I think that we should acknowledge why The haunting of Bly Manor is quite different than Hill House in some aspects.
For instance, Hill House was all about the hidden ghosts in the house, the thrill of finding out who the bent-neck lady was, the red door, the house that was somehow alive... and what it all meant. But most of all, familial love, knowing that even after all family is there with you, going through all of it just like you.
Now, Bly Manor is about still loving those who are no longer here with us. It's about dealing with death, with grief, about terrible losses that may make you absolutely crumble and give up everything just to be with the ones you love again.
About how, in time, we all grow and forget the ones we loved once, we may forget their voices, the way they moved, what they said, their faces, who they were in our lives but we never forget what they meant for us, the feeling they left in us when they died, how we're always searching for them in the littlest of things in life.
It was about being stuck on a memory about them, over and over again and how it may haunt you forever.
Why do you think the ghosts weren't scary? Cause really, they're not what's supposed to be scary. They just don't have a face, an identity. They're just lost souls, forgotten, existing without having someone to remember them so they eventually lose themselves, losing what makes them them
What's truly scary in Bly Manor is not the ghosts, it's knowing that someday we all are going to lose the ones we love, and when we do, how do we live with it? How do we keep standing? How do we keep living?
We are constantly haunted by memories, by forgotten faces and strong feelings of grief after we lose someone and Bly Manor is all about that.
It may not resonate with some people who don't fully understand or haven't experienced grief, or they might not find it as exciting or scary as Hill House, but for the ones that have lost people in their life and know this Grief Monster very very well, this show was truly, truly a masterpiece.
