{"id":82066,"date":"2020-10-05T17:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-10-05T14:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/a-step-down-from-hill-house-film\/"},"modified":"2020-10-05T17:00:06","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T14:00:06","slug":"a-step-down-from-hill-house-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/a-step-down-from-hill-house-film\/","title":{"rendered":"#A Step Down From Hill House \u2013 \/Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#A Step Down From Hill House \u2013 \/Film<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\"haunting<\/a><\/p>\n

As David Foster Wallace once wrote, every love story is a ghost story. In an interview before the release of\u00a0The Haunting of Bly Manor<\/em><\/strong>, the new follow-up to The Haunting of Hill House<\/em><\/strong>, series<\/a> creator Mike Flanagan<\/strong> seemed to agree without actually quoting Wallace, stating: \u201cEach of us, when we fall in love, is giving birth to a new ghost \u2013 something that\u2019s going to follow up for the rest of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beneath all the creepy moments here \u2013 the shrieks, the screams, the spectral figures with half-melted faces; beneath all the\u00a0death<\/em> that lurks throughout\u00a0Bly Manor\u00a0<\/em>lurks love, too. What a beautiful idea that is. And yet\u2026Bly Manor<\/em> never seems to know where it\u2019s going, or how to get there. It wants to scare you and make you swoon, and sadly, is often unsuccessful on both counts. But every now and then, a little bit of magic manages to poke through.<\/p>\n

The Haunting of Bly Manor<\/em> leans heavily on\u00a0The Turn of the Screw<\/em>, Henry James\u2019 ghost story novella that\u2019s already been adapted several times before, most noticeably\u00a0Jack Clayton\u2019s 1961 masterpiece\u00a0The Innocents<\/em>. Rather than shy away from the \u201961 film,\u00a0Bly Manor<\/em> embraces it, going so far as to duplicate shots, like an image of a ghostly woman standing amongst the reeds poking out of a lake, as well as the eerie song \u201cO Willow Waly\u201d that permeates the film.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0Bly Manor<\/em> dips into some of James\u2019 other ghost stories as well, specifically,\u00a0The Jolly Corner<\/em>, which\u00a0follows a man visiting the house he grew up in and finds it to be haunted by his own alter ego, and\u00a0The Romance of Certain Old Clothes<\/em>, which\u00a0follows the tale of two sisters who both fall in love with the same man. There are other stories being picked from here too \u2013 every episode is named after a different James story, and the episode will often draw on elements from said story. And herein lies the problem:\u00a0Bly Manor <\/em>is trying to do too much. I hate to criticize something for being \u201coverly ambitious,\u201d as so much media<\/a> these days takes a lazy app<\/a>roach, and ambition is to be celebrated. But in trying to do too much at once,\u00a0Bly Manor<\/em> begins to buckle under its own weight.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the 1980s, and lonely, haunted Dani (Haunting of Hill House<\/em> breakout\u00a0Victoria Pedretti<\/strong>)\u00a0takes a gig as a governess in the UK. She\u2019s tasked with caring for two orphans \u2013 Miles (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth<\/strong>) and Flora (Amelie Bea Smith<\/strong>) by the children\u2019s distant, cold uncle (Henry Thomas<\/strong>, using a somewhat shaky accent). It seems like a dream job for Dani, who now gets to live in a huge manor house. Aside from the children, she has company in the form of\u00a0housekeeper Mrs. Grose (T\u2019Nia Miller<\/strong>), estate chef\u00a0Owen (Rahul Kohli<\/strong>), and\u00a0groundskeeper Jamie (Amelia Eve<\/strong>). But they\u2019re not the only ones lurking in the sprawling home. There are ghosts, too. Some of the ghosts Dani brings with her from her past, but others have been haunting the halls for some time.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the tragic death of the children\u2019s previous governess,\u00a0Rebecca Jessel (Tahirah Sharif<\/strong>), coupled with a mystery involving Peter Quint (Oliver Jackson-Cohen<\/strong>), who worked for the children\u2019s uncle. The children, for their part, are bright and cheerful \u2013 at first. They\u2019re prone to calling everything \u201cperfectly splendid,\u201d and Dani finds herself getting along with them quite nicely. But as Bly Manor begins to give up its secrets \u2013 and ghosts \u2013 things grow steadily harrowing.<\/p>\n

