The haunting of Bly Manor
Year of release : 2020
Run time : 45 - 66 minutes
Genre : Gothic romance / Supernatural horror
Starring : Carla Gugino ,Kate Siegel
The tv series is inspired by Henry James’ works. This is the second instalment of the haunting series the first one being,The Haunting of Hill House.
Episode 1
A former US teacher with a troubled past, applies for a governess job in the UK and finally gets it. She thinks there’s a catch to it,and is determined to find it.
The estate and the house are ,like the little girl says” perfectly splendid”,the landscapes are amazing.
The 2 kids she is supposed to care after seem to be very nice and polite,but at times they change drastically. The little boy sometimes acts like a grown man,and the little girl seems to see and talk to ghosts.
I wrote a former US teacher with a troubled past because she seems to see a ghost in the reflections. She saw it in London in the reflection of a car window,then after she uncovered the mirrors when she left the hostel she stayed at. And it followed her to Bly Manor. The ghost is a black shape of a man with white glasses,like in Sin City comic books.
There seem to be a few ghosts in Bly Manor,although the lead didn’t see any yet,but the little girl has a house imitating the real one with many characters in it in strange places,that can’t be moved,and I could swear I saw one in a cloak and large hat.
The little girl told the governess never to leave her room at night,which she didn’t listen to. One night the kids locked her in the closet and when she came out,seriously disturbed,I think she might be claustrophobic,she found black,muddy footprints on the hallway all the way down to outside the house.
The housekeeper never eats nor drinks anything,and often she seems to be drifting away.
Episode 2
This episode shows us how the little boy got expelled from the catholic school he was studying at,because his little sister sent him a letter asking him to come home. So he had to do anything to get expelled.
At school they were studying about the demon attacks and how the demons have to be invited into their host. A foreshadowing ,I’m sure.
Episode 3
In this episode we are introduced to Peter and Rebecca. Rebecca was the previous governess and Peter worked for the kids’ uncle. Peter is established as a manipulator to get what he wants,liar and thief.
Danielle,the new governess,keeps on seeing him around the premises and even calls the police,but he cannot be found.
The ones in the house think he came back for Rebecca ,but he doesn’t know she’s dead.
Episode 4
In this one we get to understand why Danielle keeps on seeing the black shade ghost with glowing glasses. He was her fiance,and was killed by a truck right after he left the car after she broke up with him. What she sees,the way she sees him,is what she saw when he was hit by the truck.
We also get to see who leaves the muddy footprints and it ain’t the children.
Episode 5
Is the housekeeper’s story and one of my favorite episodes of the series. Hannah drifts from memory to memory in this foreshadowing. She sees events which have nothing to do with her,like for example,between Peter and Rebecca ,when she wasn’t really there. She keeps on seeing that crack on the walls. She sees Peter for who he is,a liar and a thief.
We find out who leaves the muddy footprints and why the kids locked Danny in the closet( SPOILER because she killed whoever she found in her path,she killed Peter).
SPOILERS Pretty fast,right after he was killed,Peter came back as a ghost and touching the boy,Miles,he possessed him. I didn’t see the boy giving him permission,the way they said in the 2nd episode. So,Miles is possessed by Peter,and that’s why he acts grown up and evil at times.
SPOILER
The housekeeper was dead the whole time,since the series started,as right before she met Danny,she was pushed into a well by Miles while being possessed by Peter. The crack she kept on seeing was the last thing she saw before she died,on the wall of the well.
I like the conversations they have,premonitory somehow.
Episode 6
is the one dedicated to the uncle. We find out through his memories and the little girl’s memories,that he’s the one who keeps on calling the house without saying a word,that he had an affair with his brother’s wife and the little girl is his.
He has his own ghost which came into being after he received the call telling him his brother and wife are dead.
His ghost looks just like him with an evil grin,a description his brother made him upon finding out what he and his wife did behind his back,a description like a curse.
It’s also revealed the kids are possessed by the ghosts of Rebecca and Peter who, I’m guessing, want to live in their bodies.
Episode 7
sees Peter and Rebecca ,now ghosts,trying to get a body to inhabit. Peter came to the conclusion,since they could not leave the premises,they could inhabit the body of a living person as long as they had permission,so he and Rebecca deceived the kids into thinking it was all a game to give them permission to possess their bodies forever.
Miles is lost,as Peter goes into his body,but Rebecca refuses to kill-they push them into a world of memories until nothing of them is left,as if they died- Flora,the little girl,in order to inhabit her body.
Peter decides to do this because ghosts eventually lose themselves,becoming just a faceless spirit walking the premises without any idea of who the are,why are they there doing it.
Episode 8
and another one of my favorites,tells the story of Viola,the first ghost of the manor,and the one who set the curse of people dying on the premises to turn into ghosts unable to leave the manor, in motion.
SPOILERS
She was killed by her sister whom she was a bitch to,after she refused her communion as she was sick for 6 years with tuberculosis,and killed her sister after becoming a ghost because she opened the chest with clothes and jewelry for her daughter.
She started haunting the mansion after her husband and daughter throw the chest in the lake,as they believe it to be cursed.
She left the lake whenever she became aware of herself- to see her husband and daughter-,and killed whoever was in her path not because she wanted to kill them,but because she knew she was looking for something or someone,and since it was in her path,that must have been it.
Episode 9
The lady of the lake is doing her rounds again and catches Danny in her path as she was trying to leave the manor with Flora. Flora asks her to release Danny and the ghost takes Flora thinking it was her daughter. In order to save Flora Danny offers herself to the ghost and the ghost accepts,releasing the other ghosts trapped on the domain.
Years later,Danny lives with Jamie,and finally the Lady of the Lake comes for her.
I liked the series,it had this haunted,eerie vibe,taking you into the world created. The actors were all great,the visuals amazing,the soundtrack great.
I loved it!
The series are a Netflix production and streams exclusively on the platform.
Rating : The stuff dreams are made of !