Ghost Stories Can Be Love Stories: ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’
The Haunting of Bly Manor — director Mike Flanagan’s follow up to The Haunting of Hill House — is framed around the art of storytelling, specifically the campfire delight of unravelling a good ghost story, the kind that gets under your skin and makes you jump at shadows. In the opening scenes, a group of family and friend gather for after-dinner drinks. The conversation drifts to the possibility of ghosts, leading inevitably to the telling of tales.
The ghost story at the center of The Haunting of Bly Manor is loosely based on The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Set in the 1980s, the story follows Dani Clayton, a pretty young American woman and former teacher, as she heads to an interview for work as an au pair. Seemingly cheery on the surface, she is nevertheless haunted, carrying her ghosts with her across the Atlantic to the U.K.
Despite her personal turmoils, Dani is determined to make a difference, even if in only a small way. She hopes that by accepting a position caring for two children (who have lost their parents and their former au pair), she may be of help in some meaningful way.
