“It’s going to be unbelievably scary.”
When it comes to horror films, there’s a universal rule that’s true. Scares, jumps and any scenes where the main characters are in jeopardy are always better when you’re actually invested in the characters on screen.
The Haunting of Hill House director, Mike Flanagan, understood this fully when he adapted Shirley Jackson’s beloved book.
Aside from featuring memorable ghosts like the ‘Bent-Neck Lady’ and the ‘Tall Man with the Bowler Hat,’ the Netflix hit told the very real story of a family that was tearing itself apart.
Ultimately, things like addiction, greed, jealousy, lies, and a lack of communication were the real things that haunted and threatened to destroy the Crain family.
Well, it appears that Flanagan is adhering to what made The Haunting of Hill House such a hit with viewers, however, he’s making one small change by upping the amount of ghosts in the show’s spiritual successor, The Haunting of Bly Manor.
In an interview with BirthMoviesDeath, he said that the new series in the horror anthology will be “much scarier than Season one.”
“We’re looking at all the ghost stories of Henry James as the jumping-off point for the season, so it very much is a whole new deal. It’s a cool way to expand on some of the things I loved about season one, but within the framework of a new story, without having to be restrained by the decisions we made last time. For Henry James fans, it’s going to be pretty wild, and for people who aren’t familiar with his work, it’s going to be unbelievably scary. I already think it’s much scarier than season one, so I’m very excited about it,” he said.
As for the plot, the new story unfolds over Christmas Eve as a group of friends gather around to share ghost stories. One of the guests, a man named Douglas, begins to tell the tale of two children (Flora and Miles) and their governess (played by Victoria Pedretti)
The governess is hired by a man to take care of his young niece and nephew after the death of their parents. However, both children are strangely distant and oddly silent.
The children also live in a forlorn estate and are frequently haunted by a mysterious evil. With growing horror, the helpless governess realises these fiendish ghouls want the children.
However, both children are drawn to the darkness for reasons unknown.
Thankfully, Flanagan also confirmed that The Haunting of Bly Manor will be adopting the same approach when it comes to using special effects.
“That’s part of the DNA of The Haunting for me—that old-school approach to the ghosts. In particular, we’re having an enormous amount of fun talking about how to take some of the ideas from season one about hidden ghosts and things like that, and find new gears for them this time. It’ll be the same type of story, and we’ll treat the ghosts very much the same way,” said Flanagan.
The Haunting of Bly Manor is expected to arrive on Netflix in 2020.
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