unique method to wrapping up its grand and sweeping story and really, the first thing that caught me off guard when it comes to this particular episode, is the sheer fact that it finally revealed the house’s motives and purpose and I am still stunned to learn that the house wasn’t evil after all. Sure, it collects spirits and let’s those entities live on for as long as the place stands, but it never meant harm, all it ever wanted was to add to its ranks spirit wise and the ‘evil’ here, and I use that term loosely, was Olivia Crain. For her fear for her family’s safety, her loneliness and everything in between is what motivated HER, not the house to call to the children and Hugh so that they could stay with her forever and be safe and well, you just don’t see that kind of behavior from ghosts in the genre well…ever.
 
They’re always evil and vengeful, but never afraid and well, the wonder of this finale didn’t quite end there. Because the commitment and the sacrifices that come with being a parent, and the importance of telling a child their worth and their wonder was also on display here by way of Hugh’s exit from the series since he gave the house his life in exchange for his children’s safety and my goodness, his farewell to Steven, wherein he finally told his son what he meant to dear old dad, and how to live his life going forward was truly beautiful and magnificent and quite frankly, tear jerking and it was so refreshing to see a bad dad come around full circle in this fashion and oddly enough, this positive moment was merely a taste of things to come. 
 
Because past that point, the series finally tipped its hand in regards to what it stood for and what message it wanted to get across to its audience and when all is said and done this wasn’t a series about ghosts or evil, it was about life and the horrors and hardships that come with just being a part of a wild and chaotic world and the trauma that finds us when we lose the people we love in life and how the mistakes and the pain that we carry with us…haunt us. Those things were the real ghosts in this series and it was magnificent to eventually see that Steven, Shirley, Luke and Theo were able to move past their personal ghosts and find a way to move forward in life and enjoy it to the fullest and well, this was simply a wonderful way to end the series and I’m so glad it bucks the trend that horror usually follows when it comes to the finale of a haunted house story.
 
For often times, people die horribly, and are forever changed for the worse in these tales, so to see people overcome their pain and survive their experience and live happily ever after is just refreshing to say the least and well, in the end, this was just…an utterly brilliant series through and through. It scared me, it made me laugh, it made me cry and it even found a way to inspire and let one’s spirit soar since I am now haunted by Hugh’s final words in regard to being kind and well, I am supremely sad in knowing that this story is over. Because this was truly a masterpiece, and a revelation for horror since it offered so many new ideas and concepts and I hope it serves as inspiration for other scary stories to provide us with something more and this is one that quite frankly, I made need to revisit soon, just to bask in the terror and glory of this flawless story, one more time… 

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