In the midst of all this slowly mounting horror are a series of romances, and here\u2019s where things get tricky, since talking about just who falls in love with whom has been verboten via embargo notes set out to the press. Since the love story elements play such a major point this season, I find this particular embargo request a tad maddening, but I will adhere to it. But the romances that slowly form as the season progresses are indeed effective \u2013 even sweet. In fact, they work much better than the horror elements, which are often muddled and confusing in trying to create mythology \u2013 as well as rules \u2013 for the ghosts haunting Bly Manor. The love stories blossoming here are tender and sweet. And, yes, in keeping with the best gothic romance tradition, more than a bit tragic.
\nAs was the case with\u00a0Hill House<\/em>, Pedretti is once again the best member of the ensemble, delivering a tender, often frantic performance full of big emotional moments. Pedretti is quite skilled at making us both root and fear for her, and it\u2019s impossible not to get swept up in Dani\u2019s storyline as things grow direr and direr. Sadly, while\u00a0Hill House<\/em> managed to balance its multiple characters quite nicely,\u00a0Bly Manor<\/em> never quite succeeds. The actors around Pedretti are all doing fine work, but their characters are often rather flat.\u00a0Hill House<\/em> kept me interested in every single individual storyline, whereas anytime\u00a0Bly Manor<\/em> focused on someone other than Dani I felt myself growing listless.<\/p>\n

While TV, like film, is a collaborative effort, and auteur theory has been overblown over the years, it becomes apparent that the problems plaguing\u00a0Bly<\/em> stem from a lack of an authoritative voice.\u00a0Hill House<\/em> was directed entirely by Flanagan from beginning to end, but with\u00a0Bly Manor<\/em>, Flanagan directs the premiere and then hands directorial duties over to\u00a0Yolanda Ramk<\/strong>e & Ben Howling<\/strong> (Cargo<\/em>), Ciar\u00e1n Foy<\/strong> (Sinister 2<\/em>), Liam Gavin<\/strong> (A\u00a0<\/em>Dark Song<\/em>), E. L. Katz<\/strong> (Channel<\/em> Zero)\u00a0and Axelle Carolyn<\/strong> (Tales of Halloween<\/em>).<\/p>\n

All of these directors are quite gifted in their own respects (A Dark<\/em> Song is one of the best horror movies of the last five years, so the more work Gavin gets, the better),<\/em> and do solid work here \u2013 every episode is appropriately atmospheric, and the way some of the ghosts present themselves is often downright chilling. And there\u2019s so much to embrace. The production design does wonders for making Bly Manor look both crumbling and inviting; it\u2019s easy to be both scared and allured by the estate. And while Flanagan may not be behind the camera for a large amount of time, the series still embraces his overall approach to horror \u2013 an approach that mines both scares and pathos out of the same moment. The past and present (and future) all run rampant through the hall of Bly Manor,<\/p>\n

But the lack of one distinct filmmaker\u2019s voice behind-the-camera hurts this season and keeps it from ever feeling one solid narrative. Instead, what happens within the walls of Bly Manor and beyond recalls a line from\u00a0Hill House<\/em>: \u201cOur moments fall around us like rain. Or\u2026 snow. Or confetti.\u201d Intentional or not,\u00a0The Haunting of Bly Manor<\/em> suffers because of it.<\/p>\n

\/Film Rating: 7 out of 10<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

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“#A Step Down From Hill House \u2013 \/Film” As David Foster Wallace once wrote, every love story is a ghost story. In an interview before the release of\u00a0The Haunting of Bly Manor, the new follow-up to The Haunting of Hill House, series creator Mike Flanagan seemed to agree without actually quoting Wallace, stating: \u201cEach of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/haunting-of-bly-manor-review.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1568,1570,1406,1377,1525,58005,25709],"class_list":["post-82066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-featured-stories-sidebar","tag-features","tag-horror","tag-netflix","tag-television","tag-the-haunting-of-bly-manor","tag-tv-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}