Netflix’s Near-Perfect 9-Part Gothic Thriller Is So Good You’ll Finish in One Weekend
Netflix's 2020 anthology instalment The Haunting of Bly Manor is worth revisiting as autumn approaches, according to a feature highlighting the nine-episode series ahead of Halloween. Directed by Mike Flanagan, who first found major success with The Haunting of Hill House in 2018, the show loosely adapts Henry James's 1898 novella "The Turn of the Screw" and represents a looser, more romance-driven follow-up to its predecessor.
The story relocates the tale to the 1980s, following an American au pair, played by Hill House breakout Victoria Pedretti, who takes a job caring for two orphaned children at a remote English estate haunted by a mysterious presence. Flanagan drew on several other Henry James works beyond the original novella to fill out the nine-episode run, with a standout mid-season episode centred on housekeeper Hannah (T'Nia Miller) inspired by James's "The Altar of the Dead". Flanagan has described the series as fundamentally a gothic love story about strangers forming a found family, in contrast to Hill House's focus on a single blood family.
- The Haunting of Bly Manor is recommended as an autumn/Halloween binge-watch
- Mike Flanagan's 2020 series loosely adapts Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw"
- Victoria Pedretti stars as an au pair in a haunted English estate
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Netflix's The Haunting of Bly Manor is a nine-episode gothic drama released in 2020, made by director Mike Flanagan. It followed his earlier hit The Haunting of Hill House (2018), though the two series tell separate, unconnected stories rather than a direct sequel. Bly Manor loosely draws on Henry James's 1898 ghost story "The Turn of the Screw", moving the action to the 1980s and centring on an American au pair who takes a job looking after two orphaned children at a remote English country house.
The show's key figures include Victoria Pedretti, who plays the au pair and had already appeared in Hill House, and T'Nia Miller as the estate's housekeeper, Hannah. Beyond the core novella, Flanagan also wove in ideas from other Henry James stories to shape the wider plot across the season. He has described the result as a gothic love story about a group of strangers becoming a found family, distinguishing its tone from Hill House's focus on one troubled bloodline.
The series matters to the current piece because it is being recommended as autumn viewing ahead of Halloween, part of a recurring pattern where older Netflix shows resurface in seasonal "worth revisiting" features rather than as new releases.