Are you still looking for a scary TV series to binge during Halloween? The Haunting of Bly Manor might just be the right fit for you!
This perfectly splendid new TV series, which premiered October 9th on Netflix, is the second instalment of Mike Flanagan’s successful horror drama The Haunting of Hill House, and it is based on the ghost stories written by Henry James, mainly on The Turn of the Screw (1898). The two series are not connected, so if you did not watch The Haunting of Hill House yet — fear not, as the plot does not intertwine.
The Haunting of Bly Manor introduces us to the American au pair Dani Clayton (Victoria Pedretti) whose task it is to take care of two orphans called Flora (Amelia Bea Smith) and Miles Wingrave (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) at Bly Manor during the late 80’s. However, Bly Manor is not an ordinary place as the people might seem nice but something is off about them. The first clue the viewer gets is that the people living in Bly, such as the cook of Bly Manor, do not like the place as it is unsettling.
The seemingly very polite and perfectly splendid children turn out to be very creepy at times, especially Miles, who is spying on Dani when she wants to change just after they met. They warn Dani to not leave her room at night — which of course she does nevertheless, even a couple of times throughout the series. Just like in The Haunting of Hill House a couple of ghosts live in Bly Manor, some nice ones and some really bad ones. However, the first ghost we see does not haunt Bly Manor, but Dani herself.
The first episode of the series follows Dani’s story and her point of view of Bly Manor, but we slowly get to know each character’s own story, like Miles’, Hannah (the housekeeper), and finally the story of the Lady of the Lake — the scariest ghost of the house. Within nine episodes, the series manages to unravel the mysterious story of the manor, why the children do not go the old wing, why the ghosts do not have any faces, why the old au pair committed suicide, and many more questions.
In comparison, Bly Manor is not as scary as Hill House and has less jump scares, but it still manages to make viewers feel tense and on edge. By jumping back and forth between the past and the present, and between the stories of each character, the producers manage to explain the story without revealing too much at a time.
Through the elegant camera work, you can search for ghosts hiding in the background. For example, see if you can find the plague doctor hiding in the corner during several scenes in the first episode, before he gets revealed at night. You might have thought that it is only a coat hung on a door at first glance, but look again. One clue is Flora’s doll house and the position of the dolls. Look in which rooms the ghosts are staying. Another scene you might want to look at, is the one in which Miles shows Dani a spider and tries to scare her. It might just be a tree trunk, but it could also be another ghost…
Fans of The Haunting of Hill House might be pleased that some actors from the old cast also return to The Haunting of Bly Manor, such as Victoria Pedretti (also starring in You), Oliver Jackson-Cohen (The Invisible Man), Henry Thomas (Doctor Sleep), Kate Siegel (Hush), and the narrator of the story Carla Gugino (Gerald’s Game).
During an interview, Mike Flanagan explains that he wanted to “play with ghosts as expression of emotional wounds” which he already did in the first instalment. And he succeeds to do exactly this once again, mainly through grief and guilt. He also distinguishes the stories from one another when it comes to the genre. Flanagan sees The Haunting of Bly Manor to rather be a “gothic romance story” than just an ordinary scary one, connecting a ghost story and a love story and merging them into the masterpiece that is this series. We get to see unrequited love, obsessive love, same sex love, lovers that realise their love too late, love between siblings, and also the beautiful friendship and love unfolding between the au pair and the children.
In conclusion, The Haunting of Bly Manor is much more than just a horror story, which makes it even more interesting and exciting to watch.
We hope that Mike Flanagan will come up with yet another instalment of the Haunting series. Until then, we will look out for another project he is currently working on: Midnight Mass, another horror series starring Kate Siegel, Zach Gilford and Hamish Linklater.
