Netflix released the newest season of The Haunting series, and people cannot get enough of The Haunting of Bly Manor. Since the unexpected success of The Haunting of Hill House, fans were excited to hear about the series renewal for a second season and that the show would take an anthology approach. With many cast members returning, The Haunting of Bly Manor is not only just another ghost story, but one that also focuses on the numerous love stories between the characters.
However, like The Haunting of Hill House, it is also centered around the loss of loved ones. Many viewers are satisfied with The Haunting of Bly Manor, but some feel that The Haunting of Hill House is far superior.
Bly Manor Is Better: Story Focuses On Character Arc
In The Haunting of Bly Manor, several characters had episodes that focused on their character development and arc. With these characters, we understand the emotional and psychological toll on the characters as they reflect on their past.
The different approach of the series does not take away the brilliant quality of The Haunting of Hill House and its character development. However, the first series focuses more on the impact of the house and the family dynamic and the character-centered plots sometimes did not necessarily add to the main story.
Hill House Is Better: Extraordinary Cinematography
Without a doubt, The Haunting of Hill House far exceeds the technical elements concerning cinematography compared to The Haunting of Bly Manor.
In episode 6, "Two Storms," viewers couldn't get enough of the 16-minute long, nonstop take. It blew people's minds that the filmmakers were able to get the scene to work. The amount of dedication to making this one scene was worth it and it was praised by both audiences and critics for its artistic approach. The scene shows the huge amount of creativity that went into representing the horror elements of the show.
Bly Manor Is Better: Origins Of The Ghost Story
In general, The Haunting series is known for its narration of the ghost stories. While the first series works better in terms of technical aspects, Bly Manor does a better job of telling the origin stories of the ghosts and their impact on the overall story. Considering that Bly Manor had one less episode than Hill House, it only took one episode to tell the ghost story of the Lady in the Lake.
In the penultimate episode, "The Romance of Certain Old Clothes," viewers learned about a character named Viola, who was once a resident of Bly Manor and who now haunts it as a ghost. While sometimes, adding a subplot does not always work well with the main one, the story about the Lady in the Lake is crucial to connecting the other subplots and building upon the ending of the second series.
Hill House Is Better: Pacing Of The Story
Viewers will agree that the first three episodes of Bly Manor are slow. The story does not pick up until episode 5, which then finally builds momentum towards the conclusion. This issue occurs due to the fact that the story is too focused on the arcs of each character.
Hill House managed to avoid this pacing problem by centralizing the main story, while also following the same approach of focusing on one character for each episode. The story remained consistent and helped viewers to be attentive to the details of each episode without feeling indifferent to the content presented.
Bly Manor Is Better: It's A Game Of Lies And Deception
Because the children were young, Bly Manor is full of childish games of lies and deception. This game helps focus on character dynamics, particularly through the motivations of Peter Quint.
As Peter and Becca use the children for body possession, hidden details are seen throughout the second series that indicates their whereabouts. It is a unique attribute to the storytelling of Bly Manor and adds more complexity to the story and its characters.
Hill House Is Better: Family Story Is Emotionally Relatable
Most family stories are ones that are relatable, especially ones that include pain and loss. Hill House does this well as the Crain family tries to deal with the death of the wife and mother, Olivia Crain.
The family story dwells upon the emotional and complicated relationship between the siblings. It also showed how the Hill House impacted the children as they got older. Because of these plots, most viewers were to understand and relate to the sibling conflict.
Bly Manor Is Better: Heartbreaking Stories Of Love And Loss
As mentioned before, The Haunting of Bly Manor is not just a ghost story. It is also a love story and speaks about the ability to cope with losses. Some of these love stories include Hannah and Owen, Peter and Becca, Dani and Jamie, and Henry and Charlotte. Unfortunately, all of the love stories ended in a tragedy that resulted in the loss of a loved one.
Regardless, each love story is handled differently and continues the overall theme of remembrance of a loved one. Even the narrator has a hidden secret about her love story.
Hill House Is Better: Kept Viewers Guessing Until The End
Considering that Bly Manor was slower, many attributes of the story were a bit predictable. For instance, most people probably figured out that Peter was possessing Miles.
The same issue is not as present in the Hill House series, as viewers kept guessing who was the Bent-Neck Lady and the purpose she served in the Hill House. Furthermore, no one would have guessed that Abigail was a real-person before being poisoned by Olivia. She literally looked like a ghost up until that point.
Bly Manor Is Better: The Foreshadowing Of Episode 5
Despite the slow start of Bly Manor, viewers praise the fifth episode of the series, "The Altar of the Dead," which was a turning point of the series and even left viewers shocked with the revelation regarding Hannah.
The episode was centralized on Hannah Grose's story and the events that took place before the start of the series. The story was written to recall several memories at once, which then builds on the biggest twist. However, it was the conclusion of the episode that revealed that not only was Peter a ghost, but that Hannah was dead the whole time.
Hill House Is Better: It Was Much Scarier And True To The Genre
One of the greatest things about Hill House was that it was a horror TV show. The concept was a ghost story, the tone was foreboding, and the jump scares had viewer's hearts racing. These elements set The Haunting series as a true horror genre.
Despite the intentions of Bly Manor, unfortunately, the tone of the story does not really represent the horror genre. Most viewers believe that the second series was more of a tragic drama rather than a horror series, leaving some viewers underwhelmed with the lack of scariness in its limited horror content.