The Haunting of Bly Manor, follow up show to Hill House by Mike Flanagan, tells a new story, an adaptation of Henry James’s novel, The Turn of the Screw.
Director Mike Flanagan is all set to produce a sequel show of his 2018 Netflix adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, But does the Haunting of Bly Manor follows up the story of the show. With a different tale, Bly Manor is just an anthological sequel of Hill House, which is going to deliver an entirely different story.
Many familiar faces are making comeback with Haunting of Bly Manor including Victoria Pedretti, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Henry Thomas, and Kate Siegel. Flanagan’s recurred cast is going to face fresh fear throughout the season. Sharing the supernatural theme of Hill House, the characters in Bly Manor find themselves in the midst of spirits in another grand home. With his old cast, Flanagan welcomes some new faces as well, including T’Nia Miller Rahul Kohli, and Tahirah Sharif.
Flanagan’s The Haunting of Bly Manor, adaptation of Henry James’s 1898 horror novella The Turn of the Screw, tells a tale of a young girl tasked to babysit a wealthy man’s niece and nephew. Upon her arrival at the large estate, she was welcomed there with some apparitions and paranormal occurrences, then she decides to go into the history and happening of the House.
Flanagan’s series is far from the first screen adaption of the novella — previous retellings include Jack Clayton’s The Innocents (1961), Michael Winner’s The Nightcomers (1972)—a prequel to James’s tale—and, most recently, Floria Sigismondi’s The Turning (2020), which was met with negative critical reviews, placing high hopes on Flanagan’s series.
What flavor Flanagan is going to add in Haunting of Bly Manor?
In Flanagan’s second series, which received positive critics, he tries to tell the story of The Turn of the Screw with his own twists. The Haunting of Bly Manor tries to adapt the novel in a creative manner, tries to alter the time period and plot points in order to embody a modern retelling. James’s story began with a man named Douglas reading a manuscript written by a governess he once knew to a group of unknown individuals.
After breaking the fact that the governess is read now Douglas turns the story into a horror story that recounts the woman’s experience during her time at the Bly home. Flanagan’s version takes the story in 1980 and introduces us to Dani Clayton as a modernized governess.
She was hired by Henry Wingrave to take care of his young niece and nephew, Flora and Miles Wingrave, so she suspects that something is suspicious about the house. Stepping into the theme of The Haunting of Hill House, Characters of Haunting of Bly Manor soon finds themselves facing a supernatural power, Flanagan uses the context of James’s novella as a basis to question the characters, their circumstances, and their stories. Expanding on themes associated with the paranormal, Flanagan portrays the relationship between haunted and haunter in an intimate and inviting way.
The first outing of Mike Flanagan talks about the family and generational Trauma, his second The Haunting of BlY Manor talks about Love, Loss, and Life’s Mysteries.
