Based on Shirley Jackson’s gothic horror novel of the same name, Flanagan’s adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House followed the lives of the five Crain family siblings and the paranormal experiences they share. The series alternated between flashbacks depicting their childhood at Hill House and a present-day story exploring how the fateful night their family fled the mansion that continues to haunt them as adults. While multiple cast and crew members from The Haunting of Hill House will return for The Haunting of Bly Manor, the Netflix series will not be connected to the narrative of its predecessor and is instead inspired by the horror novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
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While James’ novella has already been adapted for the screen multiple times, most recently as a 2020 feature film titled The Turning by director Floria Sigismondi, Flanagan explained that his version of the story expands on the source material. “It’s not about doing a straight adaptation anymore – that’s already been done. […] We’d cover two episodes, and then we’d have eight episodes of filler. I need to make a 10-hour version of this,” Flanagan explained during the online conversation with fellow filmmaker Mick Garris. As with The Haunting of Hill House, Flanagan will combine elements of the source material with his own original ideas. “That way, I can hopefully honor the source material but do it in a way that’s constantly surprising. And what I learned with Hill House was that [the show] takes on a life of its own rather quickly,” he added.
However, Flanagan and the writers of The Haunting of Bly Manor also turned to James’ entire catalog of ghost stories for their adaptation. “When the show launches, you’ll see each episode is actually the title of one of his stories. They’re all braided together and made to work in one (hopefully) cohesive story,” Flanagan teased. Although Flanagan is experienced in tackling adaptations of horror stories, he admitted there are challenges to adapting James’ work, saying, “his language is not something that’s as easy to relate to for a contemporary reader or viewer. And certainly not easy to adapt.”
Fans of The Haunting of Hill House may be relieved to know that although Bly Manor will be a standalone story, there will still be some familiar faces from the first series. Hill House stars Victoria Pedretti, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Henry Thomas, and Kate Siegel are returning as new characters.
The Haunting of Bly Manor will premiere on Netflix on October 9, 2020.
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Source: Fantasia International Film Festival
