A big let down. It may be a good tragic love story. But not a horror story.
Here is the detailed review:
If its not broken don't fix it.
When you make something as good as hill house, you should atleast try to stick to the same formula which made it so good. The creators took a different route. Brave step but it backfired. You simply cannot expect not to be compared to the first season , especially when you yourself created it.Haunting of bly manor doesn't contain the things which made hill house such a good and unique experience. And the main problem can be boiled down to more or less just one thing - The pace. It is slower than a snail. It starts slow and the pace just feels getting slower and the story is dragged on. When I watched the first episode of hill house, I was immediately engrossed. The ending shocked me. Even though the next few episodes revolved around the same plot ,but it was shown through different perspectives , revealing some twist which made me anxious to find out what happened next. That brilliant storytelling and pace is missing. Dialogues are stretched and characters talk and talk to make the episodes longer. Literally there are pieces of dialogue which doesn't do anything but elongate the runtime. No character building, no important information, nothing. The whole story can be finished in 5 episodes maximum.
And where is the horror? This series lacks horror. There are just 1 or 2 scenes which may creep out the weak hearted horror lovers but thats it. The brilliant decision to put the ghost in the background ,who are visible just for second, maybe during a lightning- which made hill house so unique is not present here. The fact that horror doesn't necessarily mean jumpscares was proved by such a beautiful step, where the audience needs to follow along and if they are inattentive , they will miss out. The anticipation of a ghost appearing rather in the dark scenes and the overall atmosphere playing into it- all these are missing. Maybe only once or twice this happens in bly manor. Again, people might say its harsh to compare this with hill house, but if you make a sequel of something which was so good, you will always be compared.
Coming to the story, it is decent. The storyline tries to show us that ghosts have emotion too. In the end
*SPOILER STARTS*
the person listening to the story tells it's not a ghost story, it's a love story.
*SPOILER ENDS*
Well maybe this was what the creators wanted to make. A tragic Shakespearian love story, and ended up adding a ghost here and there. You may end up loving thr story if you watch it as a supernatural drama or something but if you binge it hoping to find horror, you will be left very disappointed. The acting, cinematography is decent enough.
Best avoid it if you love horror.