The Haunting of Bly Manor, A Review

You’re expected.

The Haunting of Hill House Review (Top 10)

The Haunting of Bly Manor follows Dani (Victoria Pedretti, You), an American woman who gains employment at Bly Manor, as Au pair to two children- Miles (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) and Flora (Amelie Bea Smith)– after previous Au pair Rebecca’s (Tahirah Sharif, Christmas Prince series) suicide. After being hired by the children’s Uncle Henry (Henry Thomas), Dani arrives at Bly where she meets Housekeeper Hannah (T’Nia Miller, Years and Years), Chef Owen (Rahul Kohli, IZombie) and Gardner Jamie (Amelia Eve). At the house, the children and rest of the staff have clearly been affected by Rebecca’s suicide, blaming Henry’s former assistant Peter Quint (Oliver Jackson-Cohen, The Invisible Man) who was emotionally abusive to her.

Dani attempts to raise Miles and Flora’s spirits to the best of her abilities, however she begins to feel a prescence around Bly. She begins noticing mysterious footprints leading out of the house and on numerous occasions catches glimpses of a man who she later learns is Quint. With Miles’ strange behaviour getting weirder by the day and Flora’s cryptic warnings to never leave her room at night, Dani begins to realise that something dark is going on. With so much going on at Bly, both in the past and present, can Dani get to the bottom of the house’s darker mystery or will she too become a victim of Bly Manor?

The writing in The Haunting of Bly Manor really was incredible. Straight from the first episode, the show completely hooked me in and kept we wanting to watch more and more. There were so many questions that needed answering and mysteries to solve, the writing was incredibly compelling. Nearly every character had their own secret and with so much to try and work out, I couldn’t wait to keep going.

I really enjoyed the set up of The Storyteller (Carla Gugino)– later revealed to be an older Jamie- telling the story of Bly Manor to a room full of people. I think that the origin of storytelling, particularly the horror genre, began with verbal tales around the campfire so to speak, so I liked how Bly Manor used this storyteller aspect. Having this initially unknown character tell her tale also added in the question of who she could possibly be. With a thirty-something year gap between Bly Manor and her telling the story, it made logical sense to guess she was one of the character grown up. This meant that obviously at least one person survived- it was all just a question of who.

Straight from the first episode it was established that Dani too is running from something, and was being haunted by her own personal past. I absolutely loved the glowing eyes everytime she looked upon a mirrored surface, it was spooky and very intriuging- straight away I wanted to know what was going on. The reveal that Dani’s “ghost”, was in fact her former fiancé made for some great character backstory. The ghost itself could be seen as a manifestation of Dani’s own grief or guilt and I liked how her subconscience projected this ghostly figure onto any and all mirrors. The figure definitely contributed to some big scares and I liked the backstory it gave Dani, showcasing that there is more than one way to be haunted.

I really loved the relationship between Dani and Jamie. The pair had such great chemistry together and their love story was adorable, whilst also being incredibly depressing. I think the relationship was definitely unexpected, going into Bly Manor I didn’t forsee such a strong love story, especially in the midst of a horror series. It’s like the characters said though- this isn’t a ghost story, it’s a love story. I definitely didn’t expect it going in but I ended up really loved the strong love story throughout, it was adorable.

I thought that the actors portraying Miles and Flora both did wonderfully creepy jobs. On the surface, they both appeared to be the perfect horror genre children- the brilliant mix of creepy and intense. When it was revealed what was really going on however, their performances became twice as impressive. The fact that Peter and Rebecca were actually at times posessing the children, meant that Ainsworth and Smith were playing both Miles and Flora but also Peter and Rebecca as well. Looking back you could really tell when each child was possesed and each did such a good job at mimicking their elder counterpart- it was all very impressive.

The show did have an awfully confusing timeline. Throughout the series, the characters are able to slip back into past memories, meaning a lot of the scenes are out of order. The experience was similar to reading a book in the wrong order, it was very muddling at times. I think the storyline just toed the line between complex and confusing and I will admit it took a while for me to get my head around everything. Once I’d realised what was really going on however, I was thoroughly impressed- I just wished certian aspects could have been made clearer.

I really do enjoy nanny type stories in the crime and horror genre (eg The Nanny, The Turn of the Key– which I believe is also based from Bly Manor’s source material). Having a nanny look after your children in these darker tales normally always leads to trouble- whether it be supernatural or otherwise. Being alone (or extremely isolated) with a stranger’s children for an extended amount of time- it can lead to some scary stuff. Children in general can be creepy or cryptic and I liked how Dani’s role as the au pair introduced her to the many dangers of Bly Manor.

In terms of scares, The Haunting of Bly Manor was nowhere near as frightening as Hill House, I think there were maybe five jump scares across the entire series? Saying this, I don’t exactly scare easily but still, the fear factor was nowhere near as high as the show’s predecessor. The characters themselves even say, this isn’t a ghost story, it’s a love story. None of this is a knock against the show’s writing- I really enjoyed watching- but if you went in wanting to be scared, you’d definitely be dissapointed.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Haunting of Bly Manor. I know many have said that the series wasn’t nearly as scary as Hill House (which I do agree with), but from a storyline and character point of view I definitely prefered Bly Manor. The writing was just incredible and I was sucked in straight away. The ending itself may have fallen a bit flat and left the odd unanswered question but overall I really enjoyed watching. Another great horror installment from Flannigan, I’m excited to see what he fomes up with next.