Haunted Hotel Season 1 (2025) Review 👻

Check In for the Ghosts, Stay for the Demon Who Wants Froot Loops

Let’s Start by Showing Y’all the Trailers Shall We?

Netflix has certainly had its fair share of adult animated shows over the years, and I will admit that adult animation has never automatically been something that interests me. For the longest time, it felt like far too many adult animated shows thought being “adult” simply meant being as nihilistic, crude, raunchy, violent, and miserable as humanly possible. Apparently adults couldn’t possibly want sincerity, likable characters, or genuine emotional storytelling.

Then along comes Haunted Hotel, a Netflix adult animated series that reminded me exactly what adult animation can be when the creators actually use that freedom to tell stories about heavier subjects while still remembering that the show is supposed to be entertaining.

And holy crap, I loved this.

Haunted Hotel gives us ghosts, demons, possessions, cults, murderers, death, suicide, family struggles, relationships, and even the literal apocalypse, but underneath all of that darkness is an incredibly funny and surprisingly wholesome show about a bizarre family trying to keep a haunted hotel running.

I came into this expecting a funny supernatural animated comedy.

I came out wanting to spend another season with these lunatics.

Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

Haunted Hotel follows Katherine Freeling, a single mother who takes over the Undervale Hotel following the death of her brother Nathan.

There’s just one slight problem.

The hotel is haunted.

Actually, scratch that.

There are about seventeen thousand problems because this isn’t merely a hotel with one spooky ghost wandering through the hallway at midnight. The Undervale is absolutely overflowing with ghosts, supernatural creatures, homicidal spirits, mysterious rooms, dangerous artifacts, and all kinds of paranormal insanity.

Luckily—or perhaps unluckily—Nathan hasn’t exactly left the building either. He’s now a ghost himself and continues helping Katherine operate the hotel.

Katherine therefore has to balance running a financially struggling supernatural hotel with raising her two children, Ben and Esther, dealing with her relentlessly optimistic dead brother, and keeping an eye on Abaddon, an ancient demon trapped inside the body of a little boy from the 1700s.

Yes.

That last part is just something Katherine has to deal with now.

Welcome to the hospitality industry!

Character Rundown

Let’s start with Katherine because this poor woman deserves some recognition for not having a complete nervous breakdown before the opening credits of every episode.

Katherine is essentially the grounded center of the entire show. She’s a single mother raising Ben and Esther while simultaneously trying to make the Undervale financially successful, and her workplace just happens to contain murderous ghosts and supernatural entities.

Her stress is completely understandable.

Nathan will casually try reassuring her that the hotel only has friendly murderous ghosts, and Katherine reacts exactly how any sane person should.

Nathan, buddy.

Putting the word “friendly” before “murderous” does not make “murderous” sound any less concerning.

Katherine is also increasingly forced into something resembling a parental role toward Abaddon despite repeatedly making it clear that she is NOT his mother.

Unfortunately for Katherine, Abaddon doesn’t seem particularly interested in that distinction.

Then we have Ben, Katherine’s son and Esther’s brother. Ben is the more awkward and insecure of the two siblings, and I really enjoyed how the show gives him actual emotional problems rather than simply making him another source of jokes. His relationship with his ghost girlfriend Annabelle is particularly interesting because Annabelle can be extremely dramatic and doesn’t always give Ben the opportunity to express his own feelings.

Annabelle herself is a fun recurring character. She’s a teenage ghost from 1935 who is dating Ben, and “dramatic” might be one of the quickest ways of describing her personality.

Then we have Esther.

Esther is easily one of my three favorite characters in the entire show.

Her sense of humor is much darker than most of the other characters. She’s fascinated by the supernatural and has an almost hilariously casual reaction toward things that should probably concern her considerably more than they do. Esther is the type of person who can encounter something horrifying and instead of running away screaming, she’s probably wondering whether she can experiment with it.

And naturally, this makes her relationship with Abaddon absolutely perfect.

Then we have Nathan, another one of my three favorites.

Nathan is Katherine’s deceased brother, and I absolutely love how relentlessly positive this guy is.

The Undervale could be collapsing around him while seventeen murderous ghosts are attempting to kill somebody and Nathan would probably be standing there saying:

“Come on! Look on the bright side!”

He’s so accustomed to the supernatural insanity of the Undervale that things Katherine understandably finds horrifying barely register to him anymore.

Nathan is also extremely funny, but the show eventually reveals considerably more emotional depth underneath that positivity than I expected.

And finally…

Abaddon.

Oh, Abaddon.

Hands down my favorite character.

Abaddon is an ancient demon trapped inside the body of a little boy from the 1700s, and somehow the writers turned that premise into one of the funniest and eventually most wholesome characters in the show.

He’s supposedly this powerful demonic entity with centuries of knowledge and supernatural abilities.

