The first The Haunting of Bly Manor trailer confirms the show's October 2020 release date. Spearheaded in 2018 by the prolific Mike Flanagan, The Haunting franchise gave Netflix their own anthology horror series. The first part, The Haunting of Hill House, reimagined an eponymous 1959 Shirley Jackson gothic-horror novel into a poignant miniseries, which wooed fans and critics alike. Hill House set a benchmark with its acclaimed sentimental hijinks, ensnaring flashbacks, and memorable scares. And now its sequel, The Haunting of Bly Manor, is all set to break its record with a scarier and more riveting narrative.

The Haunting of Bly Manor adapts Henry James's award-winning ghost-story novella The Turn of the Screw. Hill House veterans, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Kate Siegel, Henry Thomas, and Victoria Pedretti were retained in new roles for the show, while some fresh faces including T'Nia Miller, Rahul Kohli, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, and Amelie Bea Smith were also brought on board. Recently, The Haunting of Bly Manor set its first look images where it teased its new characters, storyline, and setting. And now the show has officially released a teaser-trailer, confirming its premiere date.

As per Netflix's first Haunting of Bly Manor trailer, the much-awaited horror-saga is primed for an October 9 release. As depicted in the trailer, this new chapter revolves around the residents - both living and dead- of the titular country house. Bly Manor's unsuspecting, charming disposition is mostly a facade. It's possessed by sinister dolls, creepy wells, and star-crossed romantic tragedies. The central premise takes place in the 1980s when a young American nanny (Pedretti) moves into the damned Manor to care for orphaned siblings (Smith & Ainsworth) following the demise of their babysitter. Along with Pedretti and the orphans, the Manor's other inhabitants' lives are also entangled in a hair-raising, winding misadventure, which stems from the Manor's dark secrets of love and loss. Watch the trailer below.


Flanagan had earlier revealed that he would bring back Hill House's popular background phantoms to his new show. But this time around, they won't just be abstract bystanders, rather Flanagan would make them 'tell their own story'. The Haunting of Bly Manor is in many ways, different from its predecessor. While the heart of the series is still 'haunted places and people', all other elements have been amended to avoid redundancy. Futile love-stories have filled in for family traumas, creepy settings have been replaced by a balmy-yet-suspicious Manor, and original performers have been assigned fresh parts. The new trailer for The Haunting of Bly Manor serves as a manifestation of this attempt at reinvention.

The Haunting of Bly Manor's trailer has offered promising thrills, but it has arguably fallen short of the appeal of its predecessor. Bly Manor seems cinematically inferior to Hill House, mostly due to its new color palette, and its teaser has also failed at creating emotional resonance. The sneak-peek at Siegel's character, who emerges from the lake in a scene, is probably the only selling point of the teaser. Otherwise, the trailer has just animated the frames were shown in the first-look images. A near-Halloween release date makes the show timely, but its attempt at newness fails to intrigue. Hopefully, the actual episodes will be able to deliver on their potential and make for a compelling watch.