When any creative work becomes a huge success — one that dominates the pop culture conversation for weeks, months or even years on end — the follow-up will often be scrutinized and criticized to a nearly absurdly level. To some, if the follow-up is not exactly like its uber-popular predecessor it’s labeled as “bad,” or “a failure.” On the other side of the coin, if it’s too much like its predecessor — the followup is deemed “unoriginal,” or “been there, done that,” etc. So hitting that middle ground with fans and critics alike its often quite difficult.
The Haunting of Bly Manor, the spiritual successor to Mike Flanagan’s immensely popular haunted house series The Haunting of Hill House, came into October 2020 with not only an enormous amount of hype, but a nearly insurmountable level of expectation. If you have yet to see the series and are expecting a carbon copy of Hill House‘s big jump scares, thunderous plot twists and a high re-watchability factor (due to Flanagan’s subtle and clever placement of ghosts throughout the series) — you’re going to be highly disappointed.
The big difference lies is the nature of the storytelling. Hill House and Bly Manor are both about the individual and collective traumas of people who have experienced/are experiencing life in a haunted house. However, the audience already knew the root of the issues in Hill — the haunted house possessed their mother (Carla Gugino who also appears in Bly) and the family escaped the house, leaving her behind to die. That series deals with the fallout of the event and how the family, often in character-specific and driven episodes, needs to process the trauma and end the haunting in their lives.
Bly Manor holds similar to this narrative structure — we get episodes where specific characters are focused upon and how their experiences at Bly have traumatically impacted their lives. However, we’re missing one central piece of information here — why is all this happening, and maybe more importantly — how is all this happening? While, we get the trademark Flanagan timeline shifting, there’s more questions as to what’s real and more importantly who’s real.
Reality is played with in such a way that we’re constantly second-guessing ourselves at to what we’ve seen. Repetition also plays a much bigger factor in Bly Manor than Hill House. This repetition feels like it were ripped out of a classic novel (or an episode of Doctor Who) and it only heightens the sense of fear and madness slowly gripping the characters and the audience alike.
Yet, Bly Manor does share a lot of the same characteristics as its predecessor. The series imbues nearly every scene with this unnerving sense of fear, tension and horror in every slow camera pan to a shadowy corner and any time the camera focuses ever-so-slightly away from dialogue. While there may be nothing as horrifying and shocking as the Bent Neck Lady or the Ghost in the Bowler Hat, there are plenty of spooks and specters lurking in the most unexpected of places to give you some big frights (although not as rapid fire like Hill House could be) and there’s a really compelling story underlining the entire haunted house story, just like Hill House.
Like Hill House, Bly Manor can only deliver on such a complex and rich storytelling structure if it has an incredible cast in town. Before we deep dive into performances, it should be noted that another one of the big differences between the two series is the performances here are not the big eye-catching performances you saw in Hill House. Like the horror, the performances are quieter and more deliberate, but when those big dramatic moments, this cast delivers.
Victoria Pedretti, who played Nell in Hill House, is in the lead as Dani an American schoolteacher haunted by her past — figuratively and (maybe) literally? Pedretti is the audience proxy and her constant state of fear and bewilderment wonderfully reflects the audiences. She also delivers on a great, unexpected emotional story arc that carries the second half of the series. T’Nia Miller (Years and Years) provides a staggeringly tragic and powerful performance at Hannah Grose, the maid of Bly, who is caught inside a personal hell while Raul Kholi (iZombie) perfectly balances her performance with a comedic yet sensitive performance as her unrequited love interest, Owen. And of course Flanagan regular Henry Thomas (Doctor Sleep) is here and once you get past that accent, his story takes an absolutely wild and unexpected turn.
However, it’s Oliver Jackson-Cohen (The Invisible Man), who was a revelation as Luke in Hill House, who absolutely steals the show in a star-making as the Scottish valet, Peter Quint. Quint is probably the most complex character of the series as, depending on the episode (or the scene for that matter), he is viewed as a sinner or a saint, abusive or abused, hero or villain. Quint is one of the most fully fleshed out characters in the series which definitely allows for Cohen to really flex his acting muscles. The only downside of his dominant performance is that it often cuts into the development of Quint’s love interest Ms. Jessel (Tahirah Sharif, A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby). Sharif absolutely shines with what’s given to her, but there definitely feels like a lot was left on the table with her character.
While Hill House still feels bulletproof to major criticism, there are some definite bones of content to be had with Bly Manor and it’s mostly in the ending. It’s just entirely too long. It’s not Return of the King long, but almost. The series shoves way too much into tying Carla Gugino’s yet-to-be-named character (at the time) character into the story she’s telling to the guests at a wedding rehearsal. There’s also some decisions made with the ending that could easily turn people off as it’s a bit too neat and a bit too much fan service-y. Shave 5-10 minutes off and you’ve got a terrific ending.
The Haunting of Bly Manor might not be the pop culture juggernaut that Haunting of Hill House was, but it doesn’t need to be in order to be great. If it were a retread of Hill House, this series would’ve become boring real quick. Yet, Bly Manor is perfectly splendid on its own merits. It’s a gothic story about love, trauma, regret, suppression, self-denial, greed and hope that slowly unfolds before your eyes in the most chilling and gripping of ways. The performances are absolutely tremendous and those scares you were hoping for will come at you when least expect.
The Haunting of Bly Manor is currently streaming on Netflix.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tykS7QfTWMQ
