If you want to have nightmares featuring Peppa Pig’s voice, Mike Flanagan’s latest release is for you. Just in time for the scariest time of the year, Netflix has released The Haunting of Bly Manor, featuring Victoria Pedretti (Danielle), of the other successful Netflix original, You, and Andrea Bea Smith (Flora Wingrave), of Peppa Pig.
Loosely based on the 1898 story The Turning of the Screw by Henry James, The Haunting of Bly Manor is the second entry in “The Haunting” anthology, following The Haunting of Hill House. The nine-episode season surrounds a governess looking after the niece and nephew of Lord Henry Wingrave at his country estate. And the house is, as expected, very haunted.
As Danielle, the new governess, gets adjusted to her new role with the two children, there seems to be another presence that wasn’t in the job description. The kids bring their own element of suspense. Much like the twins in The Shining, we wouldn’t want to play with these two. The children’s allegiance to the ghostly forces within the home or their new au pair is unclear throughout the first episode, “The Great Good Place.”
Though The Haunting of Hill House is “one of Netflix’s best-reviewed shows of all time,” according to Business Insider, Bly Manor isn’t meant to live in the shadow of its older sibling. Flanagan’s beautiful setting and characters build a horror world that stands alone as a thrilling ghost story.
If you liked Hill House, the story of Bly Manor is definitely a worthwhile watch!