The Haunting of Bly Manor Review – A pretty satisfying watch

After The Haunting of Hill House, which combined two of my favorite things–crying and being scared–I was looking forward to the follow-up, The Haunting of Bly Manor. The source material, The Turn of the Screw, is a story that I like a lot. It’s historically been irresistible for adaptation. In the past year alone, it’s been a pretty good book (The Turn of the Key) and also there was a movie (The Turning).

Part of the appeal is probably the story itself. At first glance, it’s deceptively simple. A young woman is hired by a rich man to look after his orphaned niece and nephew at their isolated family home. Weird stuff ensues. And as her employment (and the weird stuff) continues, the governess learns unsettling details, like that she got her job because the previous governess died. Before she died, though, she and another employee, also now dead, had a scandalous relationship that maybe corrupted the children. Now the governess is seeing the pair’s ghostly forms in and around the estate.

But of course, the story is a little more complicated than that. For one thing, its narrator, via a manuscript she left, is famously unreliable. So we’re never quite sure what, if anything, is actually going on at the home. Is the governess really seeing ghosts? Or is she or someone else at the house mentally ill?

Some of the fun then in adapting the story is that you can make the choice for the audience. Or you can punt, which is always less satisfying for me personally. Be bold! Overall, though, since the story can be read multiple ways, it can consequently be told in multiple ways. You can emphasize some themes over others, for example. You can make it more spooky-ooky, you can use it to explore mental illness, or as in Key, you can discard everything but the bones of the story, which is Is this a haunted house?

However, that question in itself is prone to interpretation. Sure, there are the tropes that phrase conjures up–no pun intended–like strange noises, flickering lights, and even apparitions. But a house can also be haunted by intangibles like grief or violence. A person can be haunted, too, for what is emotional baggage if not our own personal ghosts we carry with us?

That would certainly apply to Dani (Victoria Pedretti), the young American who gets the au pair job at Bly Manor. The uncle, Lord Henry Wingrave (Henry Thomas) is suspicious that such a young gal would want a job more often taken by older women. Dani in turn points out that she’s seen the same listing for the job month after month. Both of them, it would seem, are hiding something.

What Wingrave is hiding is what we already know–that the previous au pair, Rebecca Jessel (Tahirah Sharif) died by suicide while she was employed at Bly. After Dani begins working at the Manor, she’ll learn that Rebecca had an apparently ill-fated romance with Wingrave’s associate Peter Quint (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who is now missing at the very least. But those are Bly Manor secrets, and Dani has some of her own. She’s bringing her own ghosts to work.

And still, the story follows the beats of its inspiration. Miles (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) and Flora (Amelie Bea Smith) seem like alright kids at first, if a little odd. (One glaring example: This version of the story is set in the 80s and we know the kids have some familiarity with pop culture, as Miles has a poster for The Monster Squad, a movie I’ll finish writing about…someday. But the kids never have any interaction with pop culture, at least not the modern kind. They don’t even seem to have a TV, I say, shivering.)

But as things develop, so do the cracks in this perfect world, much like the same ones housekeeper Hannah (T’Nia Miller) keeps seeing, the ones others, like cook Owen (Rahul Kohli) and gardener Jamie (Amelia Eve) can’t see. Dani sees ghosts, but are they really there? And are they really ghosts? After all, no one knows what happened to Peter after he stole a bunch of money from Lord Wingrave and vanished. Miss Jessel died after his disappearance, so it’s possible he’s returned for her, not knowing she’s gone.

That wouldn’t be surprising in this story. Because while The Haunting of Hill House, which, by the way, shares actors but not a story with Bly, was largely about grief, this story is about love. It’s about what we’ll do for love, as well as what we’ll give up for it. And it’s also about the destructive power of it, how some people will use it or the illusion of it as a key, a tool to manipulate. It’s a love story and it’s a ghost story, and as the show acknowledges, sometimes those are the same thing.

