Cover your ears.
The Haunting of Bly Manor is one of Netflix’s most anticipated shows of the year. It is the follow-up to 2018’s The Haunting of Hill House, and is just as scary.
(Don’t worry, there are no spoilers here).
However, there is one thing that some viewers are finding horrifying, and not in a good way: the accents.
Because a lot of the series is set in the UK, there’s, unfortunately, a lot of Americans doing wonky British accents – which for UK viewers has been somewhat distracting.
Welcome home, @carlagugino. pic.twitter.com/xDhKoZ5jz5
— Midnight Mass (@midnightmass) October 9, 2020
The opening of the very first episode of The Haunting of Bly Manor has Carla Gugino (who also starred in Hill House) doing a rather hard to pin down English accent, that had people on social media struggling to tell where it’s from.
sorry i love carla gugino but literally seconds into the haunting of bly manor i'm already distracted this weird "all of england at the same time" accent she's doing
— Lonelyspeck (@lonelyspeck) October 10, 2020
really enjoying the first episode of bly manor, but carla gugino’s british accent is so distracting. i don’t get it is is supposed to be posh with a mixture of northern? what is that
— amrita🌻 (@amr_ita) October 9, 2020
One user said it was like she was trying to do “all of England at the same time,” while another said it sounded like it was “supposed to be posh with a mixture of Northern”.
Bold move by the Bly Manor narrator to use a different british regional accent for each individual word
— George Holland (@george94holland) October 10, 2020
However, most scorn was saved for an actor who is actually British, Oliver Jackson-Cohen.
Oliver Jackson-Cohen, who plays Peter Quint, is from London, but does a Scottish accent in The Haunting of Bly Manor.
And people on social media do not think he did a good job.
https://twitter.com/dams3lfly/status/1315386811653517314
It would be perfectly splendid if folk would start using actual Scottish people for Scottish roles. That accent was the most horrifying thing in The Haunting of Bly Manor. pic.twitter.com/6gjfMPMih3
— George Corner (@GCorner101) October 13, 2020
https://twitter.com/trcinspotting/status/1314747372178731009
https://twitter.com/Jaydeee1992/status/1315061165136007176
His accent has been described as “the worst thing ever” and “absolutely grim” on Twitter.
“It would be perfectly splendid if folk would start using actual Scottish people for Scottish roles,” said another viewer. “That accent was the most horrifying thing in The Haunting of Bly Manor.”
(All the clips of Jackson-Cohen’s accents we could find online were a bit spoiler-y, but fire up Netflix yourself in you want to hear it).
It seems the response has not gone unnoticed by the cast – Rahul Kohli, who is British, tweeted this:
https://twitter.com/RahulKohli13/status/1315770777212350465
Oh well. At least this accent was meant to be bad:
Pip pip cheerio this interview is over. pic.twitter.com/pBmU25xd5X
— Midnight Mass (@midnightmass) October 9, 2020
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