The Haunting Of Bly Manor: 5 Ups & 4 Downs Review

Ghost stories are universally sad tales, spirits walk the earth in search of justice, to find the peace in death that was lacking enough in life to keep them trapped in the realm of the living. Bly Manor understands this notion extremely well and goes above and beyond in its representation of the events traumatic enough warrant a return from the grave.

Flanagan expands the central motif of the The Turn Of The Screw, the negative effects of obsession, loss, love and the subsequent grief and pain felt by those remaining, either from death or betrayal. Dani's flight from the States after the tragic death of her fiancee and childhood friend, Eddie, is perfectly captured. Her guilt over his death is tragically transferred to her inability to admit that she is gay and unable to explain the circumstances that resulted in his death.

Similarly, Henry's guilt over his affair with his brother's wife goes further than his alcoholism, he conjures a grinning doppelgänger, a ghost of his own creation, far from but nonetheless a product of Bly.

Flanagan balances out the grief here by giving each character a loss; Owen and Hannah's tragically unrequited love, Jamie's pain of a troubled childhood and the children's inability to understand their complex emotions when living inside a mausoleum choked with suffering stretching over 400 years are brought together in a touching and delicate manner, respectfully acknowledging myriad traumas involving death and guilt.