January is the month for a new start, June is the month to begin summer, August is the month for trees to change their colors and October is the month for all things scary. Many people define scary as different things: clowns, ghosts, haunted houses or maybe even movies. Throughout the month of October, people are embracing their love for all things scary, and even with COVID-19 overstaying its welcome, finding haunting adventures hasn’t become hard. Six Flags modified Fright Fest, Cinema One Plus had scary movies every weekend, local haunted houses were open to the public and Nextflix released new scary series.

Netflix did not hold back when it came to producing and adding an abundance of new series and movies to their endless amounts already available. Netflix subscribers were given a number of movies including Along Came a Spider, Cape Fear, The Devil All the Time and House of 1,000 Corpses. Viewers were also given multiple horror/thriller series: The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Haunting of Hill House and The Barrier, some of which are Netflix originals. To think that these are only a few the Netflix has recently added to the hundreds of other horrifying entertainment already available.

Netflix released its own original horror series The Haunting of Bly Manor Oct. 9, with nine episodes following the story of two orphans, a mysterious new nanny and a haunted mansion. As a movie lover, I pride myself on being able to enjoy and appreciate any genre of entertainment, but this TV show was far from ‘perfectly splendid.’ I’m in constant search of my new favorite thriller throughout the entire year, not particularly October, and The Haunting at Bly Manor came nowhere close to even being considered as a favorite. The so-called ‘supernatural horror drama’ lacked everything a horror show is supposed to have. My heart did not race, I did not have to hide under my comforter in terror and I did not have to sleep with the lights on. Along with the show falling short on the scare factor, the show left me distraught due to the oddly unsettling script. While the actors seemed to do an exceptional job at pursuing their characters, the script made the characters have a quite uncomfortable and irritating facade. Despite my own personal opinion of the show, one could find the show entertaining if they have absolutely zero standards or expectations.

I encourage readers to tweet us @WHSAdvocate after you watch the show to share your input on the outrageously disappointing Netflix original.