But he also acts like a kid.

In the first episode, Katherine is complaining about all the problems she has inherited, including the ghosts and Abaddon. When Esther asks what’s wrong with him, Katherine explains that he’s a demon trapped inside the body of a little boy from the 1700s.

Abaddon’s immediate contribution to this conversation?

“This vessel requires Froot Loops.”

Katherine tells him it’s Cheerios or nothing.

That basically tells you everything you need to know about their relationship.

Later, when Ben and Esther are talking about getting an allowance, Abaddon walks up to Katherine and asks:

“Mommy, can I get allowance?”

Katherine immediately responds that one, no, two, no, and three, she isn’t his mother.

Sorry, Katherine.

I think you accidentally adopted a demon.

Abaddon also has trouble understanding modern technology, which I found hilarious. There’s almost a meta generational joke happening where we commonly joke about older generations struggling to understand newer technology, except Haunted Hotel takes that concept to its most ridiculous possible extreme.

Forget somebody struggling with a smartphone.

This dude is from the 1700s.

Computers and vacuum cleaners might as well be alien technology to him.

Abaddon is consistently hilarious, but what really surprised me was how much character development he receives. He’s not simply the show’s funny demon child. His relationship with Esther and the rest of the family gradually becomes genuinely important to him, and the finale brings that development home beautifully.

Also here’s some the funniest moments involving Abaddon

Pacing / Episode Flow

Season 1 consists of ten episodes, and I thought the structure worked incredibly well.

The show initially feels fairly episodic. Katherine deals with running the Undervale while different supernatural problems emerge, and individual episodes can play around with different horror concepts.

You’ve got ghosts, demonic possessions, haunted objects, werewolves, serial killers, ghost hunters, resurrection, supernatural diaries, and eventually cults and apocalyptic demons.

But the show gradually builds character relationships and storylines underneath those standalone adventures.

That’s especially important with Abaddon. His development doesn’t suddenly appear during the finale. You spend the season watching him increasingly become part of this family, even if nobody officially announces that’s what’s happening.

The final two episodes then push things considerably further emotionally and narratively, particularly with Nathan and Abaddon.

The show knows when to be ridiculous and when to unexpectedly punch you in the gut.

Pros

Here’s some of the funniest moments in this show.

The biggest strength of Haunted Hotel is easily its characters.

I genuinely like the entire main cast.

If you forced me to pick three favorites, I’d choose Abaddon, Esther, and Nathan, but that doesn’t mean I dislike Katherine or Ben. The ensemble works because everybody brings something different to the show.

Katherine is the stressed, relatively grounded mother.

Nathan is relentlessly optimistic.

Ben is awkward and emotional.

Esther is dark and morbid.

Abaddon is an ancient demon who wants Froot Loops.

That’s a pretty damn good lineup.

The supporting ghosts also make the Undervale itself feel alive—or perhaps “alive” isn’t the correct word considering most of these people are dead.

One of my favorites is Stabby Paul.

Why is he called Stabby Paul?

Because he stabs people.

That’s basically his gimmick.

Except he’s a ghost, so he can’t actually kill anybody.

You have a homicidal ghost whose entire defining characteristic has been rendered completely ineffective by the fact that he’s dead.

That’s hilarious.

I also really enjoy how Haunted Hotel uses horror imagery for comedy and misdirection.

One of my favorite examples involves Ben discovering an incredibly creepy book. The camera movement makes the entire sequence feel like something straight out of Evil Dead, and the book itself has a horrifying human face that immediately makes it look like somebody left the Necronomicon lying around.

Ben opens it and discovers that if he writes something inside, somebody writes back.

Great.

Now we’re doing Tom Riddle’s diary.

Surely this is going somewhere horrible.

Except… no.

Ben begins using the book to vent because he doesn’t feel like Annabelle really listens to his problems. The mysterious person communicating through the book initially appears to be a woman, only for us to eventually discover it’s actually a male ghost.

And is he evil?

No!

He genuinely just wanted to listen to Ben.

The show dressed up an active listener like the fucking Necronomicon.

I love that.

Another major positive is the tone.

This is absolutely an adult animated show. It deals with death, murder, demons, suicide, relationships, family problems, and plenty of other subjects that wouldn’t necessarily fit into a children’s cartoon.

But it doesn’t mistake “adult” for “everybody needs to be miserable.”

There’s warmth here.

The characters actually care about one another.

The comedy can be dark without the entire worldview becoming nihilistic.

And the animation and supernatural setting allow the writers to get extremely creative with those stories.

Cons

I really don’t have any major complaints.

That’s probably the easiest way I can put it.

Could certain supporting ghosts receive more development? Absolutely. The Undervale has such a massive collection of bizarre residents that I’d happily see future seasons spend more time developing some of them beyond their individual gimmicks.

