STREAMING WARS: Netflix’s new horror is more shiver than scream

I was bracing myself to get really creeped out when I started The Haunting of Bly Manor on Netflix, now that we’ve entered the spooky season.

Maybe it’s because I hyped myself up so much after being truly terrified by The Haunting of Hill House, which came out in 2018, part of the same anthology as Bly Manor.

Hill House was so scary, I admit I had to stop and move on after the third episode. I’m a huge wimp, you see.

But as Bly Manor continued, I found myself less jumpy and more bored as the story pressed on.

Bly Manor is less a horror movie and more of a mystery/thriller with some ghosts sprinkled in for good measure. A gothic soap opera set in the ‘80s, full of melodrama and unsettling set-dressing that kind of harumphs from one scene to the next.

Based loosely on Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, it falls well short of its initial promise.

Indeed, the first two or three episodes do a great job of wrapping you into its creepy world.

But one thing I started to appreciate, especially in the first few episodes was trying to spot all of the little ghost cameos, as the spirits hang out in the corners, just barely in frame in the background. It’s a spooky effect that made me feel like I was playing a scavenger hunt during the show. ‘Oh! There’s one! Just by the staircase!’

I started looking for ghosts in every shot, almost distracting myself from the characters and their struggles, which was fine because they’re just not that interesting, especially as the episodes drag on. By episode seven I was completely over it and bored, but I pushed through to see how it wrapped up.

Amelie Bea Smith, plays one of Bly Manor’s orphans Flora, which is chock full of ghosts hiding around almost every corner. - Netflix

Ghost bust

So what is Bly Manor about? Dani Clayton (Victoria Pedretti) is hired as a nanny to look after two orphaned children who reside at Bly Manor in the English countryside. It’s soon revealed that the previous caretaker died under mysterious circumstances.

It’s clear that things aren’t exactly normal at Bly Manor, at least where the dead are concerned.

Clayton herself has some ghosts of her own, literally, that she’s dealing with as other spirits seem to haunt the remaining members of Bly House residents and staff. The children have a definite connection with the spirits and seem more aware of what’s really happening, but not fully.

Bly’s ghosts and their world start to tip into sci-fi territory near the end with a convoluted system involving dreams and flashbacks that is more annoying than interesting.

Bly Manor has some interesting moments and the metaphor of haunting as it relates to personal and outer demons not letting us go is well used up to a point.

The spirits that haunt Bly and their residents revolve mainly around trauma and PTSD, a manifestation of what happens when people who make major impacts on our lives: parents, lovers, friends are suddenly gone. Their spirits remain, in the case of Bly House, quite literally.

Good horror, at least to me, is about scaring you while making a point about it. Bly Manor does achieve part of that in its initial episodes but fails to bring enough of the scares.

In the end, Bly Manor simply overstays its welcome and eventually becomes more of a slog than a gripping horror.

If you’re in the mood for a horror movie marathon this Halloween, it’s hard to do better than Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Psycho, which is so iconic it’s screeching score has become an onomatopoeia for terror. You can watch it on Crave with the STARZ add-on. - Universal

Frightening favourites

Luckily, there are lots of other great horror classics available on streaming networks, including:

Hocus Pocus is charming, family-friendly Halloween staple that is full of nostalgia and hilarity. Bette Midler is electric as head Sanderson sister Winifred, delivering her lines like “Oh look, another glorious morning. It makes me sick!” with such perfect comedic timing, it’s hard not to hear yourself quoting these lines all week long. As there are few Halloween movies that the whole family can easily watch together and enjoy, this is an easy recommendation. Now available on Disney Plus.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is definitely not for the kids, Francis Ford Coppola’s take on the horror classic is exquisite despite a few trips. Sticking close to its source material, relying heavily on practical effects and camera tricks, this is the definitive version of the classic gothic tale. Gary Oldman’s Count Dracula is full of nuance as a terrifying ghoul with a heartbreaking origin story. Keanu Reeve’s English accent aside, it’s one of the best movies to watch as the sun goes down. Now available on Netflix.

Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological thriller, remains one of the best horror films ever made, even 60 years later. The film’s iconic, screeching score now an onomatopoeia for terror, it remains a brilliant work of building tension, breaking down expectations and, of course, it is really freaking scary. It changed cinema in many ways with Hitchcock warning audiences for the first time ‘not to spoil the plot,’ and if you don’t know the ins and outs of Psycho yet, best to watch it with fresh eyes. Now available on Crave with the STARZ add-on.