The Haunting of Bly Manor Is A Near-Perfect Netflix Horror Miniseries

Netflix has released some great additions to the horror TV genre in recent years, and Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Bly Manor is easily among the best. A good horror miniseries knows how to create dread in its viewers through shocking, haunting visuals, while balancing character development.

While there are great long-running horror shows streaming currently for audiences to sink their teeth into over weeks and months, this miniseries is equally impressive. Arguably, many of Netflix’s original horror offerings rank among the best TV shows on Netflix as a whole, and this 2020 series is not one to skip over.

The Haunting Of Bly Manor Is A Near-Perfect Horror Miniseries

Mike Flanagan’s 2020 horror miniseries The Haunting of Bly Manor stands among the best horror shows of all time, and it is an essential watch for all fans of the genre. The nine-episode series draws inspiration from Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, along with several of the author’s other gothic horror stories and Flanagan’s own additions.

The series tells a story within a story, beginning with a woman telling a ghost story at a modern-day wedding. The majority of the series, though, takes place in England in the 1980s, as a young American woman takes a job as a governess to two young children living in their haunted manor house.

The series is immediately enthralling. Audiences can easily connect to the sympathetic characters, and the chilling horror aspects will keep viewers waiting for the next scare. The story unfolds with perfect pacing, though many of the biggest puzzle pieces don’t fall into place until late in the season, making The Haunting of Bly Manor even more taut and captivating.

How The Haunting Of Bly Manor Compares To Mike Flanagan’s Other Netflix Hits

Each of Mike Flanagan’s Netflix horror series is worth a watch, but The Haunting of Bly Manor is one of his best installments for the streamer. It premiered after The Haunting of Hill House, which arguably remains Flanagan’s best miniseries, but the 2020 show was a worthy follow-up.

The Haunting of Bly Manor does have fewer scares than The Haunting of Hill House, but it is certainly still scary (arguably scarier than Flanagan’s shows that succeeded it). What really makes The Haunting of Bly Manor stand out against Flanagan’s other Netflix shows is that it is a love story.

This is immediately hinted at through the series beginning with a wedding party, but the depth of the love the characters have for each other is only truly clear through the show’s ending. All of Mike Flanagan’s shows have a clear emphasis on the importance of relationships, but The Haunting of Bly Manor carried that out the best.

You Can Easily Binge The Haunting Of Bly Manor

Given that it is only a nine-episode miniseries, The Haunting of Bly Manor is the perfect show to binge-watch over the weekend. The entire story takes less than nine hours to watch, and it is expertly acted and directed. Its gothic, haunted house feel also makes it the perfect series to start autumn off right.

For viewers new to Mike Flanagan’s work, the series is a great place to start to understand his mastery of the genre’s themes and how he applies them to create real scares. It’s also just as good on rewatch. One thing is certain: once you start watching The Haunting of Bly Manor, it is so captivating that you won’t want to stop.