Creator Mike Flanagan explains how The Haunting of Bly Manor will differ from its predecessor, 2018's The Haunting of Hill House, in its narrative, but not its ghostly core. Hill House was based on the iconic novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson, but the Haunting franchise has evolved into an anthology series for Netflix with its second season only a few weeks away. The upcoming new season, entitled The Haunting of Bly Manor, is a wholly new ghost story adapted from the award-winning novella The Turn of the Screw by writer Henry James. Some members of the Haunting of Hill House cast will be returning for the new season, though, they'll each be playing entirely new roles.
In the critically admired Haunting of Hill House, Flanagan adapted Jackson's story about the Crain family, alternating between their past and present. The sequences in the past highlighted their time living in the strange Hill House and exposed the horrific events that occurred there. In the present, the grown-up Crain siblings finally were brought face-to-face with the house again, and the dark events that haunted them. The Haunting of Bly Manor, which is set in the 1980s, follows Victoria Pedretti's Dani Clayton when she is hired to be a new au pair for two troubled children at the eerie estate in the English town of Bly.
In a brand new featurette for The Haunting of Bly Manor (via EW), Flanagan, Pedretti, and executive producer Trevor Macy tease what's different in the next installment of the Haunting franchise. Calling Bly Manor a "gothic romance," Flanagan teased that the supernatural elements of the new series will be used in a similar manner to how they were employed in Hill House, but that Bly Manor will focus on a much different kind of family than its predecessor did. Check out Flanagan's full quote, as well as the new behind-the-scenes video for The Haunting of Bly Manor, below:
Similar to The Haunting of Hill House, I really wanted to play more with ghosts as an expression of emotional wounds that we do carry around — how the past and present can echo each other, that moments don't fall like dominoes, they fall like confetti. Though Haunting of Hill House is about a very tight family, Bly Manor is about strangers, a family that is created. All of the people that inhabit Bly Manor come from completely different backgrounds, and get to know each other through friendship, tension, conflict, and love. What sets Bly Manor apart is that at its heart, it's a love story. It's a gothic romance story.
Akin to its predecessor, it's likely that The Haunting of Bly Manor won't be a direct adaptation of the novella. Flanagan has added more characters, further demonstrating his commitment to creating strong interpersonal relationships between the show's characters. In Hill House, the family's struggle blended effortlessly with the show's ghostly aspects, creating a horror experience that moved beyond cheap scares. With Bly Manor, Flanagan appears to be applying the same principles by weaving romance into the classic ghost story, which will surely result in an elaborate horror experience that will satisfy fans.
With this installment, the Haunting franchise seems to be taking an anthology approach similar to Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story. Over the past few decades, the horror genre has continually reinvented itself as fans have demanded less repetition, and more complex stories from their content. Flanagan and Murphy have both been key figures within the genre capable of answering those calls, providing scares through more thoughtful narratives. With the Haunting anthology series, Flanagan is crafting a cohesive horror style that applies to multiple types of stories. So far, it looks like The Haunting of Bly Manor will provide fans with the same ghostly scares that made the first season so memorable, and luckily, the season's release was not delayed by the coronavirus. That means Haunting fans are only a few weeks away from finally seeing if The Haunting of Bly Manor can live up to the lofty reputation of its predecessor.
Source: EW