Television series

The Haunting of Bly Manor

Name: The Haunting of Bly Manor
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery
Released: 2020
Cast: Victoria Pedretti, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, T'Nia Miller, Amelie Bea Smith, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth

Mike Flanagan's follow-up to Hill House trades jump-scares for melancholy, weaving several Henry James stories into one hushed gothic fairy tale about an American au pair, two orphaned children, and a manor that keeps its dead close. It's slow, romantic, and sad rather than scary — the ghosts here are grief made visible. For people who want a love story wearing a ghost story's clothes.

TVMaze rating

7.6

If you liked this

The Haunting of Hill House2018

Flanagan's first Netflix haunting, and the blueprint for Bly Manor's trick of turning trauma into literal ghosts — tighter, scarier, and just as devastating by the end.

But More frightening and more grief-soaked; if Bly Manor's ending wrecked you, this one goes further and offers less comfort.

Crimson Peak2015

Guillermo del Toro's gorgeous, blood-red gothic romance gives you the same ingredients — crumbling house, doomed lovers, ghosts as warning signs — turned up to full melodrama.

But It's gorier and more theatrical than Bly Manor, with a plot that prizes spectacle over subtlety.

The Fall of the House of Usher2023no page yet

Flanagan again, but nastier — Poe's stories stitched into a savage takedown of a wealthy family, with the same instinct for turning horror into moral reckoning.

But Much bloodier and angrier than Bly Manor's quiet sadness; this one wants to make you furious, not weep.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Innocents1961

Same source material — The Turn of the Screw — but where Bly Manor gives its ghosts names and backstories, this one never lets you be sure they're there at all.

The black-and-white British film that adapted the very Henry James story Bly Manor draws its ghosts from, decades before CGI could tell you what's real — pure, suffocating ambiguity.

But Slow, stagey, and deliberately unresolved by design; if you want your ghosts confirmed, this will infuriate rather than satisfy you.

Rebecca2020no page yet

A new bride, a dead predecessor she can't escape, and a house that seems to remember everything — pure gothic romance dread without a single ghost required.

But No supernatural element at all, so if it was specifically the ghosts you wanted, this trades them for psychological menace.

Midnight Mass2021

Flanagan's most personal work, swapping the manor for a fading island town and asking the same question Bly Manor does — what grief makes us believe.

But It's a slow burn that spends a long time on faith and guilt before it shows its hand; patience required.

Penny Dreadful2014

Victorian London stuffed with literary monsters and doomed romantics, soaked in the same lush, morbid atmosphere and interested in love as a kind of haunting.

But Busier and pulpier, juggling several monster mythologies at once rather than one tight, contained tragedy.

The Woman in Black2012

Daniel Radcliffe in a straightforward, beautifully old-fashioned ghost story — isolated house, dead child, vengeful spectre — that plays it for pure dread rather than romance.

But Colder and scarier, with none of Bly Manor's warmth or love story to soften the horror.

The Little Stranger2018no page yet

A crumbling English estate, a family in decline, and a haunting that might just be class resentment given a body — slow, eerie, and quietly devastating.

But Glacially paced and deliberately ambiguous; some will find the ending frustrating rather than haunting.

Jane Eyre2011

Strip out the ghosts and you've got the same bones — a plain, clever young woman arrives at a strange house, falls for someone hiding a secret, and the house itself seems to hold its breath.

But No horror at all — this is straight romantic drama, so it only works if you loved Bly Manor for the love story.

A Ghost Story2017

Both are really about ghosts as grief that can't let go of a place or a person — Bly Manor just dresses the idea up with more plot.

A man dies, becomes a sheet-draped ghost, and stays in his house watching time pass without him — nearly wordless, unbearably tender, and about exactly what haunts Bly Manor's ghosts too.

But Almost no dialogue and a famously long, static scene played in real time; it demands patience most horror fans won't expect to give.

The House2022no page yet

Same idea as Bly Manor turned inside out — a house that keeps its dead and its memories, told in a completely different medium and tone.

A stop-motion anthology where a single haunted house swallows three different families across centuries — strange, melancholy, occasionally very funny, and genuinely eerie despite the puppets.

But It's animated and anthology-shaped rather than one continuous story, which can feel slight if you want a single sustained plot.