And because Season 1 only has ten episodes, there are naturally characters and relationships that could use considerably more time.

But those aren’t issues that seriously hurt my enjoyment of the season.

If anything, they’re reasons I’m glad we’re getting another one.

Final Thoughts

Haunted Hotel completely won me over.

It’s funny, creative, surprisingly emotional, and filled with characters I genuinely enjoyed spending time with.

More importantly, it helped reinforce something I’ve gradually realized about adult animation.

I don’t dislike adult animation.

I dislike the idea that adult animation automatically needs to be relentlessly crude, raunchy, cynical, or nihilistic.

Shows like Bob’s Burgers, Smiling Friends, and now Haunted Hotel demonstrate that you can make something specifically for adults while still having warmth, sincerity, likable characters, and genuine emotional development.

Haunted Hotel can give me a ghost named Stabby Paul whose entire purpose is unsuccessfully stabbing people and then turn around and tackle something genuinely heartbreaking involving Nathan.

It can have Abaddon struggle with modern technology, demand Froot Loops, ask Katherine for allowance, and then ultimately give him the strongest character arc of the entire season.

That’s range.

I absolutely loved my stay at the Undervale, and I’m ready to check back in whenever Season 2 arrives.

Hopefully Katherine finally buys Abaddon some damn Froot Loops.

Rating

10/10

Spoiler Warning

From this point onward, I’m getting into major spoilers for Haunted Hotel Season 1, including Nathan’s death, the demonic possession storyline, Abaddon’s past, and the entire ending.

If you haven’t finished Season 1, check out now.

Unlike the Undervale’s ghosts, you are still capable of leaving.

Spoilers

One of the biggest emotional surprises comes from Nathan.

Throughout the season, Nathan believes he died by choking on a grape while watching Con Air.

Which is already an incredibly Nathan way to die.

Nathan is so relentlessly positive that he even wants Katherine to celebrate his “Happy Death Day.” Katherine clearly isn’t nearly as comfortable with the subject as Nathan is, but eventually the truth comes out during one of the darkest episodes of the season.

Esther accidentally breaks a haunted snow globe, unleashing demonic spirits that begin possessing animals and surrounding the hotel.

The family barricades themselves inside using salt around the windows and doors, but everything continues going horribly wrong. Esther becomes possessed, the demons start getting inside, and eventually the family is forced to flee.

During all of this, possessed Esther reveals that Katherine hasn’t told Nathan the complete truth about his death.

Nathan already discovers that Katherine lost his ashes, which understandably annoys him because apparently he specifically wanted his ashes launched out of a canyon.

But then Nathan pushes Katherine to finally tell him what really happened.

Katherine reminds him that she claimed he choked on a grape while watching Con Air.

Then she reveals the truth.

Nathan killed himself.

And holy crap.

The show suddenly becomes incredibly heavy.

What makes that revelation particularly effective is everything we’ve already learned about Nathan. This is the relentlessly optimistic guy who can find something positive in practically any situation.

Discovering that before becoming a ghost, Nathan had reached such a dark point in his life completely changes how you look at him.

It also makes Katherine’s lie considerably more understandable emotionally. It doesn’t necessarily make hiding the truth right, but you understand why telling Nathan what actually happened was incredibly difficult for her.

Eventually Katherine accepts Nathan’s desire to celebrate his Happy Death Day, giving the siblings a surprisingly touching resolution.

Meanwhile, the demonic possession storyline gets increasingly insane.

Abaddon is originally sent to retrieve ingredients needed to contain the spirits inside Esther.

This ancient demon confidently insists that he can remember things stretching back practically forever.

There’s just one problem.

Abaddon can’t read.

So naturally, he gets one ingredient wrong.

Fantastic choice of errand boy, everyone.

The containment fails, and the demons eventually possess Ben, Katherine, and even the mailman.

Abaddon ends up fighting the possessed mailman, and afterward proudly explains that the mailman allowed him to enter his driver’s chair and push the horn.

This ancient demon has discovered the incredible supernatural power of:

HONK HONK.

Eventually the possessed family members are marched into the forest and forced toward the water to drown themselves.

Nathan desperately tries to help, but being a ghost means he can’t physically grab them.

Meanwhile, Abaddon realizes that everything began when Esther broke the snow globe. Katherine leaves him behind with it, and Abaddon tries to get the broken roof back onto the little house inside.

Eventually he succeeds.

The gateway closes.

The demons disappear.

Everybody becomes unpossessed.

Abaddon saves the family.

That episode becomes incredibly important heading into the finale because it demonstrates how much these people already mean to him.

Then Episode 10 completely loses its mind.

A group of red-robed strangers arrives at the Undervale wanting rooms.

Nathan immediately points out that they’re obviously a cult.

And hilariously, the cult doesn’t even deny it.

They’re basically:

“Yep! We’re a cult!”

