Remember Netflix’s 2018’s Halloween hit, “The Haunting of Hill House.” Well, series creator and nu-horror maestro Mike Flanagan is back with its follow-up, “The Haunting of Bly Manor.” Flanagan made his name with smaller, well-received horror films like “Hush,” and then after a string of hits, “Ouija: Origin of Evil” (all 2016), “Gerald’s Game” (2017), found his way into following up Stanley Kubrick‘s “The Shining” with “Doctor Sleep” last year. He clearly works at a fast pace because ‘Bly Manor’ is done, in the can and arrives October 9. This new chapter in the Haunting anthology series revolves around Bly Manor and the lives of its inhabitants, both living and dead. “The Haunting of Bly Manor” stars Victoria Pedretti, Henry Thomas, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Kate Siegel, T’Nia Miller, Rahul Kohli, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Amelie Smith and Amelia Eve.
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Here’s the official synopsis of the new nine-episode series:
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From The Haunting of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan comes The Haunting of Bly Manor, the next highly anticipated chapter of The Haunting anthology series, set in 1980s England. After an au pair’s tragic death, Henry Wingrave (Henry Thomas) hires a young American nanny (Victoria Pedretti) to care for his orphaned niece and nephew (Amelie Bea Smith, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) who reside at Bly Manor with the estate’s chef Owen (Rahul Kohli), groundskeeper Jamie (Amelia Eve) and housekeeper, Mrs. Grose (T’Nia Miller). But all is not as it seems at the manor, and centuries of dark secrets of love and loss are waiting to be unearthed in this chilling gothic romance. At Bly Manor, dead doesn’t mean gone.
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Drawing from the iconic supernatural stories of Henry James, this ensemble drama also stars Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Kate Siegel, and Tahirah Sharif, and is executive produced by Intrepid Pictures’ Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy, along with Amblin Television’s Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey.
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In a series statement, Flanagan said the series is inspired by Henry James whose The Turn of the Screw has inspired many horror works including last year’s supernatural horror, “The Turning” with Mackenzie Davis.
“It’s fitting that this season of The Haunting is focused on the works of Henry James,” Flanagan wrote. “James was an obvious influence on Shirley Jackson, and when talking about classic horror fiction you’re likely to hear them mentioned in the same breath. In fact, Stephen King writes in Danse Macabre that The Haunting of Hill House and The Turn of the Screw “are the only two great novels of the supernatural in the last hundred years.”
‘Bly Manor’ arrives October 9 and the series surely works its way up through Halloween if you piecemeal the viewing out a little bit rather than the bingewatch Netflix loves. Either way, get prepped and get psyched as Flanagan’s ‘Haunting’ franchise returns soon. Watch the first trailer below.