If you are a fan of Gravity Falls, Rick and Morty, and The Shining, Netflix’s Haunted Hotel is the perfect show for you. Created by Matt Roller, the series is absurd, fun, and yet has a lot of humanity behind it. Join us as we take a look at this refreshingly heartfelt show with its themes of the occult, grief, and found family.
Here are our High Five reasons why you should check out Haunted Hotel. Spoilers ahead.
The Charm of the Occult
Dollhouse-like version of the Haunted Hotel | Image from Netflix
Whether it’s the macabre or just the occult in general, Haunted Hotel explores almost every supernatural trope you can think of. From ghosts to curses to demons and the apocalypse, in the span of 10 episodes, the series was able to tackle them all. The series follows Katherine Freeling (Eliza Coupe) and her children, Ben (Skyler Gisondo) and Esther (Natalie Palamides), the reluctant new owners of Undervale Hotel. As they move into their new residence, they soon find that it is haunted by restless spirits, including Katherine’s deceased brother and the former owner of the hotel, Nathan (Will Forte). Add an immortal demon named Abbadon (Jimmi Simpson) to the mix and you get a recipe for success.
If you’re a big fan of horror, then you will appreciate how each episode is basically a love letter to horror films, featuring exorcists, cultists, Michael Myers, Frankenstein, The Omen, Lovecraftian monsters, and even viral ghost hunters. It’s a different misadventure every day, and watching the Freeling family try to make a profit out of the hotel they inherited is amusing and wholesome despite the frightful events happening around them.
Strong Animation Style and Familiar Hijinks
Haunted Hotel, Big Mouth, and Rick and Morty Animation and Vibe Comparisons | Image from Netflix
Titmouse, Inc., the same studio that animated Netflix’s Big Mouth, also animated Haunted Hotel. The studio’s modern style went well with the series, using stylized character designs and expressions that are incredibly evocative.
But that was not the only thing familiar about the show. The quirky vibe that fans loved in Rick and Morty also crossed over because Matt Roller, a writer from Rick and Morty, is the creator of Haunted Hotel. From multiple copies of Ben trying to kill him to Abbadon’s travels back in time, the show takes some inspiration from the sci-fi hijinks of Rick and Morty, but translating it for a supernatural setting. This fun approach situates Haunted Hotel firmly into modern classic territory for animation fans.
The Series Is A Stage of Grief
Nathan, hearing about the devastating news about how he died while escaping the demons | Photo from Netflix
Grief is a sensitive and complex subject, but how does it change when ghosts are added into the equation? Haunted Hotel makes you question how people would deal with deaths, even their own. The series emphasizes this through how ghosts stay tethered to the mortal realm. Time and time again throughout the series, we see spirits come and go to finally fulfill their unfinished business, no matter how cliche or petty it is.
Nathan, the show’s anchor, is a major example of this. He discovers that he is now dead, and his reaction is as grief-laced as it can get. So he stays at the hotel with his sister and her family to help them run a successful business. There’s also the grief of the living, since Ben and Esther are in dire need of a father figure, and Katherine is running the hotel as a defence mechanism to distract her from the devastating feeling of being divorced. Everyone is grieving but they do what they can, and in a series about the supernatural, it can’t get any more real than this.
Sincerity and Suspense
A unique ability of the show is how it’s able to balance genuine suspense with sincerity. While the series is abound with horror tropes galore, and explores new ways to twist or adapt them for a pop culture savvy audience, it still keeps its heart where it matters, especially when it comes to family dynamics. Katherin is a mom first and a hotel-owner second, and her interactions with her kids are extremely well-written. This core of characters and their relationships with one another form a strong foundation, with which the series gets to play off of with weird and wacky supernatural horror.
Family Can Mean Many Things
Left: The Freelings with Abbadon in the Opening Sequence | Middle: Nathan calling Ben and Esther inside| Right: Abbadon regains his powers and protects the Freelings | Images from Netflix
A normal nuclear family has a mom, dad, and children, while some extended families include grandparents, and maybe even some uncles or aunts. For the Freelings and Abbadon, a normal family is out of the question, and by the end of season one, you’ll be rooting for this strange found family with a mom and her two biological kids, her adopted demon child, and her ghost brother.
All in all, the series gives us a fun and refreshing watch. The series has so much heart despite the death and possible apocalyptic catastrophes lurking around the corner. SEA Wave gives Netflix’s Haunted Hotel 3.5 out of 5 waves.
Just a few weeks after its premiere on Netflix, the platform announced that Haunted Hotel will have a season 2, so stay tuned for the release date!