The second season of the Netflix anthology series The Haunting of Hill House will be called The Haunting of Bly Manor and be based on Henry James psychological horror novel The Turn of the Screw. The novel follows an anonymous governess working in decrepit Bly Manor as the nanny of two orphan children that might, or might not, be tormented by the ghosts of their former guardians. The Turn of the Screw leaves it up to the reader to decide whether Bly Manor is actually haunted or if every supernatural event is a figment of the nanny’s morbid imagination.
As the new season will be a pretty major departure from the series' first outing, we've created a list of everything we know right now about The Haunting of Bly Manor.
What Was The Haunting of Hill House Season 1 About?
The first season of The Haunting of Hill House was based on Shirley Jackson’s eponymous novel. It followed the Crain family across twenty years in their attempts to restore an old mansion that ultimately consumes almost all of them. The series developed the themes of family, loss, madness and malicious objects that Mike Flanagan, the showrunner, had already touched on in his film Oculus.
The final scene of the first season was far more hopeful than one might have expected, leading some to believe the Crains might return in the future. However, Flanagan eventually confirmed that this particular door was closed.
Why Does Season 2 Have a Different Title?
Like FX's American Horror Story, Haunting of Hill House is an anthology series built around different buildings and their cursed inhabitants.
In terms of what Season 2 will be about, Flanagan likes to play with the perception of what is and isn't real, and the terror of being put in danger (unwittingly, or not) by those that should be protecting you the most. He also works with how obsession can be even more destructive and deceptive than unspeakable entities hell-bent on consuming your soul.
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While The Haunting of Hill House leaned towards the supernatural end of the horror spectrum, The Haunting of Bly Manor might be more inclined to tackle the equally terrifying genre of psychological terror, as implied by the teaser trailer's quote from Henry James' novel: "The terrace and the whole place, the lawn and the garden beyond it, all I could see of the park, were empty with a great emptiness.”
What is interesting about The Turn of the Screw novel is that it is composed of stories stacked like living Russian dolls. The narrator goes to a party and hears a story based on a diary written by the governess. The governess, in turn, hears about the ghost’s origin story from Mrs. Grose retelling of the events, and then she seemingly convinces herself of the haunting, writing it down so that a guest at a party can read it to the narrator, who in turn will retell it to the reader. The show may adapt this style in some way.
What Is Bly Manor?
In Turn of the Screw, Bly Manor is the ancestral estate of 10 and 8-year old siblings Miles and Flora. Miles and Flora’s parents died when they were very young, leaving their uncle as their legal guardian. For unclear reasons, the uncle refuses to live in Bly Manor with the children, and prefers to hire people to care for them so he can stay in the city.
When the novel starts, Miles has just been expelled from boarding school, and Flora has spent the last year living alone with Mrs. Grose, an illiterate servant. The year before the arrival of the protagonist governess, the previous children's caretakers died in mysterious circumstances, and as the novel progresses, the governess becomes convinced that they are still roaming Bly Manor’s grounds trying to corrupt the children.
Who Will Appear in The Haunting of Bly Manor?
The Haunting of Bly Manor will almost certainly feature at least the two children, Miles and Flora, the children’s uncle, the servant Mrs. Grose and the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel.
Victoria Pedretti, who played Eleanor “Nell” Crain in The Haunting of Hill House, as already been cast as governess Dani. This section will be updated as more casting information is made available.
The Haunting of Bly Manor will premiere on Netflix in late 2020. It will be directed by Mike Flanagan and star Victoria Pedretti.