We would have to argue for hours about the concept of fear and scary television and film products. Probably up to twenty-five in a discussion like that, I would have said those films about ghosts, about exorcisms and who knows what else are scary. Then we get older and fears change, we become more rational but more scared for the future. Well, for this last concept "The haunting of bly manor" has the strength to put us in front of one of our biggest fears (I will not say which is of course) and therefore, I can say, that it scared me.
“The Haunting of bly manor” follows “The haunting of hill house”, the second year of the anthological series conceived by Mike Flanagan and produced by Netflix.
After the excellent results of the first season, Flanagan re-proposes the same basic problem: trauma. To be precise, family traumas. Inspired, again, from a short story, "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James, already adapted for cinema, which he transforms to his liking.
Before seeing it I quickly read a couple of reviews, which crowned this work as the best of its predecessor, but the first three episodes disappointed me. Quite a lot. Flanagan shows a long list of horror clichés, with the title's lost house and a series of disturbed and traumatized characters.

From the fourth episode, however, which I have seen twice to try to understand some more details, "The haunting of bly manor", overwhelms the viewer with a dense network of situations, flashbacks and twists, which from there to then they never abandon us.
Yes, flash backs and twists were not lacking even in "Haunting of hill house", but here Flanagan does things bigger, goes back in time and above all goes around in time, putting the viewer's attention at risk and as said, frightening him for what he shows and says. There are moments, as mentioned, of classic horror, between ghosts and presences that appear suddenly, dolls that move and other strange things, among other things including excellent special effects, a maniacal direction and perfect acting. Everything is pressed, sewn and then destroyed and again, reassembled in a valuable writing, which leaves nothing to chance and which leaves the characters at the mercy of their own ghosts.
Lord Henry Wingrave (Henry Thomas) is the last living relative of little Miles (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) and Flora (Amelie Smith), who lost their parents in an accident. Wingrave, already with his ghosts, hires the educator Dani Clayton (Victoria Pedretti) who has to look after the two children at Bly Manor, a large estate lost in the English countryside. With her the housekeeper Hanna Grose (T’Nia Miller), the cook Owen (Rahul Kohli) and Jamie (Amelia Eve) the gardener.
Children are lively, intelligent, but at the same time extremely disturbing, prey to past and present traumas that do not only concern the death of their parents. Also Dani has her ghosts coming back from the past. Getting out of what is a vicious circle is not easy at all.
The story of Bly Manor is told in flashback by Carla Cugino, a middle-aged lady who "entertains" guests with this story at a reception. One of these tells her roughly "You made only one mistake, presented this story as a ghost story, but actually it is a love story". Yes, "Haunting of bly Manor" is also a love story and, believe me, we will remember it.