8/10 – While a little slow to start, I ended up enjoying it overall. Compared to Hill House, it’s not really that scary–this is more classic gothic horror than what horror means today–and it’s not nearly as sad, but it’s still a pretty satisfying watch. If I had complaints, they’re mostly minor, but include things like Rebecca not getting as much of a backstory as Peter.

And as an American, I’m immune to things like overdone Scottish accents and whether houses have laundry chutes, so your mileage (kilometerage?) may vary on stuff like that. Finally, the framing device ended up working for me, but until the last episode, it’s a pretty funny proposition, like, why on earth would these folks at a wedding rehearsal dinner sit and listen to this long-ass sad story?

COMMENTS

Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

7 Comments

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

RickiV25

1 month ago

I am excited to watch this set of the series. I didn’t watch it yet but it’s on my list. I really enjoyed the House series so far. Thanks for the review.

Kkelie

I have never seen any of these “House” movies or shows. It looks quite interesting to me. I will add it to my Netflix binge list. Lord knows I’ve got extra time because of this pandemic!

Evie

This movie looks great! I really liked House Hill so I think this would be great. Thanks for the review, another movie I can add to my must watch list.

Jordaina

Reply to Evie

It’s actually not a movie, it’s a series on Netflix. It was fantastic! You should definitely give it a go. Ghost or not, it’s very interesting.

Author

Salome G

Reply to Jordaina

Yes, I guess this is technically season 2 of “The House” series, but since they’re separate stories, it can come off a little unclear.

Oh, I get it now. It’s part of the House series. That makes sense now. I added it to my list to watch. I did watch the preview of it and it looks great. It will be another Netflix binge series. I wonder if they will come out with another House series after this.

Well, I think I meant The Haunting series, but House works, too.

Cookie	Description
_pxvid	This cookie is used for detection of the browser and distinguishing whether it is a real user or malicious bot.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Advertisement".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent WordPress Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-non-necessary	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Non Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	This cookie is used to keep track of which cookies the user have approved for this site.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-preferences	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Preferences".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-uncategorized	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Uncategorized".
CraftSessionId	This cookie name is associated with the Craft web content management system, where is functions as an anonymous session identifier.
csrftoken	This cookie is associated with Django web development platform for python. Used to help protect the website against Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks
DSID	To note specific user identity. Contains hashed/encrypted unique ID.
JSESSIONID	Used by sites written in JSP. General purpose platform session cookies that are used to maintain users' state across page requests.
PHPSESSID	This cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed.
viewed_cookie_policy	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Description
b30msc
btc
CMST
cref
d
gpl
i
icts
ig_did
mdata
na_rn
na_sc_e
na_sr
na_srp
session_depth
visitor-id

Cookie	Description
__gads	This cookie is set by Google and stored under the name dounleclick.com. This cookie is used to track how many times users see a particular advert which helps in measuring the success of the campaign and calculate the revenue generated by the campaign. These cookies can only be read from the domain that it is set on so it will not track any data while browsing through another sites.
__stid	The cookie is set by ShareThis. The cookie is used for site analytics to determine the pages visited, the amount of time spent, etc.
_ga	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, camapign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assigns a randoly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gat_gtag_UA_60765351_1	Google uses this cookie to distinguish users.
_gid	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
ad-id	Provided by amazon-adsystem.com for tracking user actions on other websites to provide targeted content
demdex	This cookie is set under the domain demdex.net and is used by Adobe Audience Manager to help identify a unique visitor across domains.
DigiTrust.v1.identity	Registers data on visitors’ website-behaviour. This is used for internal analysis and website optimization.
dmvk	This cookie is set by DailyMotion who display videos, it registers statistical data of visitors' behaviour on the website.
gid	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
GPS	This cookie is set by Youtube and registers a unique ID for tracking users based on their geographical location
is_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
is_visitor_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
sc_is_visitor_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
v1st	This is set by DailyMotion to display videos.

