Countless fans and critics have praised Mike Flanagan’s Netflix horror shows, and yet The Haunting of Bly Manor remains his most underrated series. These days, Flanagan, a massive Stephen King fan, is busy adapting some of the horror legend’s best stories for the small screen, from the dark mother/daughter tale Carrie to the super lengthy Dark Tower series. However, his chilling Netflix stories can’t be forgotten about. After The Haunting of Hill House arrived on Netflix in 2018, Flanagan made Bly Manor, followed by Midnight Mass in 2021, The Midnight Club in 2022, and his final outing, The Fall of the House of Usher, which came out in 2023.
Hill House is still praised as a horror sensation thanks to its emotional storytelling and supernatural scares, and Midnight Mass is a fan-favorite that takes on a classic trope. The Haunting of Bly Manor may have made a splash when it was released, but in the years since, it isn’t mentioned all that often. That’s too bad, considering its creepy tone, excellent characters, and smart retelling of its source material.
Mike Flanagan’s ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’ Is a Fantastic Horror Series
All nine episodes of The Haunting of Bly Manor streamed on Netflix in October 2020, and it’s a crash course in how to tell a fun Gothic ghost story. Victoria Pedretti, who played Nell Crain in Mike Flanagan’s incredible The Haunting of Hill House, took on another heavy character here: Dani Clayton, a nanny who begins working at an old haunted mansion and looking after Flora (Amelie Bea Smith) and Miles Wingrave (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth). Dani is also in the midst of grief.
Like Flanagan’s other works, Bly Manor explores how loss affects families over a number of years, and both Hill House and Bly Manor have terrifying scenes. Episode 4, “The Way It Came,” features a particularly chilling and striking jump scare of a ghost, along with some important backstory involving Dani’s fiancé, Edmund O’Mara (Roby Attal). It’s not all shadows and strange noises, however. The series also tells a beautiful love story about Dani and Jamie (Amelia Eve), the gardener at Bly Manor.
Bly Manor also works as a great adaptation of the Henry James novella Turn of the Screw, which was published in 1898. The main storyline and some characters are the same, as the story follows a governess who gets a job at an old mansion looking after Flora and Miles. The Bly Manor ending is unique and original, which is great news whether you’ve read the novella or not, because an exact adaptation can be dry and forgettable. Flanagan also used two short stories by James, “The Romance of Certain Old Clothes” and “The Jolly Corner,” for Episodes 8 and 6. No spoilers here, but both are dark tales about spirits.
While The Haunting of Bly Manor was impressive when it came out in 2020, it’s more fun to watch it today, around five years after its release. If you’re a fan of Flanagan’s horror series and movies, you can see his signature storytelling brand coming to life here. There are likable characters learning to live with loss, well-timed jump scares, and a general eerie atmosphere that fills viewers with dread. It’s a dark and heavy story that has enough terrifying moments to keep horror fans entertained, but it’s a compelling look at love and death, too.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
