Spoiler-Free Review: The Haunting of Bly Manor

“The Haunting of Bly Manor” has a haunting atmosphere and an eerie aesthetic, but overall leaves you feeling a little empty.

If you watched The Haunting of Hill House, you’re already familiar with the work and style of Mike Flanagan. The first installment of his Haunting series was dark and eerie, exploring themes of guilt, loss and avoidance. It was a slow-burning ghost story of the kind we don’t see nearly often enough in horror. Horror doesn’t always have to be blood and slashers. Sometimes it can be quiet and tragic, and that seems to be what Flanagan does best. With the release of The Haunting of Bly Manor, we see if lightning can strike twice.

I’ll say at the start that there will be no major spoilers in this review. I want to talk about what works and what doesn’t while keeping it as mysterious as possible, but I will need to talk about some aspects of the show.

The Haunting of Bly Manor takes place at a beautiful house in the English countryside. The year is 1987. Two children — Miles (Benjamin Evans Ainsworth) and Flora (Amelie Bea Smith) Wingrave — have lost their parents in a tragic accident. Also, their au pair, Miss Jessel (Tahirah Sharif) committed suicide after her boyfriend left her with no explanation. Their uncle Henry (Henry Thomas) hires another young lady to take care of the children. This time it’s an American woman named Dani Clayton (Victoria Pedretti) who left the States to get away from her own ghosts. She joins the other staff at Bly: cook Owen Sharma (Rahul Kholi), housekeeper Hannah Grose (T’Nia Miller) and gardener Jamie (Amelia Eve).

THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR (L to R) VICTORIA PEDRETTI as DANI in THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR Cr. EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX © 2020

The grounds of Bly Manor are stunning and the kids charming, but something seems off. The kids seem fine one minute and strange the next. Flora is very particular about her doll house and Miles seems to lash out for no reason and then act normal the next. Someone keeps tracking mud into the home and Dani isn’t allowed to leave her room at night. The ghost that Dani ran from also seems to follow her to her new life, making things even more strange.

The previous nanny, Rebecca, fell in love with Henry’s assistant, Peter. It was a tumultuous relationship that ended with Peter gone and Flora finding Rebecca’s body in the lake near the house. The children were very fond of her and her memory hangs over all, as do the deaths of Charlotte and Dominic Wingrave.

There’s a lot going on in Bly Manor, and sometimes it feels like TOO much. It’s based off Henry James’ 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw. The affair between Miss Jessel and Peter, the characters names and the location…they’re all the same, but there are plenty of things added and liberties taken.

In general, The Haunting of Bly Manor creates an eerie atmosphere reminiscent of old English ghost stories, and I love that about it. But when the final credits rolled, I wasn’t sure how I felt about this series. There is so much potential, but some of it is shadowed by too many convoluted storylines, not enough of which pay off. We spend SO much time on a story that just fizzles away, and that bothered me immensely. The show spends six episodes building that story, and I feel they could have been condensed into one considering the ending. Maybe there wasn’t a better way to end it, but it doesn’t seem like the ending the show deserved.

Speaking of the ending, The Haunting of Bly Manor is a tragedy in every sense of the word. The series is full of bittersweet moments that tug at you and crush you while making your heart swell. And the ending keeps that up, but it just didn’t feel…right. It’s not bitter nor sweet enough. It was pallid, and I literally exclaimed out loud, “Wait, what?”

On the surface, this series is stunning. The atmosphere is terrific, the environment is gorgeous, and I love the Gothic energy. It doesn’t feel like it’s TRYING to set itself in the ’80s, it just is. Period pieces sometimes shove your face in the fact they’re period pieces, but this one plays it down. The ’80s wasn’t all Madonna and neon headbands; it was also unflattering pants and turtlenecks. The subtlety is appreciated.

The acting was incredible across the board, with special accolades for T’Nia Miller and Rahul Kholi. I’m familiar with Kholi from his role on iZombie; his portrayal of Owen was kind, sweet and completely heartfelt.

And Miller! Her take on Hannah Grose was BEAUTIFUL. I was very moved by Hannah’s story. Her scenes pulled at my heart more than anything else on this show, and that was Miller’s doing. This story isn’t about Hannah or Owen, but these so-called “side characters” are so strong you can almost forget that.

THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR (L to R) T’NIA MILLER as HANNAH, BENJAMIN EVAN AINSWORTH as MILES, RAHUL KOHLI as OWEN, AMELIE SMITH as FLORA, and VICTORIA PEDRETTI as DANI in episode 101 of THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR Cr. EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX © 2020

Overall, The Haunting of Bly Manor isn’t a bad show. I feel like the story was stretched a little too thin, and it used the extra time it had to focus on the wrong things. But the atmosphere is quietly eerie, and there is an air of mystery swirling around the grounds of Bly. If you like classic ghost stories, then you will like this show. Just know that it’s going to break your heart in more ways than one, and may leave you feeling a little empty inside and questioning what happened.

The Haunting of Bly Manor premiers October 9 on Netflix.

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