Mike flanagan’s “The haunting of bly manor” is a worthy, if lesser follow-up to its glorious predecessor

It’s almost time for Halloween and Netflix got prepared by releasing the anticipated follow-up miniseries of The Haunting of Hill House, dubbed The Haunting of Bly Manor. Director Mike Flanagan returns behind the camera, and series alums Victoria Pedretti and Oliver Jackson Cohen return to play different characters in a brand new story. Unfortunately, while the cinematography is still luscious, the performances solid, and the dramatic elements sharp, Bly Manor can’t help but lose some steam in terms of true terror.

This time around, we focus on aspiring Au Pair Dani (Pedretti), who takes on an interview with the owner of a mysterious estate. Because of the lack of competition, she easily gets the job and travels to a small town called Bly in England, where she is to stay at the local manor. She’s quickly introduced to the two children who live there: Miles (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) and Flora (Amelie Bea Smith), who have lost their parents, and the most recent Au Pair, Ms. Jessel. Otherwise, the character meets Hannah (T’Nia Miller), Owen (Rahul Kohli), and gardener Charlotte (Alex Essoe). Of course, like in all horror stories, unexpected things begin to occur as she sees ghostly specters, a man with a Kubrick stare, and unwelcome rooms in the manor. Once again, the Flanagan knows how to create excellent atmosphere in his works, with an appropriately beautiful, haunting setting, and camera work that evokes some decent scares here and there.

Alas, the actual frights are also the series’ greatest weakness. In Hill House, Flanagan effortlessly blended horror and family drama in a depressing, beautifully-shot nightmare that benefits from an even balance. In his “sequel”, it’s not always as intact. Miles gets a compelling backstory, and Flora is just perfectly splendid, but I wasn’t chilled to the bone, my knees weren’t shaking. In the predecessor, you couldn’t help but feel an impending sense of dread, and that’s generally lost here. Thankfully, Pedretti is once again excellent as she headlines this next limited series as well. Coupled with a perfect face for emotion and a natural talent for looking terrified, she has become quite the Scream Queen in the past few years. The supporting cast is ho-hum for the most part, but not an issue either. The real stars are the children, who go through a refreshingly unique story arc throughout the episodes I’ve watched.

Pedretti’s Dani, Owen, Hannah and Charlotte are mostly oblivious to what’s going on, but Flora and Miles give audiences the sense that they’ve known about the terrifying legacy of this place all along. Also, remember that god-awful film The Turning starring Finn Wolfhard? Well this is that same story, but is fortunately told with much more skill than the horrific adaptation that released earlier this year. For the most part, Flanagan has added another solid accomplishment to his horror-jammed filmography. With Stephen King adaptations like Doctor Sleep and Gerald’s Game, acclaimed horror films such as Hush, Oculus, and the surprisingly effective Ouija: Origin of Evil, he’s golden in terms of both movies and shows. Still, you can’t deny that this is a considerable step down from its predecessor, and un-engaging enough that I couldn’t make it towards the halfway point. Sure, I’ll finish it whenever I feel like it, but it’s just not worth a binge.

The final opinion is: The Haunting of Bly Manor still packs a fine cast, elegant cinematography, and some worthy drama into the mix, despite failing to recapture the magic of balancing human emotion and sheer terror that its predecessor mastered. I would say…BROWSE IT

Rated: TV-MA

Genre: Horror/Drama

Runtime: Episode 1 (54 minutes), Episode 2 (45 minutes), Episode 3 (56 minutes)

Directed By: Mike Flanagan (Episode 1), Ciaran Foy (Episodes 2 and 3)