'Haunted Hotel' Review: It's like an animated version of Ghosts

[namiks]

You've probably never heard of Haunted Hotel. You've probably never heard of Ghosts, either. I'll start with a brief synopsis of the latter anyway: Ghosts is a British (and American version released) television series in which a couple inherit a large remote home and turn it into a hotel, only to discover that the hotel holds various types of ghosts that have died within the general premises throughout the generations. It's a pretty good show, and one that holds quite a unique premise. Recently, Haunted Hotel was released, at the decline of the animation industry where the 'adult' side of things has found its fatigue, and pretty much every major studio has reduced its workforce massively. Animation hasn't been doing too well for a long time, so to see Netflix of all releasing a new animated series with the same style many of its other original series have had is quite a strange move from them.

Now, the comparisons between Haunted Hotel and Ghosts? Well, Haunted Hotel is quite similar: a hotel in which a mother runs it though ghosts of different eras lurk within its walls having died on its general premise. Some of those ghosts being friendly, some of them being more sinister. The house itself being this mansion of horrors that tends to result in few guests, or at least ones that are quick to check out. It has a really similar concept to Ghosts, but somewhere where animation actually can improve on the concept is through the types of stories alongside ghosts it can tell. The house riddled with various mythical beings and generic horror monsters. Where the characters each episode have to struggle with running the hotel side of things with the living, while handling the problems of the dead. Again, much like the television series Ghosts.

To no surprise it features the voice actor Will Forte, who recently came from The Great North. If you know of Will Forte then you already know what sort of animated series this is. You know of the types of humour it'll hold, as everything he lends his voice to tends to carry his style of comedy. That is to say it's generally a bit silly, a bit wholesome, while also a bit dark in moments. I was even surprised to see one episode take a different turn from the humour and chaos of the ghosts side of things and actually pursue some serious character development regarding one of the ghosts which is a relative of the mother that runs the hotel. I won't speak of who that character is and what that story is just to avoid discussing spoilers, it does come a bit later towards the first and only season. Though many of the other episodes tend to focus on something strange happening, something with the occult or the threats within the home.

The animation style of Haunted Hotel is nothing to write home about, and that's something that has come to be expected with the world of Netflix animation. They all tend to look the same and feature very similar styles of writing. Not that it's always a bad thing, but I will admit that upon the first episode and taking note of the style, I was a bit underwhelmed by it given how overdone it now is. It's hard to describe that style beyond the 'Netflix look', but you'll get what I mean if you've seen any of their supposed adult animated series. One thing I did enjoy here though is that despite it having that same look, and the stories often being a bit more darker, it didn't have the same annoying constant joke-after-joke reliance, nor the overdone style of humour that just reaches into being a bit vile that Netflix's other shows like Paradise PD.

In terms of its characters, the show didn't really expand too much on some of the ghosts. It didn't feature them all that much beyond the odd joke. I think that might be something that comes into question a bit later, where perhaps the character development side might take more focus. After all, this season saw a few others get some action despite being a bit more common characters. The development of Abaddon being a child stuck with a demon in control of its body, learning to be a child and human more than a malicious demon. That was something. As was the children and their attempts to revive a corpse to pretend to be their father in some strange Frankenstein's monster act.

It's nice to see something like this. Something that benefits from being animated with all the types of stories that can be told through it. Where it isn't constantly trying to be funny nor too serious. The show has been greenlit for a second season, though as Netflix is infamous for: it could be cancelled at any moment with no real ending to its story. If you're going to watch this, keep that in mind.