The Haunting of Hill House Fans Need to Watch This AppleTV+ Masterpiece

Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House dropped on Netflix in 2018 and followed the five Crain family children, who moved into Hill House when their parents intended on renovating and selling it but were stuck there and quickly suffered at the hands of the house’s terrifying paranormal entities. In the present day, those five children are now adults who return to Hill House to face their past, and they’re soon sucked into another brutal and traumatic ordeal.

The Haunting of Hill House received widespread critical acclaim thanks to its genuine scares, complicated emotional themes of grief and dysfunction, expertly crafted details, and impressive one-shot takes that put the viewer directly into Hill House in real time. As such, it’s easy to see why The Haunting of Hill House fans might look for something similar, and if they step back from Mike Flanagan’s Netflix anthology series, they’ll find an often-overlooked masterpiece on AppleTV+.

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AppleTV+’s Often-Overlooked Gem Kept Critics Invested For Four Seasons

AppleTV+ has, in recent years, built an impressive catalog of prestige shows. Severance, Ted Lasso, and The Morning Show are just a few of the high-quality series the streaming service has to offer, and movies like F1, The Gorge, and The Lost Bus all received high praise upon their 2025 releases. Even still, audiences overlook a few gems on the platform, and 2019’s Servant is one such example. The M. Night Shyamalan-produced series focuses on Dorothy and Sean, a couple who are still reeling from the tragic death of their 6-week-old baby, Jericho.

Dorothy’s catatonic state of grief leads them to Natalie, an unlicensed therapist who suggests caring for a reborn doll to ease their pain. Now able to head back to work, the pair hire Leanne as a nanny to care for the reborn Jericho, which Dorothy has begun treating as a real child. When Leanne enters their home, viewers get a taste of some eerie and disturbing scenarios: oddly, Sean can’t disable his own home security system, loses his sense of taste, is covered in splinters, and is becoming increasingly aware that the reborn doll is now somehow a living baby.

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It doesn’t take long for Sean to realize that Leanne is not who or what she claims to be. Meanwhile, Dorothy is completely disillusioned with her reality. With help from Dorothy’s younger brother, Julian (Rupert Grint), Sean works hard to ensure Dorothy’s sanity remains as intact as possible, but numerous strange occurrences keep viewers questioning if any of this is real or if there are supernatural forces at play. Servant is a haunting exploration of grief, paranoia, and postpartum depression, and M. Night Shyamalan’s focus on tension and claustrophobia elevate the story into something truly chilling.

It’s no easy feat to keep a story like this so tight for four seasons, but the 40-episode length actually works well in Servant’s favor. Audiences don’t know what to think and, when that’s paired with the “hidden observer” camera angles, they can often feel like they’re stuck in this traumatic nightmare with Sean and Dorothy. For the excellent performances, slow-burn narrative, and psychological deconstruction of the characters’ lives, the mystery box show received high praise from Stephen King and Guillermo Del Toro, and it’s perfect for The Haunting of Hill House fans.

Nell Crain and the Bent-Neck Lady in The Haunting of Hill House

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Why The Haunting of Hill House Fans Will Love Servant

Much like Servant, The Haunting of Hill House places a large focus on trauma, grief, and denial. These are key parts of the Crain children’s stories: much like Dorothy can’t accept Jericho’s death, Stephen refuses to believe the truth about Hill House; Dorothy is defined by her need to protect her child, much like Olivia Crain; Sean and Hugh both fail to protect their families. Each episode of Servant and The Haunting of Hill House further fleshes out the characters’ trauma while flawed familial dynamics are pushed to the forefront.

The Bent-Neck Lady and Leanne also have similarities, as they both deeply troubled people who possess supernatural abilities. But one particularly impressive element of The Haunting of Hill House is its creepy, uneasy atmosphere. The show is scary, for sure, but there’s an unwavering sense of dread present in each moment. Servant does this much the same, and both shows utilize the house setting as a means of maintaining that sense of dread. Hill House and the Turners’ brownstone have plenty of differences, but this singular location makes the viewer feel just as claustrophobic as its residents.

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The Haunting of Hill House is a masterclass in emotion thanks to its long takes and unconventional shots that keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Similarly, Servant’s long pans and close-up shots only heighten the tension inside the Turners’ home. So, if audiences liked the Mike Flanagan show’s lesser focus on jumpscares, they’ll like Servant’s focus on atmospheric unease.

Stephen King praised the AppleTV+ show, calling it “extremely creepy and totally involving,” and also praised The Haunting of Hill House, noting that it’s “close to a work of genius.” Both series rightly earned their critical acclaim, and Hill House fans will find a lot to love in Servant.