A Filmmaker's Review: "The Haunting of Bly Manor" (2020)

Yes, I watched the entire series in one night, with a shot of gin and a glass of vodka.

Here's the review...

I was not really that impressed at all. Though, I thought it was clever to some degree and there were some moments of greatness. First of all, we have a ‘frame narrative’ (go and check out ‘A Filmmaker’s Guide to Frame Narrative’ for more information) and then, it moves back in time to a different aspect of Bly Manor. By around six minutes in, the frame narrative finishes, which I found a bit shoddily done and short. You’re never really told why it’s there at all and the only reason seems to be for it to have some sort of hold on the original material (“The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James).

Yes, you’ve guessed it! We’re not going to cover how it differs from the source material because 1) it’s not relevant because adaptations are supposed to be different to the source material, 2) the story has been expanded in order to fill nine episodes and finally, 3) remember the first season? yeah, that wasn’t all that accurate except the title.

One thing I found about this season was that the children were nowhere near creepy enough for the show. The girl was far too adorable and so, never really creeped you out when she was supposed to and then there’s the boy who was just annoying. The whole “don’t leave your room at night” thing has also been rehashed from Season 1: The Haunting of Hill House.

The narrative was quite clever because it goes through each individual woe of every single character. Past and present, these characters are covered in great detail to the point where you realise exactly what’s going on by about Episode four or five only to have that completely confirmed. The real question is about which character was the best and the most believable and that was Mrs. Grose.

My favourite character was Mrs. Grose because her acting was always great throughout - she also seemed like she was hiding something ever since Danielle arrived at Bly. There was something she wasn’t addressing and something that she was avoiding talking about. When we look more into the story, we get her side of it and then we see everything seem to unravel from the romance at Bly that caused the deaths of two people and the truth about the parents of the two children. We also get the reality of the interview that happens when the chef is apparently ‘hired’ at Bly. It is a brilliant characterisation and honestly, she was by far the best character and the best actress for the job. In terms of the way in which the character was created, it was exactly how I’d imagined her from the book. There was avoidance, yet she was incredibly caring and then there was always something a little off, something she refused to address.

I’m not going to hand out any spoilers, but I do want to talk about how the story was designed. Each episode has a central character and when you fins out who that is, you can gain access to how the story in that episode has been created. The story moves back and forth on itself, which I can’t imagine how that would work in a frame narrative (and honestly, I think that’s why it was abandoned after about two or three episodes of V.O).

All in all, the story has some holes and when you watch the show, you can often recognise how they try to backtrack and cover them up. But, there’s also amount of character that has to be addressed as well. Not only the great acting of the woman who plays Mrs. Grose but the fact that the woman who plays Nellie Crane from Season 1 portrays Danielle in Season 2 is also pretty good, well at least further on in the season she is. However, I think that the number of holes in the story and the lack of creepy and gothic with children that are both adorable and annoying seems to take away from the whole narrative seemingly revolving around them and the ghosts that haunt their house. I’m not sure what to say about this show without telling you the ending, but I won’t. I’ll zip it. Watch it yourself and see, there’s some holes, some greatness and mostly stuff that makes you go: ‘meh, oh well.’