On Oct. 9, Netflix released the second season of the Haunting series called the Haunting of Bly Manor. The first season was the Haunting of Hill House. The two seasons don’t correlate other than a handful of actors from the first season returned to continue in a horror series. The main things in this show is the story and the characters.

In the horror genre, most of the time people don’t really care about the story, but just want to feel the adrenaline rush of being scared. In this show, the story takes the lead of the most important part. 

The story is told through a storyteller the audience meets at the beginning of the season at a wedding in the present time. As the storyteller begins her ghost story, it is set in 1987 in London. After two parents’ tragic deaths, the uncle of the two children of Bly Manor, Flora and Miles, hires a nanny from America, Dani Clayton (played by Victoria Pedretti) coming to London to find a new job and a fresh start. Once Dani was taken to the town of Bly, creepy and crazy things started to happen to the lady who was already haunted by her past. 

Victoria Pedretti is one of the returning cast members. As a returning cast member, she brought out one of the best characters from the entire show. Her character was strong-willed, but broken at the same time. Dani experienced hurting and wanting to find a new start after the loss of her husband a few years back. Dani was a character people rooted for especially with her love interest, Jaime (played by Amelia Eve) who was a gardener on the property of Bly Manor. These two brought love to each other when they needed it most. 

The show wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is about hauntings and ghosts. Ghosts run around throughout the halls and the background only being seen by people with a keen eye. Hidden in the background of important scenes, the ghosts of the manor can be spotted if you look closely. The CGI helps improve the story making it seem even creeper than the first season. The manor is seen to have a faceless ghost as the main antagonist called the Lady of the Lake. The CGI looks impressive to say the least. The first season also had very good CGI.

Haunting of Hill House is completely different following a family who have left their childhood home after losing their mother in a terrible way. Bly Manor is more of a psychological thriller wanting the audience to use their imagination to think about how the story works which is all explained towards the end of the season. To be honest, the Haunting of Hill House was much scarier than this season because there were a lot more jump scares and the ghosts were definitely better. Still, this season was very good resulting in people falling in love with the story for a second time after a great first season.