World News – FI – The Haunting of Bly Manor’s Ghostly Twists, explained

All nine episodes of The Haunting of Bly Manor hit Netflix this weekend, just in time to send spooky seasonal chills all the way down your spine The miniseries is the sequel to Mike Flanagan to the surprise 2018 hit The Haunting of Hill House, which was inspired by the eponymous 1959 novel by Shirley Jackson When the time came for the next episode of what could be Netflix’s answer to the popular FX anthology, American Horror Story, Flanagan and his writers turned to another master of dense psychological terror: the 19th century novelist. century Henry James But The Haunting of Bly Manor is even less a direct adaptation than Hill HouseÂ

The clearest inspiration in the game here is James’ most famous ghost story, The Turn of the Screw; Flanagan brought back Hill House star Victoria Pedretti to play the series’ Haunted Housekeeper But while The Turn of the Screw may be the backbone of the series, Flanagan and his writers fleshed out the nine episodes by remixing and riffing several other news and news from James The result is a less cheeky version of Hulu’s Stephen King mixtape, Castle Rock.Â

Flanagan gave interviews shouting out some creepy James tales that he and his writers took inspiration from.But if you know where to look, there’s an even simpler guide: each episode is named after a Henry story. Different james So here’s a look at the stories – including The Turn of the Screw – that inspired Bly Manor and how, when considered together, they paint a vivid, albeit somewhat overloaded, portrayal of James. peculiar genius of There are spoilers for the whole series here, so enter at your own risk

The Turn of the Screw: Let’s start from the very beginning As another famous housekeeper said, this is a very good starting point The Turn of the Screw, which has already been adapted several times for the stage and the screen, tells the ambiguous and chilling tale of an unnamed housekeeper (Pedretti) who is ordered by an absent and unnamed uncle (Hill House alumnus Henry Thomas) to move to Bly Manor in the country She is hired to care for his nephew, Miles (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), and his niece, Flora (Amelie Bea Smith), and lives alongside their housekeeper, Mrs. Grose (Tâ ???? Nia Miller) The Housekeeper eventually discovers that his predecessor, Miss Jessel (Tahirah Sharif), had an affair with a sinister valet named Peter Quint (another Hill House alumnus Oliver Jackson-Cohen) The couple, now dead, may be haunting the house, the children or the housekeeper herself Or maybe it’s all in the housekeeper’s head? Who has to say

This is all pretty close to the basic premise of Bly Manor in the series, however, the housekeeper and uncle have names – Dani Clayton and Henry Wingrave – and instead of the 1890s, we are in the years 1980 Bly Manor even uses the framework narrative from The Turn of the Screw by employing a fourth Hill House alum, Carla Gugino, as the narrator.Â

James’ news has endured thanks, in part, to its ambiguity, as well as its status as an early example of a now classic horror trope: The Spooky Children But another element that works in favor of The Turn of the Screw is the erotic accusation of the forbidden affair between Bly’s ghostly employees and how their passion, whether supernatural or psychological, infects the housekeeper as she remains both fearful and protective of her young charges

– The Great Good Place – episode one: The first episode of the season takes its name from an even more ambiguous supernatural James story than The Turn of the Screw As Henry Wingrave promises Dani: « It’s a very good place, the mansion ???? Dani, making her last desperate offer for the job, tells Henry, «  I couldn’t be home anymore ???? She explains that her work with the children had become too overwhelming for her

We’ll find out later that work isn’t exactly what Dani shuns – but the premise of an overworked person looking to get away from it all aligns perfectly with the protagonist of ? The big good place, â ?? George Dane, who escapes an unmanageable workload to find himself whisked away to an idealized, picturesque retreat where he finds happiness and clarity He woke up later Was it a dream, a fantasy or just a great vacation? James doesn’t say it carefully, but Dane’s job is now well done If the Burnout Generation ever looked for a Henry James story to define them, this is it

– The Students – Episode Two: Miles’ unsettling mix of sweetness and sinister comes straight from Turn of the Screw, and even his eviction from boarding school ??? a ruse, in a way, to return to his sister is a plot point raised from this book But Miles’ close relationship with his teacher and their discussions of morality comes straight out of « The Pupil, » which tells the story of a neglected boy, Morgan, and his close bond with his guardian, Pemberton

On the show, Father Stack (Jim Piddock) tells Miles, “Your well-being is my responsibility and my priority to move forward ???? This line could easily come from Pemberton, whose fondness for his student is so strong that he continues to work for the family even after he stops paying him. As is the case with Miles in The Turn of the Screw, Morgan from “The Pupil” ???? dies at the end of the story, after his parents attempted to leave him in the care of his beloved guardian James was not at all shy about killing his very young protagonists Flanagan and his team are not so cruel

