Netflix “The Haunting of Bly Manor” reviews/spoilers thread

Hilary Duff?

She does look like HD

The fan/genre site reviews like it a lot

At 100 on RT but it seems many reviews acknowledge it is lesser than Hill House

I didn’t find Hill House that scary. Just sad, really. Hopefully this will be spookier.

It’s out and really good so far.

Hill House was a family melodrama with a few supernatural elements. It was ok, but found the easter egg hunt (spotting the ghost, or ghosts, in each episode) a bit gimmicky.

Not seen full reviews for this but have seen that generally it's positive, and I am definitely going to be watching it. I LOVED The Haunting of Hill House.

Watched the first two episodes. The accents are very hammy. So far the best thing about it is T Nia Miller. The children are creepy as fuck.

I thought Hill House had a nice slow burn and some creepy moments the first part of the series, but instead of reaching a climax in the last two episodes where they show what happened when they left Hill House as kids and the series finale kind of fizzled. I didn't hate it, but don't think it lived up to the potential it showed early on.

Henry Thomas is really knocking it out of the park as a British alcoholic.

What did he do to prepare? Follow himself around for a year?

As soon as the gardener walked in. I just knew we were going to see some LEZ LEZ go down!

LEZ LEZ! Yeah! 👅

Nice Exorcist shoutout in Episode 2

OJC's accent is so fucking stupid. Just let him speak normally ffs.

What accent is her doing?

Scottish

OJC is really just spectacular to look at. Breathtaking.

He has a flat ass. Nobody's perfect.

I usually hate evil little boy performances, but the actor playing Miles is very good.

Episode 5 is where it runs off the rails, they should have probably saved that one towards the end. Too many tricks in the bag so to speak. But excellent acting from T’Nia Miller.

The ghost child is all kinds of fucked up in the best way possible.

Well I finished it. It does not work as a whole despite wonderful performances and some good scares. Hill House worked because the parts came together at the end but Bly Manor’s parts come together about halfway through and then it just lumbers toward the end as a Frankenstein’s monster of Victorian horror motifs. Still worth the watch toward the end for some good, life-affirming Lez Lez.

We need more scares, Mike Flanagan. If I wanted drama, I would stay at home and watch Days of our Lives.

Just finished the series and it was okay. The main actress who plays the nanny serves a lot of ham with her performance, it became increasingly annoying.

Spoiler Alert:

It’s basically a dyke love story with ghosts.

I also hated the lizard face bride in the first and final episode.

On episode 3. At first sight of the dyke gardener I immediately smelled power tools, manderwear and thrift.

I FF through dyke and hetero love scenes. I don't need to see that.

Why you FF thru Lez Lez?

Only watched episode 1, but could spell the lesbo vibes straight away.

I cried like a little baby at the end.

I just finished the 2nd episode... the fuck is this Dani bitch playing hide & seek with these kids after they locked her in a closet??

Okay I spoiled myself on the lesbian bit ... honestly did not really pick up on that

But what is with these Netflix horror shows and their obsession with lesbians? Lol

Not one can give me a love story with hot gays and ghosts??

[quote]I just finished the 2nd episode... the fuck is this Dani bitch playing hide & seek with these kids after they locked her in a closet??

OMG, I thought the same. That was such a cliche scene like wandering around in the dark when the lights work. Yeah, someone would really do that after being locked up by these brats and after dark no less.

R33 I was wondering the same thing. Why is there always a mild lesbian love story on Netflix shows? I was hoping the Peter Quint character was going to have a gay manservant thing going on, but no.....

Hill House also featured lesbian action!

R36 I know! So why not mix it up with some hot hairy muscley man-on-man action?

She's a lesbian because Jamie was originally written for Oliver Jackson-Cohen, but he said Netflix rejected that pitch because they felt audiences wouldn't like seeing two actors who played twins in the last season playing lovers in the second. So Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy decided to throw in some LGBT representation by casting a woman in the role instead. Two birds, one stone.

