Netflix’s The Haunting Of Bly Manor is dark, creepy, intense but also surprisingly a love story at heart. Is it appropriate for the younger crowd? Check out this parents guide.
Admittedly, I am not the biggest fan of scary films. The fact is, I don’t like all those jump scares that just about give one a heart attack. But there is one “scary” sort of films I enjoy and those are the psychological thrillers. I like those films that get deep into your head, have you questioning motives and intentions and even a bit of mystery solving. The Haunting Of Bly Manor is just that, it definitely takes viewers on a journey of solving spooky occurrences but is it appropriate for kids? Let’s take an in depth look in this parents guide.
The Haunting Of Bly Manor quotes
The Haunting Of Bly Manor Parents Guide
The Haunting of Bly Manor is a new series on Netflix and it actually considered a prequel in sorts to the previously horrow hit The Haunting of Hill House. This series is based on Henry James’ 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw and it tells the story of two young children (Flora and Miles) who have been surrounded by too much death in their lives. Not only did they lose both of their parents at an early age but they also experienced the tramatic death of their nanny. A new nanny comes along to care for them, but she soon starts to experience strange occurences around the home including faceless ghosts, creepy dolls and a man who seems to have gone missing years beforehand.
The nanny has her own set of problems she is dealing with even before she moves into the manor. For some reason, which we will eventually find out the reason, everytime she looks into the mirror she sees a ghost of her own, a man with glowing eyes, which haunts her in every reflection she encounters. And actually all the ghosts that are being seen is scary, when you find out the reason they are there, it really is quite sad.
Appropriate For Kids/Teens?
My teen and pre-teen would have no problem with the spookiness of this series. Sure there are faceless ghosts, creepy dolls and even a few disturbing parts (think characters being possessed by ghosts), the core of the story is based on love stories, which totally takes the scare factor away once your realize this. I apperciate that this series is not gory, or too explicit with death scenes. In fact, the death of the parents are never even shown and only talked about. Adult content is involved such as drinking alcoholic beverages at dinners and gatherings. Some sexual scenes, like when a character unclothes for a fur jacket and a few sex scenes which do not get too graphic.
Overall Thoughts
The Haunting Of Bly Manor is splendid, perfectly spendid. Ha! You will totally get that reference once you watch the series. While this movie comes after The Haunting of Hill House, in no way does it relate back to that series, as both are stand alone series. I truly enjoyed the creepiness, the dark aspect, the mysteries to solve and of course, the love stories from the past and present.
I believe this series is appropriate for teens and even pre-teens if they enjoy these types of genres. As for younger kids, I would not recommend it. At times it could be a bit slow for them and way too creepy, I mean even I was creeped out by the faceless ghosts and the constant glowing eyed dude in the mirror.
When comparing it to The Haunting Of Hill House, I did not feel lived up to that series. Maybe it is because we expected the crazy twists and turn after watching Hill House but this series was still enjoyable and totally bingable. I believe we will see more films like this in the future because they just don’t get old, especially with Halloween season right around the corner.
