Series creator Mike Flanagan and producer Trevor Macy lift the veil on their mysterious new season.
Warning: Spoilers fromThe Haunting of Bly Manorare discussed in this article.
What is a ghost?
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A ghost, as they would find, could be many things.
But, in my experience, most times theyre just what we want to see.
IfHill Housewas about grief and familial trauma,Bly Manoris a love story.
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And love, asCarla Gugino’s narrator says, can be just as scary as any ghost story.
In a sense, every love story is a ghost story, Flanagan says.
Youre creating this eventual absence that youre going to have to deal with.
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That was really sad and sweet and beautiful.
Flanagan adds, There was never really much discussion on our part about continuing it.
Netflix, inevitably, came knocking again on that Red Room door.
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Flanagan already began filmingDoctor Sleepwith Macy when they reconsidered what a second season might look like.
Thats when the director thought of Henry James novellaThe Turn of the Screw.
Dani, too, is dealing with her own ghosts.
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The dollhouse is like our Marauders Map for this season, Flanagan says.
The dollhouse, he notes, is a tracking system for the ghosts.
People do, don’t they?
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Mix up love and possession, Dani says.
I don’t think that should be possible.
They’re opposites really: love and ownership.
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In season 2, they wanted to create a different atmosphere, though echoes of red remain.
Henry James describes Bly as being bright and sunny and earthy and warm and pleasant, Flanagan says.
He never describes a feeling of foreboding when his characters step foot in Bly.
Theres a lot of deep blues and a lot of cool color within the shadows ofHill House.
The blacks dont even drop out into true blacks.
They kind of go teal and they kind of go into deep navy instead.
Each would look into a different ghost story from the author’s repertoire and present summaries to the room.
One that popped out was the 1908 short storyThe Jolly Corner, about a man haunted by his doppelganger.
This is a throw in of ghost Flanagan believes many of us are familiar with: regret.
Thats fear of the complete unknown, Flanagan elaborates.
Its about this secret knowledge that this person has about them that keeps coming back.
The doppelganger doesn’t adhere to the standard rules of ghosts because what haunts Henry is Henry himself.
Siegel is the Lady of the Lake, once known by another name in the 17th century, Viola.
It was part of the surprise, Flanagan says.
As time fades, so do the memories of Viola and Perdita.
They slowly forget who they are, and eventually their faces fade altogether.
The eventual erosion of memory is something that is an affliction that even the ghosts have.
The only thing that the past has to fear is being forgotten or worse forgetting itself."
Season 3?
However, Flanagan agrees redefining what a ghost is will be something to explore further if given the chance.
A ghost is an impact from the past on the present in every ghost story.
That’s all it really is, no matter how you dress it up, he says.
I feel like theres no shortage of ghosts in the world for all of us, he adds.
