Mike Flanagan Says THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR Will Be "Much Scarier" Than THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE
Director Mike Flanagan, the talent behind Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House is hard at work developing the second season of the anthology series, The Haunting of Bly Manor.
The next season is inspired by Henry James’ 1898 novel, The Turn of the Screw. It tells the story of a governess, who will be played by Victoria Pedretti, “hired to look after a pair of siblings. However, several ghosts around their manor house exhibit a supernatural hold over the children.”
According to Flanagan, this new series is going to be “much scarier than season one.” Which is exciting to hear because The Haunting of Hill House was pretty terrifying! While talking to Birth.Movies.Death., he said:
“We’re looking at all the ghost stories of Henry James as the jumping-off point for the season, so it very much is a whole new deal. It’s a cool way to expand on some of the things I loved about season one, but within the framework of a new story, without having to be restrained by the decisions we made last time. For Henry James fans, it’s going to be pretty wild, and for people who aren’t familiar with his work, it’s going to be unbelievably scary. I already think it’s much scarier than season one, so I’m very excited about it.”
Flanagan also explained that he will “absolutely, 100 percent” follow The Haunting of Hill House approach of practical effects this second season:
“That’s part of the DNA of The Haunting for me — that old-school approach to the ghosts. In particular, we’re having an enormous amount of fun talking about how to take some of the ideas from season one about hidden ghosts and things like that and find new gears for them this time. It’ll be the same type of story, and we’ll treat the ghosts very much the same way.”
Pedretti will be joined by Oliver Jackson-Cohen and possibly Carla Gugino, who all starred in The Haunting of Hill House. Flanagan confirms that we’ll see some “other familiar actors from season one” and they will be joined by some new actors who have yet to be cast.
The Haunting of Hill House was one of the best shows that I saw last year. I loved everything about it and I’m can’t wait to see how The Haunting of Bly Manor will turn out. I’m happy to hear that it will be scarier than Season 1! The series will premiere in 2020 on Netflix.