The Haunting Of Bly Manor: 5 Ups & 4 Downs Review
A taught meditation on grief that ultimately forgets its promise - where's the haunting?
Netflix's The Haunting Of Bly Manor is a follow-up to 2018s superb The Haunting of Hill House, based on the Shirley Jackson book of the same name. Creator Mike Flanagan returns to his familiar play pen of spooky, gothic mansions and characters that have as many problems as the ghosts that populate their lives.This time, Flanagan has turned to Henry James' The Turn Of The Screw for his latest adaptation and so the proceedings move from the States to England.
American au pair Dani Clayton (Victoria Pedretti) takes a job at Bly Manor, entrusted with the care of recently orphaned Flora and Miles. Lord Henry Wingrave, the children's uncle, leaves specific instructions - the children are to be cared for by her alone and under no circumstances must she concern him with the details. The resident staff, the cook, gardener and Mrs. Grose the housekeeper appear to be hiding secrets and Dani must face the terrifying legacy of Bly and all those who become trapped within...
A slick and suitably gothic atmosphere are present yet Bly Manor is burdened with problems - here are five ups and four downs in the review of The Haunting Of Bly Manor. Firstly, some positive ups...
10. Up - A Perfect Setting
As one would expect in a haunted house series, Bly Manor is beautifully and atmospherically captured by Flanagan. The Elizabethan house is a character in its own right, consisting of a suitably spooky series of deserted corridors and rooms, each one lit and framed in gothic splendour, with certain areas draped in white sheets that threaten to take on a life of their own.
Like so many countless ghost stories that have come before it, including Flanagan's own Hill House, the ambience is everything - a multitude of dark corridors, shadowy corners and moonlit drenched hallways all hide secrets of their own and more often than not, the viewer is compelled to quickly eyeball each frame, in case there are shifty supernatural hijinks happening that are not immediately obvious. The eyes on painted portraits appear to follow you across the room and mirrors reflect on the traumatic past of at least one of the main characters here.
The grounds of the house are also a prominent feature of the story, in particular, the lake and the chapel, each one playing important narrative roles in the story. True to form, rolls of unnaturally thick mist cover the lake and gardens, like some elaborate, operatic smoke machine is permanently installed to cue up the cushion grabbers as the ghosts begin to repeat their nightly torments of the living.
In short, Bly Manor looks fantastic and every bit as haunting as the title would suggest.