– The Way It Came – episode 4: We’re going to move on to episode 3, which explores the romance between Miss Jessel and Peter Quint, a bit later But in episode four we learn the real reason why Dani is on the run She feels guilty over the death of her childhood girlfriend, who got straight into traffic after finding out she didn’t love him the way he wanted and would not marry him The public understands Dani to be gay, but poor bespectacled Edmund (Roby Attal) has no idea Nothing like that kind of guilt to push you further into the 1980s closet

– The Way He Came is a really wild James story about a pair of remote pen pals, a man and a woman, who relate to the fact that they believe they saw their parents appear to them just before they died These supernaturally connected friends have never met in person and only have a third friend in common, the woman telling the story.The narrator, who ends up becoming engaged to the male half of this duo, becomes convinced that her fiancé is in love with this correspondent given how much they have in common Even after the correspondent (savage, I’m telling you) dies the narrator is bitterly sure that her fiancé no longer cares about her and breaks the engagement with a rant which could easily have been recited by Edmund just before he did creped by a truck: Â

How can you hide it when you are abjectly in love with her, when you are almost sick of the joy of what she is giving you? You love her as you have never loved her and, passion for passion, she returns it to you right away! She rules you, she holds you, she has you all! A woman, in a case like mine, divines, smells and sees; she is not an idiot who must be credibly informed You come to me mechanically, complacently, with the dregs of your tenderness and the rest of your life I can renounce you, but I cannot share you; the best of you is his; I know what it is and I freely surrender you to her forever!

So jealousy, possessiveness, and broken commitments are the themes that resonate here.But there’s also how mourning can bring two (or more) people together This episode also sees Hannah Grose, Dani, the gardener Jamie ( Amelia Eve) and Cook Owen (Rahul Kohli) bond around the fire after Owen’s mother dies This quartet is divided into two romantic couples, to which we will come back laterÂ

– The Alter of the Dead – episode 5: Speaking, as we were, of Hulu’s Castle Rock, that brilliant, standout episode centered around Tâ ?? Nia Miller’s Hannah jumps and loops through time – much like Castle Rock’s Sissy Spacek showcase, the reineune ???? But the similarities of the premises aside, Miller makes this episode his own with charming help from Kohli.Particularly alert viewers may have gotten the episode’s big twist – that Hannah was dead from the start – as soon as she got it. began to refuse any food or drink offered to her in the first episode But the harrowing too late love story between Owen and Hannah – he’s a chef, she can’t eat! – had a heartbreaking hour of television

The title of the episode could literally refer to one of Hannah’s favorite places in Bly Chapel But it’s also a nod to James’ story about a man who erects a shrine to his deceased fiancée and all the other friends he lost along the way – I don’t think you light remembrance candles for the living, – Hannah says that when her former employer, Mrs. Wingrave, lights one for the husband who abandoned Hannah But James’ story tells how memory and the dedication to the dead keeps them alive, in a way This could be extrapolated to the ghosts of Bly’s mansion, including Hannah, who literally fade over the years and have fewer survivors to rememberÂ

But James’ The Alter of the Dead is also about love that comes too late, the long lost love of the narrator (who died before their wedding day) to the new woman he meets with whom he can’t connect, thanks to old grudge he refuses to let go By the time he’s ready to bury the ax it’s too late and he dies in his arms with words of reconciliation on his lips Honestly? Classic James This knife twist hangs over this episode as Owen finally works the nerve to ask Hannah to run away with him to Paris and we the audience know she will never leave Bly

– The Jolly Corner – episode 6: A chilling inspiration for a very creepy episode This fun showcase for Henry Thomas sees his character trapped in his office with a threatening and smiling doppelgänger Just before he tragically dies abroad, the brother of Henry says: And you yourself, Henry, your real self, is an evil shit Grotesque little demon, isn’t it? I pity you because you have to live with him You have to live with yourself, and he’s a fucking monster who smiles like shitâ ???? Â

In James’ story The Jolly Corner, a man named Spencer Brydon returns to wander the halls of his childhood home and becomes obsessed with the idea of ​​who he might have been if he had stayed in America This obsession ultimately manifests itself in a malicious double that Brydon eventually encounters: “Horror, along with the sight, had leaped down Brydon’s throat, gasping there in a sound he couldn’t pronounce; for the naked identity was too hideous than hers, and her gaze was the passion of her protest. Brydon also describes the double as having a personality rage that his own collapsed at ???? Which sounds like a pretty accurate description of the grotesque relationship between the two Henry Wingraves in this episode

– The Two Faces – Episodes Three and Seven: Ah, Rebecca Jessel and Henry Quint: Such a Beautiful Ghostly Love Story Bly Manor Told It Twice As I mentioned before, the foundation of the Jessel / Quint’s story can be found in The Turn of the Screw But everything about the rules of being a ghost at Bly Mansion, the Drenched Lady of the Lake, and Quint’s horrid parents has been added in How it all relates- to the (very short) story of James – The two faces? – Freely