Unfortunately that also meant that they gave some shitty third-tier part to OJC instead just to keep him on the cast and he barely has any screentime.

I finished the season last night and it really didn't go anywhere. really wanted to love it but I didn't. It was very Horror 101 basic tropes just thrown in and no real plot. I think this review sums up my feelings pretty well. And yes, many of the "positive" reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are barely positive.

R38 As long as I get to see Oliver handsome mug I don't care what others are saying! Fuck tomatoes!

^^ rotten tomatoes!

OJC has a ton of screen time. Definitely more than the gardener.

I made it through 2.5 episodes. I'm just not into it.

I'll just re-watch The Innocents instead.

The Innoshensh

[quote]OJC has a ton of screen time. Definitely more than the gardener.

Are you serious? He only has lines in 4 out of 9 episodes. The entire season is about the gardener, who in her various incarnations appear in and speak in all but 1 episode, and literally narrates the entire series.

R44 = idiot

R45 are you so overly literal that you think a single 3-second shot of an actor glaring in the distance in 2 entire episodes counts as "screen time"? OJC literally does not speak at all in more than half the episodes, doesn't appear at all in 2/3 of them, and the season is entirely about the gardener and the governess.

Hopefully next season will have some man on man action between OJC and Michiel Huisman from season 1. I am sick of the lesbians.

Was okay, but yeah - enough of the lezzie stuff.

Do the lesbians even like the lez stuff on Netflix?

R49 I couldn't personally give two shits since they only ever do it with very young delicate looking femmy and often blonde women, which isn't my type, but yes, some of my friends eat that shit up.

Its perfectly splendid.

On episode 4. Already going off the rails.

Episode 5 is the best episode, but that's not saying much. It really loses the plot after that one.

The thing I absolutely loved about The Haunting of Hill House was how the ghosts were so mysterious and spooky. Most of them were nameless faces and shapes in the background. No names, no personalities, just enough of a presence in the shadows to freak you out. (Remember how The Blair Witch Project was so effective because the scares were all in your head?)

Bly Manor was ok, but now the ghosts were just like regular people and no longer spooky (other than maybe the first few episodes). “Oh dear, I’m a ghost now, huh. I better not tell anyone. In the meantime I’ll just have a regular conversation with this person over here.”

R50 Do you want a butch lesbian instead so you can picture her scissoring you?

R44 the gardener is played by two different actresses. The old gardener who narrates is a different actress than the young gardener who is at Bly and is in a relationship with Dani.

R50 yes, of course, everyone knows there are only 2 types of lesbians: butch bulldykes and Victoria Pedretti.

Pedretti isn't charismatic enough to carry the lead in this

For Season 3 I hope Flanagan brings back Martin McCreadie who played the husband in the B&W episode. This time in color and as naked as possible, please.

[quote] The old gardener who narrates is a different actress than the young gardener who is at Bly and is in a relationship with Dani.

I'm well aware R56. Both actresses were in the finale, since we're stating the obvious. The woman who played the younger version had lines in every episode except for 8, and the narrator version had dialog in all 9 episodes and appeared in 2. Peter had dialog in only 4 episodes, and appeared for a single speechless scene in 3 more.

I don't support dyke tv shows. I only watch if it has gay MALE characters. There are dykes on all tv shows these days, but very few gay men. Probably why I don't watch much tv anymore. I'm so sick of the double standard.

The only good thing about this season is OJC's hairy chest.

R61 if it makes you feel better this time it's just a male character that they cast a woman for when Netflix didn't let OJ-C and Victoria Pedretti play lovers after playing twins in S1.

I love the penultimate episode which they explained the origins of hauntings that goes back to 17th century. But why must it be in black and white?

And yeah after this carpet-munching fest lets hope next year we will have a proper gay male characters and plot.

This "Haunting" can be the better version of the trainwreck AHS.