The new series based on Shirley Jackson's book premieres Oct. 12.

The Crain siblings are all haunted by something.

Steven (Michael Huisman) is plagued by his failures as a brother and husband; Shirley (Elizabeth Reaser) is a mortician with a morbid fascination rooted in the suicide of their mother (Carla Gugino); Theo (Kate Siegel) shields herself from the touch of the outside world because she feels it more deeply than others; Nell (Victoria Pedretti) is on the verge of a breakdown and her twin brother, Luke (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), is a prisoner to his drug addiction.

They’re all branches of a family tree constantly beaten by a storm of tragedy, broken by their past and helpless to its influence.

Despite their disparate lives and dysfunctions, everything that haunts them can be traced back to a single source — Hill House.

For his new Netflix series, “The Haunting of Hill House,” writer/director Mike Flanagan shifts the focus of Shirley Jackson’s legendary story from the trappings of the title residence to the tortured residents still living a life defined by their formative summer within its walls.

In this intimate and nerve-frying retelling, the Crain kids are all grown up when tragedy strikes — but they aren’t strangers to it. Not only did they each experience the unexplainable after their parents (Gugino and Henry Thomas) moved the brood in for what was supposed to be a quick fix-and-flip investment. But they fled Hill House in the dark of night, never sure of what exactly happened — only that their mother didn't leave with them.

We're gonna stop the plot summary there because anymore would ruin the experience of what becomes one of Netflix’s most engrossingly rich and satisfying creations to date. A full-bodied, flesh-and-blood tale of the scariest thing of all — a life trapped in one’s own fears.

Flanagan (who did wonders with Gugino in “Gerald’s Game,” another Netflix property) presents a dark family portrait, each brush stroke of which is part of a carefully executed vision of the interwoven threads of childhood experience and adulthood consequences.

In this case, the source of trauma for five children is the various spectral remnants of lives lived inside the century-old Hill House, some of which have latched onto the Crain kids. The show — despite being bluntly billed as a ”A Netflix Horror Series” — is never belligerent with its scares, choosing to execute them wisely and to great effect — and always in service of its characters.

Basic horror works when the characters on which we see it subjected are disposable and easy to detach from our emotions. When they die, we are entertained by their demise and rarely moved by their loss.

“The Haunting of Hill House” is not that kind of horror show. This is not to say that it picks off its characters one by one either. Instead, when death and/or horror do visit the Crain family, Flanagan and his cast have imbued the story with such intention, thoughtfulness and emotion that it contextualizes the terror and translates it into potent tragedy.

Perhaps that’s why Flanagan’s vision works so well. He knows the most terrifying things aren’t what jump out at you from the dark, but what lurks in it, lingering out of reach and offering no resolution. It’s a festering sore untreated and inescapable.

Directing all 10 episodes, Flanagan brings an inventive visual eye to his slow burn family drama. Episode six, which could go down as one of 2018's best hours of TV, is a collection of staggering dialogue-heavy long takes brimming with escalating tension and ambitious storytelling across decades.

As writer, director and overall maestro, he structures the show so each scene informs the last, the next and, often, ones in episodes prior.

Working as his muse, Gugino deserves her own due just for being consistently great in everything she’s done for the last two decades — and this is no different. As the Crain matriarch, not only must she be an adoring mother pushing away her own demons, but she's also the memory each of her children and husband need in the present.

Despite its dark depths, “The Haunting of Hill House” is an immensely satisfying tome of emotion and horror — and the ways in which they complement one another. It’s a television experience pieced together bit by bit with vigorous storytelling, smart thrills, and a creator and cast that never sacrifice genuine heart for cheap horror.

It’s time to go home to Hill House. They’re waiting for you.

Reporter Hunter Ingram can be reached at Hunter.Ingram@StarNewsOnline.com. Hunter is a member of the Television Critics Association.