Something that was touched on in The Turn of the Screw, and explored in more detail here, is how the Jessel and Quint romance relates to class transgressions. In the book, valet Quint violates a class boundary by romanticizing Jesselâ ???? who like all housekeepers is a lady It sounds like a very moldy idea that wouldn’t be out of place in an 1890s story, but the 1980s? Well let’s just say the class structure has always been a lot more rigid in the UK The scene in which Peter dresses Rebecca in his dead mistress’s furs? Sadly, this is a class transgression (I also don’t think it’s a coincidence in this story that all black and brown characters are employees.â ????) Â

In James The Two Faces, a recently married British lord brings his very young German bride to a woman he knows well placed in English society He asks her to help his bride integrate, from a way that would suit a lord’s wife The only problem is that this well-placed Englishwoman also happens to be his former lover, whom he abandoned The Lord guesses that his former lover would be too polite to do anything but help him, seriously; he’s really wrong The English Woman makes her debut with the German Girl in society in what James describes as a wicked and irremediable display of bad fashion In other words, it’s a story of class transgression, of hearts bitter and broken, ulterior motives and betrayal Peter loves and betrays Rebeccaâ ???? and she, in turn, does the same to him to protect the Wingrave children

– The Romance of Some Old Clothes Episode Eight: The most fashionable departure from The Turn of the Screw comes in the form of this standalone, black-and-white episode model that explains the origins of the Revenge Lady of Bly Lake (played by our latest Hill House alum and Flanagan’s real wife, Kate Siegel) This scary, gothic story by Henry James is adapted fairly directly.It tells the story of two sisters who fall in love with the same man One is sick (but has a wardrobe to die for), and the other ends up grabbing the man (but literally dies for the clothes) I’m not sure there is much to say here, except that a wet ghost dripping on a vengeful drowning loop has nothing to do with The Turn of the Screw

– The Beast in the Jungle – Episode Nine: There is no mystery as to the identity of the titular beast in this episode As Jamie and Dani try to get out of Bly’s horrors, poor Dani remains haunted by the lady of the lake: – I feel her Here So calm so calm There’s this hidden thing This empty angry lonely beast He looks at me Matching my moves It’s just out of sight But I can feel it I know it’s there And it’s waiting…

The show never makes it clear whether this haunting is meant to represent mental health issues, although there are indications that we are meant to view it as suicidal depression in Dani. But either way, there is a dark cloud that hangs over Dani and Jamie, happily ever after, and Dani, at least, is possessed by an unshakeable sense of foreboding that, eventually, the lady of the lake will consume her entirely This fear keeps her from further besides enjoying anything

John Marcher, the protagonist of James’s The Beast in the Jungle, is possessed by a similar anhedonia based on fear – No passion had ever touched him, – James reflects – For that was what passion meant ; it had survived, mutilated and stung, but where had its deep ravage been? Ultimately, Marcher’s inability to feel costs him his love, and he finally realizes the tragedy of his life at his grave: “He saw the jungle of his life and saw the beast that lurked; then, while he was looking, saw him, as if by a movement of the air, rises, immense and hideous, for the jump which was to regulate him His eyes darkened – it was near; and, turning instinctively, in his hallucination, to avoid it, he threw himself, face down on the ground, on the tombâ ????

In Bly’s version of the story, it’s Dani herself, not Jamie, who is sacrificed to the beast as she returns to Bly’s mansion and drowns It’s very James he There’s no happy ending for our protagonist, but Flanagan and his writers put a slight optimistic twist on it.The series may be about death and ghosts. but in the end, Bly Manor postulates that not all hauntings are bad Some, like the way Dani haunts Jamie for decades, can be downright romantic

All products featured on Vanity Fair are independently selected by our editors However when you purchase something through our retail links we may earn an affiliate commission

â ???? A first look at Diana and Margaret Thatcher in The Crown Season Fourâ ???? Celebs Roast Trump in Rhyme for Trumpty Dumpty Book by John Lithgowâ ???? Get ready for George Clooney’s apocalyptic film The Midnight Sky The best movies and shows to stream in October In Netflix’s latest frenzied escape, Emily in Paris The Young Crown Stars on Prince Charles and Princess Diâ € ” From the Archives: How Hollywood Sharks, Mafia Pins, and Movie Geniuses Shaped The Godfather? ???? Not a subscriber? Join Vanity Fair for full access to VFcom and the full online archive now nnds

© 2020 Condé Nast All rights reserved Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our user agreement (updated 1/1/20) and our privacy policy and statement on cookies (updated 1/1/20) and your California privacy rights Vanity Fair may earn a portion of the sales of products purchased from our site through our affiliate partnerships with retailers The content of this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast Choice of Ads

Haunting of Bly Manor, The Haunting of Bly Manor