Cookie	Description
__asc	This cookie is used to collect information on consumer behavior, which is sent to Alexa Analytics.
__auc	This cookie is used to collect information on consumer behavior, which is sent to Alexa Analytics.
__qca	This cookie is associated with Quantcast and is used for collecting anonymized data to analyze log data from different websites to create reports that enables the website owners and advertisers provide ads for the appropriate audience segments.
_cc_aud	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_cc	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_dc	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_id	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_kuid_	The cookie is set by Krux Digital under the domain krxd.net. The cookie stores a unique ID to identify a returning user for the purpose of targeted advertising.
_px2	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
_pxff_tm	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
_pxhd	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
ab	This cookie is generally provided by agkn.com and is used for advertising purposes.
ad-privacy	Provided by amazon-adsystem.com for tracking user actions on other websites to provide targeted content to the users.
ayl_visitor	This cookie registers data on the visitor. The information is used to optimize advertisement relevance.
bafp	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bafp_t	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_pl	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_rf_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_rt_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_t_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_td_2d31c94105a0aa6d1ceaea0c86c6b656	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bito	This cookie is generally provided by bidr.io and is used for advertising purposes.
bitoIsSecure	This cookies are generally provided by bidr.io and is used for advertising purposes.
bsc	The cookies is set by ownerIQ for the purpose of providing relevant advertisement
CMID	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
CMPRO	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
CMPS	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
dc_id	This cookie is used to deliver adverts more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator's permission. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organisations such as advertisers.
did	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
didts	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
dpm	The cookie is set by demdex.net. This cookie assigns a unique ID to each visiting user that allows third-party advertisers target that users with relevant ads.
eud	This cookie is from Rocket Fuel and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
euds	This cookie is from Rocket Fuel and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
everest_g_v2	The cookie is set under eversttech.net domain. The purpose of the cookie is to map clicks to other events on the client's website.
evo5_popin_instance	Prevents an interaction from reoccurring for visitors not accepting 3rd party cookies.
id	This cookie is set by DoubleClick (which is owned by Google) to build a profile of the website visitor's interests and show relevant ads on other sites.
IDE	Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
io.narrative.guid.v2	This cookie is generally provided by io.narrative.io and is used for advertising purposes.
KADUSERCOOKIE	This cookie is generally provided by pubmatic.com and is used for advertising purposes.
KTPCACOOKIE	This cookie is generally provided by pubmatic.com and is used for advertising purposes.
matchliveramp	This cookie is provided by w55c.net and is used for advertising purposes.
mc	This cookie is associated with Quantserve to track anonymously how a user interact with the website.
mxpim	This cookie is generally provided by mxptint.net for advertising purposes.
na_tc	This is a Social Media sharing tracking cookie.
NID	This cookie is used to a profile based on user's interest and display personalized ads to the users.
nnls	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
pxrc	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
pxvid	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
rlas3	The cookie is set by rlcdn.com. The cookie is used to serve relevant ads to the visitor as well as limit the time the visitor sees an and also measure the effectiveness of the campaign.

Cookie	Description
__jid	Cookies set on the website by the third-party commenting platform Disqus.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
disqus_unique	These cookies are set by Disqus so that users can comment on website/platform.
G_ENABLED_IDPS	The cookie is used by Google and is used for Google Single Sign On.
mid	The cookie is set by Instagram. The cookie is used to distinguish users and to show relevant content, for better user experience and security.
na_id	This cookie is set by Addthis.com to enable sharing of links on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter
ouid	The cookie is set by Addthis which enables the content of the website to be shared across different networking and social sharing websites.
ov	This is a generic functional cookie that provides enhanced functionality and personalisation.
ts	This cookie is generally provided by PayPal and supports payment services in the website.
vuid	These cookies are used by the Vimeo video player on websites.

The Haunting of Bly Manor Review – A pretty satisfying watch

You might also like

FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

Recommended for you