Netflix’ anthology documentary horror series, True Haunting, tells stories from two different places and times within the US. The first is Eerie Hall, taking up three episodes and taking place in what is now SUNY Genesseo. Living in the titular Eerie Hall is Chris, our main subject, a member of a group of college friends. A few of these friends have trauma which affects Chris the most, a ghost haunting him. The second is This House Murdered Me, episodes in Utah during the 2000s about a couple, ex-Mormons April and Matt. This couple bought a house where every night gets worse and worse as generations of ghosts haunt them. The ghosts were so strong that they stayed in a motel temporarily until deciding to cleanse the house.

Eerie Hall comes from director Neil Rawles, who does a lot of documentary series for streaming apps. Other critics point out his tendency to repeat things, which thankfully doesn’t happen in his episodes. If anything, he can balance four story lines, including Chris’ daddy issues contributing to his well being. While he and his father Vito are running across Genneseo’s woods, they unearth clues about the ghost. That revelation leads to more, and I get that this story needs to wrap up, but that encounter feels easy. It also doesn’t help that the final confrontation with the ghost doesn’t feel impactful enough nor satisfying. Endings can make or break horror series like True Haunting, and this one may be enough to break the series.

The transition between Eerie Hall and This House also feels abrupt and the latter story frames certain things problematically. True Haunting’s’second story, again, has a family buying an old house with its unique problems. The family’s wife, April, despite being an ex-Mormon, has reservations about getting a job which involves booking sex workers. The money is a perk, spending most of it renovating a house that can’t contain its ghosts. The ghosts are getting so bad that April has to tell her own mother, who has theories. You guessed it, the mother thinks that April’s work is the reason why ghosts haunt her home. Maybe someone should have explained the timeline to this mother, but maybe that wouldn’t help her cause.

The ghosts almost take down this Utah family, or at least drive them away to the nearest motel. The motel scene happens halfway within the last episode, making me worry that this story won’t wrap up. But thankfully, it does, as it switches from interviews of the real family to actors reenacting what happened. The interviews itself gives context to the religious themes which influence the way the family deals with the ghosts. Being ex-religious in a ghostly secular world is a tightrope walk. April’s mom gets her screen time too, and she makes a good foil even if April’s in a more moral middle ground.  This House Murdered Me is the more satisfying story in this series here that deserves three more episodes.

Netflix is the only place to stream True Haunting.