The following article contains discussions of suicide.
Mike Flanagan is one of the modern masters of horror, creating some of the scariest projects in years, but it isVictoria Pedretti’s character inThe Haunting of Hill Housethat haunts me the most out of any Flanagan project. Steadily making a name for himself since his directorial debut in 2011 withAbsentia, it wasn’t until Mike Flanagan struck a deal with Netflix that his career really took off, particularly due to his masterful work,The Haunting of Hill House. Even afterFlanagan’s six Netflix horror projects,The Haunting of Hill Housestill remains one of his best.
Released in 2018,The Haunting of Hill Housewas the first horror series Flanagan ever did, but it certainly wasn’t the last. He followed that up withThe Haunting of Bly Manor,Midnight Mass,The Midnight Club, andThe Fall of the House of Usher, all produced by Netflix. One of Flanagan’s defining traits is his willingness to reuse actors for a number of his projects, with them playing various characters in what became known as the Flanaverse. There have been a number ofamazing characters in the Flanaverse, but one stands out to me as truly haunting.
Who Victoria Pedretti Plays In Haunting Of Hill House
Nell Crain Is An Important Character In The Series
The Haunting of Hill Houserevolves around the Crain family, and how the time spent in Hill House as children shaped both their past and their current adult selves in ways that they might not have realized before.Victoria Pedretti plays the adult version of Eleanor “Nell” Crain, the youngest sibling in the Crain household, alongside her twin brother, Luke. Violet McGraw plays the younger version of Nell, with both actresses creating one of the most complex and tragic characters in the Flanaverse.
Victoria Pedretti’s character is arguably the beating heart ofThe Haunting of Hill House.
Alternating between the past and present, the series explores the ghosts that haunt various members of the Crain family. Although she may not have as much screen time as some of the older Crain siblings, Pedretti’s character is arguably the beating heart ofThe Haunting of Hill Houseand the character through which the entire adult section of the story is filtered. It’s a tough role to take on, but both Pedretti and McGraw do so with remarkable talent and tenderness.
Why Victoria Pedretti’s Haunting Of Hill House Character Is So Scary
Nell Was Haunted By Her Own Death Her Whole Life
Throughout her time in Hill House during her childhood, Nell Crain was haunted by images of the Bent-Neck Lady, a terrifying figure that appeared in front of Nell numerous times throughout the series. Nell is routinely shown to be affected by sleep paralysis both during childhood and as an adult, with the Bent-Neck Lady appearing during her episodes. In episode 5, “The Bent-Neck Lady,” everything comes full circle, andit is revealed that what haunted Nell Crain throughout most of her life was her inevitable death, becoming the Bent-Neck Ladyafter hanging herself when she goes back to Hill House as an adult.
Although viewers learn that Nell died in episode 1, it isn’t until “The Bent-Neck Lady” that we find out how.
Very few characters give me the chills quite like Nell Crain inThe Haunting of Hill House. Not only is she a tragic character, she ends up becoming arguably the scariest ghost in the entire series, and one of the scariest characters in any Mike Flanagan project. Thinking about being haunted as a child by what eventually became of you is existentially terrifying in ways that fill me with almost an indescribable dread. Flanagan and Pedretti were able to explore that concept inThe Haunting of Hill House, which ended up making Nell Crain’s character so tragic and the Bent-Neck Lady so sadly horrific.
What Victoria Pedretti Has Said About Haunting Of Hill House
The Haunting Of Hill House Was Her Big Break
Given that Victoria Pedretti had to pull double duty inThe Haunting of Hill House, playing the living Nell Crain and the dead version, she nails both aspects of Nell, creating a truly haunting character in the process. In a 2018 interview withDecider, just a few days afterThe Haunting of Hill Housewas released,Pedretti talked about what it was like playing a ghost and if it was more fun or challenging than playing a living character, stating:
“Yeah, that was really fun! I get to scare people… It always has to come from somewhere. Like, the idea isn’t to scare, ultimately, it’s to attempt to say something, but it just comes out as ‘Agh!‘”
The Haunting of Hill Housewas the first major role of Pedretti’s career, as well as the first Mike Flanagan project she was a part of. Getting a big break working with Flanagan is an impressive accomplishment given how much of a horror titan he is at the moment. Speaking toCollider Ladies Night, Pedretti opened up about what it felt like to work with Flanagan and the way he conducted his set during the filming ofThe Haunting of Hill House, stating:
“A huge amount of that crew were people that had worked with Mike Flanagan and Trevor in the past, and I think that that was a really special thing to walk into. There was already a rapport. Mike really worked a lot to protect the scene work and push for us to have the amount of time we needed to capture the beautiful work of Michael Fimognari, and protect the acting in the scenes. So many people told me on that set, ‘You know, stuff doesn’t work like this. You’re being spoiled,’ and that’s true. It was really an environment that was conducive to real creativity and I’m forever grateful. Fck. Fck! I’m a little emotional lady! … It was a really special way to start off my career.”
Victoria Pedretti’s Other Role In The Flanaverse
She Plays Another Incredible Character
Despite Mike Flanagan choosing to continue working with a lot of the same actors for each of his projects, Victoria Pedretti only appeared in one other series in the Flanaverse. Following her bone-chilling role as Nell inThe Haunting of Hill House,Pedretti turned to another tragic character inThe Haunting of Bly Manortwo years later, playing Dani Clayton. Not exactly a true sequel,The Haunting of Bly Manorwas the second entry inThe Hauntinganthology series created by Flanagan for Netflix.
2018
2020
Danielle “Dani” Clayton
Dani Clayton is a young American au pair who takes a job taking care of two children at Bly Manor in England, sparking up a romance with Jamie Taylor, the Manor’s gardener. WhileThe Haunting of Hill Housewas a supernatural family horror-drama,The Haunting of Bly Manorwas a gothic romance supernatural horror-drama.
The familiar trappings are there from before, as both series revolve around a house haunted by the ghosts of the past (and present), butThe Haunting of Bly Manoris more concerned with the tragic romance at the center of the story, which is possibly even sadder than Nell’s story inThe Haunting of Hill House.
Pedretti is an amazing actress, and Flanagan was right in having her play such an important character as Nell Crain inThe Haunting of Hill House. Not only was it Pedretti’s first major role, it helped solidify her as one of the best up-and-coming talents in the industry, and her subsequent role inThe Haunting of Bly Manormade her one of modern horror’s best actresses. Nell Crain is a truly haunting figure inThe Haunting of Hill HouseandVictoria Pedretti’s incredible talent was a significant reason why.
The Haunting of Hill House
Cast
The Haunting of Hill House is a 2018 horror drama series that interweaves the past and present narrative of a family grappling with traumatic occurrences from their former residence. The story explores the psychological and supernatural elements of their experiences as they contend with haunting memories and events.
