Before Bird Box inspired everyone to put on blindfolds and run around like idiots, viewers were captivated by another Netflix show: The Haunting Of Hill House. Based on the 1959 gothic horror novel by Shirley Jackson, the series followed the fractured Crain family as they confronted terrifying memories of their childhood home. Mysterious specters lurked around every corner, and the Bent Neck Lady did not make for a great roommate.
In the finale, the Crains are lured back to Hill House, and tortured by nightmarish hallucinations in the Red Room. The father, Hugh, strikes a deal with the ghost of his dead wife, agreeing to sacrifice himself so that his children can escape. In the final scene, the surviving family members celebrate Luke's two-years of sobriety with a cake, a welcome moment of joy after so much suffering. (And no, the red cake does not mean they're still in the Red Room.)
On Thursday, Netflix announced it renewed the mega-hit horror series for a second season. It will focus on a new story with new characters, and even has a new title: The Haunting Of Bly Manor. So, don't worry, Crains - you won't be put through the ringer again! On Twitter, the streaming service released a teaser for the second season, promising that "a new haunting is coming" in 2020.
In a follow-up tweet, Netflix confirmed that the second season is based on Henry James' 1898 psychological horror novella The Turn Of The Screw. The story takes place almost entirely at Bly Manor, an old country mansion, where a young governess is hired to look after two orphans. Since the tweet states the season is "based on the works of Henry James," it is possible there will be references to other James stories.
"As far as I've ever been concerned with this, the story of the Crain family is told," series creator Mike Flanagan told Entertainment Weekly last October "It's done. I think that there are all sorts of different directions we could go in, with the house or with something completely different. I love the idea of an anthology as well."
He added, "I felt like the Crains have been through enough, and we left them exactly as we all wanted to remember them, those of us who worked on it. We toyed with a cliffhanger ending and we toyed with other ideas, but ultimately, in the writers' room and with the cast and everything else, we really felt like the story demanded a certain kind of closure from us and we were happy to close the book on that family."
But while the book has closed on the Crain family, it hasn't closed on the actors. There's a possibility they might appear in the second season, playing different characters. "Mike Flanagan said he would be interested in the notion of an anthology, where some actors come back to play different characters," said Carla Gugino, who played doomed house designer Olivia Crain, during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "I think he feels like he has told the complete story of the Crain family. But if I was invited [to come back] and I was able to, I would really love to, just because I do love to collaborate with him."
Will Bly Manor be as terrifying as Hill House? You'll find out in 2020. (Or you could find out now by reading The Turn Of The Screw.)