They’re friendly, they’re willing to pay, and the Undervale desperately needs money.

So Katherine lets them stay.

What could possibly go wrong?

They request the ballroom and begin decorating everything with red flowers and red paint.

Katherine asks them to promise there won’t be dead bodies lying around afterward.

The cult leader reassures her that it’ll be like nothing ever happened.

Like they never existed.

Katherine’s reaction is basically the same as mine.

That wasn’t reassuring.

Eventually Esther and Abaddon arrive downstairs, and the cult immediately begins bowing before Abaddon.

They’ve been searching for him.

They worship him.

And they’re apparently going to send him home.

Abaddon is fucking thrilled.

He immediately starts preparing to leave.

Which initially had me thinking:

Wow.

Glad you became attached to this family.

But Esther clearly doesn’t want him to leave.

She gives Abaddon a quilt filled with memories of the adventures they’ve shared together. She initially tries pretending she already had it, despite obviously spending the entire night making it.

It’s a genuinely sweet moment because both characters clearly realize they’re going to miss each other.

Then the ceremony begins.

And everything goes completely to hell.

Literally.

The cult leader slits his own throat.

Turns out they were never planning to send Abaddon back to Hell.

They were bringing Hell to Abaddon.

The ground splits apart.

Lava appears.

Demons begin pouring into the world.

Abaddon suddenly receives enormous new powers, including flight and the ability to fire energy blasts.

Everybody runs.

Eventually Katherine, Ben, Esther, and the others are in mortal danger while Abaddon reveals that he didn’t know this was going to happen.

They ask if he can reverse it.

Nope.

His initial suggestion is essentially that they’ll just have to get used to living like this.

And then:

“So… got any plans tonight?”

Abaddon.

READ THE ROOM.

Eventually the family begins falling into the lava. Before Esther falls, she tells Abaddon that if he genuinely cares about her, he’ll find a way to fix this.

And he does.

Earlier, Esther and Abaddon discovered a mysterious stone tablet capable of sending things beyond time.

Abaddon uses it.

Suddenly he’s traveling backward through history.

We see glimpses of him passing through different periods of his centuries-long existence until eventually he returns to the present before the ceremony.

Now he knows exactly what’s going to happen.

His first solution?

Stab the cult leader.

Good riddance!

Except Esther immediately points out one tiny flaw.

If the cult leader dying caused the ritual to work…

Didn’t Abaddon just kill him?

Abaddon gives this wonderfully irritated:

“No.”

And then Hell opens again.

🤣

So Abaddon goes back.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Each time he tries something different.

At one point he merely knocks the cult leader unconscious.

Success!

Except the bastard wakes up and slits his own throat anyway.

RESET.

Eventually we see Abaddon sitting at breakfast completely exhausted after having repeatedly lived through centuries of his existence just to keep trying again.

Everyone else simply thinks he’s tired.

Katherine is worrying about the hotel’s financial problems, while Abaddon is sitting there knowing he’s repeatedly tried and failed to prevent the apocalypse.

Eventually he gets up, walks straight through a wall, and Esther follows him.

Then Abaddon sees the cultists approaching.

And apparently after repeatedly attempting complicated solutions across hundreds of years, he finally discovers the correct strategy:

Beat the absolute crap out of them before they get inside.

He attacks the first cultist.

More arrive on motorcycles.

He beats them up.

Then the bus arrives.

He beats the hell out of them too.

The cult runs away.

Problem solved.

It’s absolutely hilarious, but underneath the joke is what makes Abaddon’s ending genuinely great.

Abaddon wants the powers.

He tries to find a way where he can keep his new abilities without allowing Hell to destroy the world and kill the people he cares about.

But eventually he realizes he can’t have both.

He has to choose.

Power.

Or his family and friends.

And Abaddon chooses them.

This ancient demon who theoretically should value power above practically everything else willingly gives it up because he would rather keep Esther, Ben, Katherine, Nathan, and everyone else in his life.

That’s incredibly wholesome.

And think about how much Abaddon actually goes through to accomplish this.

Every time he travels back through time, he has to experience centuries of his existence again.

And he does it repeatedly.

He keeps trying because Esther asked him to find a way.

The season doesn’t end with Abaddon making some enormous emotional speech about discovering the power of friendship.

It doesn’t need one.

His actions already tell us everything.

The show ends with everyone simply returning to the Undervale and continuing with their lives.

Abaddon begins Season 1 as an ancient demon trapped inside the body of an 18th-century child.

He ends Season 1 having effectively become part of this ridiculous family.

He can call Katherine whatever he wants.

He can insist he’s an ancient demonic entity.

He can demand Froot Loops instead of Cheerios.

But after everything he does in that finale?

Sorry, Abaddon.

You’re one of the Freelings now.

And that’s what ultimately made Haunted Hotel such a wonderful surprise for me.

10/10.