Welcome back to the Undervale Hotel! Netflix’s surprisingly tender ode to horror, Haunted Hotel, returns for a spooky sophomore outing. This time, it’s loaded with even more movie references and enough hilarious spooky hijinks perfect for October. Wickedly smart and utterly ridiculous, Haunted Hotel puts the horror in Netflix’s animation lineup with a nostalgic glee.
Although it doesn’t feel quite as fresh as the first stay, Haunted Hotel neatly settles into a new status quo. The same lovable characters are back for more, including mother Kathy (Eliza Coupe), her ghostly brother Nathan (Will Forte), her ritual-obsessed daughter, Esther (Natalie Palamides), and her quirky son Ben (Skyler Gisondo), still in love with a flapper ghost girl. Boy-shaped demon Abaddon (Jimmy Simpson) has also become neatly integrated into their core set. A major addition this year comes in the form of Shayna (Natalie Morales), who claims that someone from her bloodline always has to be in the hotel otherwise a cosmic god will emerge. She adds a little something to the Undervale unit, even if her overall significance is held for quite some time.
The season opens right in the thick of action, as the family faces off against a Pinhead-style baddie with a puzzle box involved. The ability to embrace the strange horror right out of the gate makes everything that follows taste that much sweeter. The creatives behind this show have a lot of love for the genre. We do not often see this channeled through the lens of animation, making Haunted Hotel feel wholly unique. Each episode brings with it a fresh scenario, rife for more genre proclivities and fun Easter eggs. There’s a bizarre episode where ooze possesses people, giving guest star Frances Conroy plenty to do. Another sees the family facing off against a witch without health insurance, who curses them. There are endless situations that can be accomplished by following the traditional formula of hotel guests, and their stay.
Haunted Hotel though is not just a series of random guests checking in on the ghostly activities. Each character has plenty of depth, making their interactions and dynamic that much more compelling to watch. We love to see Abaddon scuffle with his rival, Ben, or Esther bonding with her dead Uncle on a day out. The only member of the family that gets a little less to do this time around is Kathy, though her love interest does briefly return for an outrageous dinner party, where the guests are forbidden from actually eating anything. Yet ultimately, a poignant finale cements the family unit as it revisits the past. The main players all have distinct personalities and points of view, which makes the outrageous comedy baked into the scripts that much more effective.
The biggest limitation remains similar to Season 1: the hotel itself sometimes feels disconnected from the concept of actually functioning as a hotel. Guests mostly exist to arrive, scream, and disappear while the family handles whichever supernatural disaster is happening that week. Future episodes could absolutely make more use of the guests themselves, or to further explore efforts to actually maintain a functioning hospitality business inside a supernatural death trap. Even so, Season 2 expands the mythology in smart ways without overwhelming its sitcom structure. Shayna’s bloodline mystery, Dante Crowe’s supernatural world, and Esther’s increasingly impressive abilities all suggest the Undervale has barely scratched the surface of its own history.
One definitely gets the feeling that, similar to the critically acclaimed, absolutely legendary Big Mouth, Haunted Hotel could continue to run for many more seasons. There are endless avenues to explore, so many oddities to unearth, so many horror films to reference. Scary mermaids, freaky dolls, a twisted set of Concierge hands, disturbing worm creatures: this show truly leaves no stone unturned, yet there’s still plenty more to explore. Ricky and Morty co-creator Matt Roller’s voice runs through all eight episodes. Let’s just hope Netflix is already ready to book a third stay at The Undervale!
Check in for more spooky happenings at the Haunted Hotel, opening its doors to Netflix on Friday, October 9th.
