Mike Flanagan's The Haunting of Hill House has continued to serve as a powerful example of a supernatural horror series. The Netflix series chilled viewers to the bone with its stunningly tragic tale dealing heavily with themes of trauma and family. Flanagan (and many of his stars) have gone on to collaborate on other spooky projects, but the chilling nature of The Haunting of Hill House has brought many back to the series time and time again.
Packed with jumpscares and well-built suspense, the Netflix series uses ghostly figures lurking on the grounds of Hill House to traumatize the Crain family. Of all the ghosts that appear throughout Hill House, some have become more notable than others. Perhaps the most infamous is the Bent-Neck Lady who begins to haunt young Nell Crain early in episode one.
Of all the Crain children haunted by something from Hill House, Nell's ghastly Bent-Neck Lady is among the most disturbing. Appearing as a woman whose head is cocked to the side at an unnatural angle, the ghost first appears only throughout numerous flashbacks to Nell's childhood. Unfortunately, the sightings don't stop there and continue well into her adulthood. Nell's strange occurrences with the Bent-Neck Lady are best explored in The Haunting of Hill House's fifth episode titled after the ghostly figure. Through this, it's learned that the sightings of the Bent-Neck Lady go hand in hand with a vicious form of sleep paralysis for Nell and that during one of her episodes, her husband Arthur suffers a fatal aneurysm.
Reeling from the loss of Arthur (whose death she blames on the Bent-Neck Lady), Nell returns to Hill House. Upon returning to the haunted estate, Nell is tricked by Hill House into visualizing everything she's ever wanted. Along the way, she stumbles across her mother, Olivia, who died by suicide in Hill House the night Nell and her siblings were taken from the house forever. Nell is then guided up the staircase where Olivia places her own necklace around Nell. The necklace turns out to be another fabrication of Hill House and the necklace's true form is a noose. Nell is then nudged off the staircase by her mother which snaps her neck, killing her. As Nell hangs from the staircase, her life flashes before her eyes as she revisits all the moments in her life she has seen the Bent-Neck Lady. By doing so, Nell discovers that the ghost she has been running from all this time is herself.
The Bent-Neck Lady's horror can be chalked up to her appearance alone but the revelation of her identity makes her that much more terrifying. She serves as both a warning and a horrific symbol of hope. As a child, the Bent-Neck Lady was Nell's future quite literally staring her in the face, warning her of the fate that awaits her. Nell also appears in front of her family throughout the series (despite being dead) to warn them against their imminent returns to Hill House. The revelation of the Bent-Neck Lady's link to Nell is also what gives the Crain family hope and ultimately inspires their own internal change. Without the Bent-Neck Lady, Nell never would've been able to unite her family so that they could confront their long-kept secrets and support one another. It's incredibly unfortunate that Nell had to die for this to happen, but even in death, she is no longer alone and unheard. Within Hill House, Nell is joined by both her mother and father forever.
Themes of loneliness, depression, grief, fear, trauma, and fate all drive the stellar, haunting beauty of The Haunting of Hill House. The Bent-Neck Lady is an unforgettable premonition of destiny. Haunted by the Bent-Neck Lady from a young age, it becomes clear that Nell saw her future laid out before her more than once. It makes the story of the Bent-Neck Lady not only disturbing but sad. In The Haunting of Hill House's sixth episode, there is a heartbreaking scene that features Nell standing in Hill House as a child, shouting that none of her family could see her. She continues to tell them that she had been there the entire time and grows upset that yet again, she was ignored. This scene is countered with the present day of Nell's funeral where she stands in front of her casket as the Bent-Neck Lady. Once again, her family cannot see her or her invisible hand that knocked her own casket to keep them from fighting.
Ultimately, the story of the Bent-Neck Lady creates her eerie persona in The Haunting of Hill House. As a mysterious character that only appears to haunt Nell, her presence is no different than any of the other ghosts that terrify the Crains. She's merely a creepy presence. Once her true identity is revealed as Nell, the previous occurrences become a horrific case of Nell's life flashing before her eyes. With the involvement of her own mother and the pull of Hill House, the tragedy of the Bent-Neck Lady earns her more sympathy than fear in the end.
The Haunting of Hill House is now streaming on Netflix.