 Sometimes ghost stories are also love stories. Ooh, that's a hot mug, guys. Hey guys, this is my review for The Haunting of Bly Manor. The very highly anticipated, sort of, but not really sequel to The Haunting of Hill House by horror absolute legend right now, Mike Flanigan. Before I start the review, just want to do another shout out for my buddy, Siniscence, who was trying to get up to 300 subscribers before his BC Cancer Foundation charity stream, which he's going to be doing on October 24th. So make sure to check out his channel. Make sure to check out that stream. Links in the description below. The Haunting of Bly Manor, was it what we were expecting? Was it what we were wanting? No, no, yes, yes. I was very, very excited to see Mike Flanigan do something again. He only directs one episode and he's kind of an executive producer on this one, but I was still very interested to see it, mainly because it was filmed out here. All of these locations that they shot out are out here. They filmed in Steveston. They filmed at the Hilltop Cafe. They filmed in Gastown. The house is a house in Langley, apparently. Not entirely though, it's sort of fake, but this story is far more character-based, almost kind of a little bit soap opera-y, but not in a bad way, because this doesn't have as much horror as it normally would, but that's not a bad thing. The first episode really, in my opinion, has the most amount of horror that we're used to with Mike Flanigan, and it's so subtle, that very, very subtle camera movement when the little girl's having the bath and Danny's washing her and the girl looks over her shoulder and Danny looks back at the mirror, cuts back to the girl, cuts back to the mirror, slowly zooms in on the mirror, and the girl just says, oh, it's okay, and that was it. No noise, no jump scare, no nothing, but it is undeniable to say that you all weren't hooked, and that's what this show does. It grips you right at the beginning, and it's pretty darn decent, considering it's taking really not that great of a source material. It's based off of The Turn of the Screw, which is a Henry Jacob novel, as well as several other of his short, Gothic horror novels, or novellas. It's not that good of a story. More so, it hasn't aged well. For example, you know, the turning that came out in January with a Stranger Thing kid? You know, that really, really horrible movie? It's the same story, but this is obviously Mike Flanigan working his magic with adding extra character, extra development, extra layers that help build a very basic and kind of in a story into something that you really, really dig into. If you've ever watched Haunting of Hill House and then read The Haunting of Hill House, you'll notice that they're completely different, but at the same time, they're exactly the same, and I'm kind of curious to see if that's the exact same story here. The kids are fantastic. Flanigan has a fantastic ability to choose really talented kids and bringing the talent out of them, especially the boy that a little shit. You hate him, but you know that there's something going on, but he's just such a intimidating figure for such a small child. The girl is also quite commendable. She does a really good performance. She has a lot of emotionality to her that for a girl her age would probably be a bit difficult for her to bring out, but that boy, man, he's good. And then there's also some reoccurring actors from Hill House, particularly Danny. Danny, who played Nell in the first show, was so good. She wasn't in it as long as the other actors, so the fact that she gets top billing, she's the main character in this is a fantastic choice. The Haunting of Hill House was her first ever major production ever, but she had done two like 10 minute short films before that. The girl kills it. I liked the gentleman in this as well. I was happy to see him back as a completely different character from what he played as Luke. To see him kind of be a villain, which he's not, but he is at the same time, and that's something else that relates into the show. There is no villain, but there is, and it's not the house. It's our own beings. It's our own grief. It's how we handle loss of love, how we handle loss of relationships. And that's what this show focuses on, this particular one. With Haunting of Hill House, it was about grief. This one is about the loss of love and how sometimes, even in dark moments, we can find love, but sometimes it's also a ghost of its former self. I think that blind manor had the impossible task of trying to match up with Hill House, and it doesn't try. It's just like, you know what? Let's make something good, and it's good. But there are some moments that obviously don't work as strongly as Hill House. For instance, the image, the figure that Danny keeps seeing is hilarious in my opinion. I know it's supposed to be scary, but every time I saw it, I kept on thinking they were those weird cone creamsicle candies. I thought it looked terrible, it was a terrible effect. And there's also the Lady of the Lake, too. The whole kind of key thing that's sort of around, but not really floating around, orbiting the main story. I liked her involvement with the story as it slowly comes to be, but it's all little stories. It's very evident that instead of it being one cohesive story, it's a bunch of little stories that just so happened to work well with each other. The driver and the original au pair, the Lady of the Lake, Danny, the children, the housemaid, the cook, they're all different stories. They're all different characters or their own different tales that just so happened to work together in blind manner. It's not the horror romp I was hoping for, considering just how good Hill House was and how it creeped me out, but it's still a good tale. It's still good drama. You'll definitely eat the popcorn. So in the end, I would give the haunting of blind manner a five out of seven. I am so bummed that I did not get to work on this show. Holy, most of this would have been shot at the studio or the house. It would have been so easy. Side note, it's also a story that takes place in the 80s, but it doesn't slam you on the head and saying that it's in the 80s. So that is also a plus. Anyways, guys, I hope you enjoyed this review. If you did, leave a like. And if you're interested in more, subscribe. And like I said earlier, please check out my buddy, Sinneson. We're trying to get him up to 300 subscribers before his BC Cancer Foundation charity stream on October 24th. Those links are in the description below. Anyways, that's all from me. See you guys next time. Thanks for watching the video. My name is Nitz. And you might remember me from the animated cult classic TV show, Undergrads. It's been a while, but I'm happy to say the click is finally getting back together in an all new movie. Thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, but we are still asking for your support. To see any and all updates about the upcoming Undergrads movie, be sure to check out and like the Bring Back Undergrads Facebook page. And with any luck, we'll see you guys soon.