Making new ghosts is hard since horror fans have seen it all and there can only be so many new gimmicks to scare them. However, thanks to the imaginative (and twisted) minds of Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House, the horror genre received some scary new additions to its horrific menagerie movie and show monsters.
The Haunting of Hill House's ghosts are sure to be some of the fondest characters that the viewers will remember as they forcibly make themselves known in the most impolite ways possible. Of course, out of all the dozens of ghosts who have appeared on the show and supposedly died within the show's titular mansion, 10 stand out for either giving everyone a heart attack or a lingering feeling of dread or sadness.
ABIGAIL
Abigail Dudley is but a mere seemingly harmless and very-much-alive child sneaking around Hill House grounds but there's still a tragic implication to her appearances. In the show's past timeline, she was one of the most recent victims of the mansion when Olivia Crain poisoned her.
Afterward, Abigail quickly became a ghost and was only visible to her parents in the house. The manner of her death was quite sad seeing as she was harmless and is usually overprotected by the Dudleys. Thankfully, she did manage to live through the house albeit in a creepy manner.
CLOCK REPAIRMAN
Compared to some of the more aggressive entities in Hill House, the clock repairman with the handlebar mustache is rather tame. He just does what he got called for within the mansion grounds except he doesn't seem very effective at it as the clock he's been tinkering with has shown no signs of repair since 1964. Probably because he's just a ghost.
Still, his presence has sparked much uneasiness especially within the recesses of Hugh Crain's mind and his children. The clock repairman with the handlebar mustache nearly even drove Hugh insane with bewilderment. There's also a certain mystery surrounding the clock repairman such as how exactly did the Hill House come to assimilate his poor blue-collar soul when he's was probably just passing by with a quick repair.
CHILD IN THE WHEELCHAIR
Some of the oldest inhabitants of the house are the most hostile ones, especially the original owners. A case in point is those disabled ghost child who might look harmless and even not-so-scary as a ghost but actually contributes to many sleepless nights for the Crains.
That's because he's the child of the owners of the house and probably thinks he still lives there. He also doesn't communicate very well or can't talk so he just knocks on the walls to communicate and is likely responsible for all the random noises in the middle of the night.
STAIR LURKERS
There are many unnamed and unrecognized ghosts in the Hill House but none of them are as rude as those who stare wide-eyed at living people from under the dimly-lit staircases of the show. They're often easy to miss but when viewers see them, it's a guaranteed hair-raising adrenaline shot.
Afterward, they'll never likely see stairs the same way again because some dead people with bad communication skills thought it would be a good idea to make their presence known by lurking under the stairs. Someone ought to tell them that's not how they should seek closure after death.
POPPY HILL
The viewers might have been wondering at some point which of the ghosts best represents the malevolence of the Hill House. Because most of them are just harmless lurkers and roaming lost souls. Turns out Poppy Hill, the wife of William Hill, owner of the mansion, was the one responsible.
She's the clinically insane spouse of the owner and is just plain evil and harms people on her whim. So you can imagine what she'd be up to when she became a ghost in Hill House. In fact, she's the one who compelled Olivia Crain to murder Abigail and her children. Appearance-wise she's not really that scary and even looks well-dressed for a ghost.
OLD LADY/HAZEL HILL
There's always something about senior citizens turning into ghosts that make them more frightening than the regular apparition. Hill House proves this by turning Hazel Hill, the cranky old woman in the mansion, into one of the more outspoken entities in the series.
She's most vocal whenever Poppy is having her way with Olivia and always lets her disapproval for her sister-in-law known. Moreover, she constantly haunts that brass megaphone in her former room and with her appearance before she died, she didn't even need to do much to scare people away.
OLIVIA CRAIN
Olivia Crain having some sort of mental breakdown episodes where she suddenly becomes aggressive or even violent made her the prime target of Poppy's ghost. It wasn't clear whether Poppy possessed her or just sparked her insanity but Olivia eventually became a deranged murderer after a prolonged stay at the house.
Afterward, she killed herself and started haunting the house as well as compelling Nellie to also kill herself. She also killed Abigail and nearly killed Luke. There's no doubt that she became an even more dangerous entity in Hill House than any other ghost and even managed to dethrone Poppy.
THAT ZOMBIE IN THE BASEMENT
Some of Hill House's ghosts were left unexplained and while those in the main areas of the mansion were usually placid, that one ghoul in the basement or hidden wine cellar was definitely up to no good. When Luke accidentally discovered the basement via dumbwaiter, he was immediately assaulted by this said zombie-ghost thing.
It even managed to rip off his clothing, meaning it can directly affect the physical world... or maybe it was just Luke who ripped his clothes? In any case, this is by far the most horrifying ghosts in Hill House considering it can directly harm living people.
TALL MAN/WILLIAM HILL
Still, what came to haunt Luke later on in his life wasn't that basement dweller zombie. It was the owner of the house himself, William Hill, or as Luke likes to call him, Tall Man. Apparently, he wasn't really that tall in life but due to the manner of his death, being trapped in the wall he built, his ghost became that of a tall freaky man.
This lent much to his horrendous facade, often appearing as a lanky tall man floating in the corridors of Hill House. He technically doesn't harm anyone but is nevertheless one of the most nightmare-inducing ghosts in the mansion seeing as he represents most of Luke's issues such as fear and guilt.
BENT-NECK LADY
Finally, the most terrifying ghost in the series, the ghost of death itself. This took in the form of the Bent-neck Lady, which turned out to be Nellie in her future self and final moments somehow flashbacking to the highlights of her life. Seeing a dead version of yourself is by far the scariest ghost you can ever encounter.
For most people, that's probably not alarming but Nellie's manner of death was brutal and grim thanks to the failed rope suicide that left her with a bit of life after she broke her neck. When not appearing as the Bent-neck lady to her younger self, she usually pesters her brothers and sisters as a rotting corpse; sounds pretty normal for siblings on Halloween.