Mike Flanagan's The Haunting of Hill House series to possess your Netflix queue this October

Last year, it was announced that modern horror maverick Mike Flanagan (Hush, Gerald’s Game) would helm a “modern re-imagining” of Shirley Jackson’s 1959 horror novel The Haunting of Hill House for Netflix, though, aside from the casting of actress Carla Gugino and Game of Thrones’ Michiel Huisman, details have been scarce. That changes today, as the streaming platform has shared a plot synopsis and oodles of photos for the 10-part series, as well as an October 12 release date.

Flanagan’s riff deviates from the original’s motley crew of paranormally gifted guests, who are invited to the titular house by a doctor devoted to finding scientific evidence of the supernatural. Here, the story centers around “a group of siblings who, as children, grew up in what would go on to become the most famous haunted house in the country.” The story will reportedly flit back and forth between the past and a modern-day present as it finds the siblings (and, per the photos, their families) revisiting the house “in the face of tragedy.”

This sounds part and parcel of Flanagan’s work, which often sets tender, complex familial issues against horrors both real and imagined. Last year, he nailed that approach with his stirring adaptation of Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game, so this “modern re-imagining” certainly plays to his strengths.

Joining Gugino and Huisman are Timothy Hutton, Elizabeth Reaser, and Henry Thomas, as well as budding tween actresses McKenna Grace (I, Tonya) and Lulu Wilson, the latter of whom is becoming a Hollywood horror go-to after starring in both Annabelle: Creation and Flanagan’s surprisingly solid Ouija: Origin of Evil.

See some more photos from the series below: