WATCH: The secret behind those spooky ‘Haunting of Hill House’ scenes

MANILA, Philippines – If the titular house in Netflix’s Haunting of Hill House feels like it was tailor-made to fit its long, lingering scares and narrative, here’s a spoiler-free alert: it was. 

Episode 6 from the newly-released Netflix series, in fact, was crucial to making the set look the way it did. (READ: ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ is psychological family horror done right)

“The set had to be constructed with this episode in mind. We knew we had certain shots that would require us to walk through the house in its entirety,” said showrunner, co-writer, and director Mike Flanagan in a new behind-the-scenes featurette about the hit horror sow. 

“I set down to write the script for 106 and realized that a lot of the camera choreography needed to be incorporated into the draft itself. We were doing 18-page scenes without any cuts. I wanted an episode that would appear to take place essentially in real time, in one single shot,” he added. 

Because of the said long scenes, days were spend planning the lighting and blocking of each long shot. “You have to capture lighting in a bottle but you just have to get it once,” said Carla Gugino, who plays Olivia Crain in the series. 

This of it as a spectacularly choreographed dance. “Every shot was the product of a hundred people standing on each other’s shoulders and having to execute dozens or hundreds of tasks,” added Flanagan. 

The pressure was on for both cast and crew to get things right – and boy, did they. – Rappler.com

‘Haunting of Hill House’ is now streaming on Netflix