By Travis Johnson

Okay, three things to keep in mind:

  1. Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel, The Haunting of Hill House, is a stone cold masterpiece.
  2. Robert Wise’s 1963 film adaptation, The Haunting, is a stone cold masterpiece.
  3.  Jan de Bont’s 1999 film adaptation, The Haunting, is… not.

Which means Mike Flanagan, who gave us Netflix’s Stephen King adaptation, Gerald’s Game, is in with a shot with at least hitting the coveted “not as bad as the last shot” target, but will have his work cut out for him if he wants to make his mark a little further up the ladder with his 10 part translation of Jackson’s seminal spook story.

Still, the 90 second teaser is pretty great:

Flanagan’s take is what is commonly called a re-imagining these days; it says so right in the official precis:

The Haunting of Hill House is a modern reimagining of Shirley Jackson’s legendary novel of the same name, about five siblings who grew up in the most famous haunted house in America. Now adults, they’re reunited by the suicide of their youngest sister, which forces them to finally confront the ghosts of their own pasts… some which lurk in their minds… and some which may really be lurking in the shadows of the iconic Hill House.”

…which is a fair distance away from the original plot, which saw a paranormal investigator lead a small team in search of scientific evidence of the supernatural and getting far more than he bargained for.

Flanagan’s cast includes the likes of Timothy Hutton, Carla Gugino, and Henry Thomas, all genre veterans, who will be on hand to have the bejeezus scared out of them when the series drops on October 12. In the meantime, enjoy the first round of production stills:

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