With the spooky season in full swing, horror fans are running to their favorite streaming services to see the latest thrillers in hopes of a new scare. Netflix has recently released multiple originals that are aiming to accomplish just that, but one show in particular has taken the spotlight for not simply being another ghost story, but a love story as well.
After its premiere on Oct. 9, The Haunting of Bly Manor has gained the No. 1 slot in Netflix’s Top 10 in the U.S., dethroning another chilling Netflix original series Ratched, which was released in late September with Sarah Paulson as the leading lady. Since reaching the top, it has remained there for over a week after its premiere date.
The Haunting of Bly Manor serves as a second season to The Haunting of Hill House. Although the installment is technically a second season with the same creator as the first, the plotline stands on its own. The two shows are set up American Horror Story style as an anthology rather than an ongoing plot. Similar to the other popular anthology series, The Haunting brought back a few familiar faces to its cast for its second story adaptation. Among these faces were Victoria Pedretti, Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Kate Siegel.
The majority of The Haunting of Bly Manor’s leading cast is far from new from the horror and suspense genres. A number of their previous roles had prepared them for their characters in Bly Manor. Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Peter) starred as another antagonist in the 2020 horror thriller The Invisible Man. Henry Thomas (Henry) appeared briefly as the Overlook’s bartender in the film adaptation of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep. Kate Siegel (Viola) played the leading role in two horror thrillers, Hush in 2016 and Gerald’s Game in 2017, both currently available to watch on Netflix. The lead protagonist, Victoria Pedretti (Dani), served as the second love interest to obsessive-stalker Joe Goldberg in You’s second season, another Netflix original. Three of the titles—Doctor Sleep, Hush and Gerald’s Game—were also created by The Haunted’s showrunner Mike Flanagan.
Despite the familiar cast, The Haunting of Bly Manor attracted a wide audience since it has not been labeled solely as a ghost story, but a love story as well.
“It certainly provides a new way to tell a love story, and there are three of them that beat at the heart of this season,” creator Flanagan stated. “They all have a very dark edge to them. And by the end, it’s really hard to differentiate tragedy from romance. That sense of romantic longing for someone who meant so much to us—but who’s gone—really is the heart of any ghost story.”
The plot itself is mainly based on the Henry James 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw and some of his other stories. The plotline follows a young, hopeful au pair who finds herself caring for the two children of Bly Manor in 1987 London’s countryside. Ultimately, she must protect the children against the horror and tragedy entwined in the history of the manor and its previous residents while fighting against ghosts from her past.
While not directly tying into the plot of The Haunting of Hill House, both seasons carry similar central themes and ideas. “The most powerful theme throughout Mike Flanagan’s Haunting Of series is that our real demons are all internal. Whether it’s grief, addiction, or PTSD, the actual horror connecting Hill House and Bly Manor is how our pain manifests into our physical world,” wrote Esquire’s Matt Miller.
While it is not set in stone, due to the series popularity, there is already talk of a third season. If the creators stay on track with the production of the first two series, the third installment will likely be set to premiere in late October of 2022. The third story will likely be adapted in a similar style to the first two. Flanigan’s producing partner Trevor Macy said, “The process is the same, in that it’s a literary remix. You want to update the story, you want to find whatever fertile ground for elevating the character that you can in the source material, but we obviously took some liberties in updating it with a more modern setting.”
The Haunting fans can probably look forward to seeing more of this modern remixing in the future of the Netflix series.
Want to see more HCFSU? Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Youtube and Pinterest!