Wednesday, October 14, 2020

The Haunting of Bly Manor

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In case you haven’t seen the intro from my entry dated 1/26/19 (it’s in my archives whenever you want to read it), I’m no longer going to review every single movie I see.  I’m going to review one, with the occasional bonus, and just give ratings for the rest from now on (unless I decide to pick it up again in the future).  You can always ask me why I gave the ratings for the films without reviews though (via comments or the e-mail addresses under the ‘About Me’ section).
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The Haunting of Bly Manor (Season One)                  G
This new Netflix series loosely based on the novel, The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James (which I haven’t read) is 9 episodes with the longest being 65 minutes and the shortest being 45.  I did see the filmed adaptation, The Innocents, but barely remember anything, and the other recent adaptation, The Turning, is one of the worst movies I’ve seen this year.  This series bears no real connection to The Haunting of Hill House series also released on Netflix two years ago, other than Mike Flanagan’s name being attached (he created this and wrote/directed the first episode) and a few familiar faces returning as different characters.  It seems there are plans of making this an anthology series much like American Horror Story wherein a story will be loosely adapted into a Haunting series with some of the same performers returning each season.  Reading beforehand that this wasn’t connected to Hill House was the sole reason I even bothered with it.  I didn’t dislike Hill House, but I wasn’t too much a fan of the horror juxtaposing with the drama, the drama seeming to take center stage more often, and felt it ended much too sappily (you can read my review for it in the archives---www.abcreviewarchive.blogspot.com).  I did like this series better and part of it could be that I went in expecting more of a gothic romance (which I read on the website provided below) instead of a straight-up horror show.  It does contain a romance, more than one, and the series is definitely gothic.  It is also a ghost story and gothic ghost stories don’t need to be scary to be effective, as proven here.  It isn’t always the most fast-paced, as many gothic ghost stories aren’t, but I was enamored enough from start to finish to want to continue.  It does get a bit weird halfway through, but in the sense it spices things up a bit (kind of reminding me of a season from that aforementioned anthology series), and everything is explained as best as it can be by the end.  The ending this time is more depressing, but effectively as opposed to how sappily (or at least too positively) it could’ve ended.  10/13/2020

 ***Here’s a website you should check out before watching, even though you don’t necessarily have to:  https://screenrant.com/netflix-haunting-bly-manor-trivia/ ***

Bonus review:

Tales from the Hood 3                                                OK

[Tales from the Hood is one of my favorite anthology films.  It is nearly perfect.  Not only were all the segments, including the wraparound, intriguing, but the entire film contained an underlying sense of dread.]

That was the beginning of my review for Tales from the Hood 2 which you can read in its entirety in the archives---www.abcreviewarchive.blogspot.com.  I also said this---[The same director returns along with a sidekick that was the writer of the first, plus Spike Lee returns as executive producer.]---and the same applies for this threequel.  I also said this---[All in all, it certainly wasn’t the worst anthology film I’ve seen, but it is still a sequel after all to a much greater predecessor.]---which also applies and that’s the last I’m going to crib from that review.  The wraparound segment here involves Tony Todd (the original Candyman for those unaware) taking a little girl into an abandoned building to see her mother; the little girl tells four stories (the segments) while they make their way through said building.  The first one, the weakest one, is a typical “revenge from beyond the grave” tale that includes an evil clown I wish was utilized more.  The second one involves an irritating white racist that is so stereotypically over-the-top racist, bordering on parodical, making me anticipate his inevitable demise; it does end with quite a clever, albeit loopy, reveal though.  The third one reminded me of a film from 2005 (I obviously won’t reveal) after it ended and it did take me by surprise considering I thought the segment was initially going down a completely different route.  The last one began kind of goofy and involves a villain being cursed to “walk in his victim’s shoes,” but the phrase takes on quite a different meaning than you’d think.  The wraparound segment contains a comeuppance that’s not uncommon for a horror anthology segment with a cute (I guess you can say) nod to the first film.  As I implied, this collection wasn’t great, most segments contained reveals better than what came before, but you could do worse when it comes to horror anthology films.  I, personally, would just tell you to watch the first film, again or for the first time.  10/10/2020

Other movies I've seen and their ratings (see above):

The Bay of Silence  >>>EH

Save Yourselves!  >>>OK

The Silencing  >>>OK

Solo (2013)  >>>EH

---Sean O.
10/14/2020

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