Mike Flanagan says Haunting of Bly Manor will be ‘much scarier’ than Hill House

Mike Flanagan, the mastermind behind Netflix’s The Haunting anthology horror series, spoke with Birth.Movies.Death. about the second installment, The Haunting of Bly Manor, saying the season will be “much scarier than season one.”

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The Haunting of Bly Manor is inspired by Henry James’ psychological gothic horror novella The Turn of The Screw, which takes place almost entirely in an old country mansion. There, two young orphans are looked after by a young governess by whom most of the story is narrated by.

Flanagan told the outlet that they are “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.” The creator expressed his excitement as the second season continues to develop, promising fans can expect the scare factor to be amped up with James’ work inspiring the story. “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.”

Fans can also expect to see “other familiar actors from season one” appearing in The Haunting of Bly Manor alongside Victoria Pedretti and Oliver Jackson-Cohen. “Beyond that, I’ve got quite a few candidates among new faces who I really love, but we haven’t formally cast anybody yet,” added Flanagan.

Flanagan also wanted to reassure fans that he will be applying the same approach to practical effects in the new season like we saw in The Haunting of Hill House. “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.”

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The Haunting of Bly Manor will premiere in 2020 on Netflix.