After weeks of listening to the advertisements for the new horror show that would interrupt my Spotify playlist, I finally got to watch “The Haunting of Bly Manor,” which came out on Oct. 9. The show revolves around Dani Clayton (Victoria Pedretti), a nanny who was hired to look after two children, Miles (Benjamin Ainsworth) and Flora (Amelie Smith) Wingrave, who reside at Bly Manor, a seemingly picturesque mansion with a chilling past. 

The show starts off by introducing Dani, a woman who suffered a loss and is looking for a fresh start in England. She applies for the job of taking care of two children, whose parents and former au pair had died just a few years earlier. At first, Dani enjoys the company of young Miles and Flora, but soon finds that the children are hiding something. As the show progresses, the viewers get more insight into the other characters who work on the grounds and see the unravelling of the mysterious past behind the muddy footprints found in the halls after the sun has set. 

I don’t normally watch horror shows, but I enjoyed this one because it had new, eerie developments in every episode. Even toward the middle of the series, when things were starting to feel a bit slow, episode five, which was devoted to the housekeeper, threw in confusing time warps and abrupt endings to scenes that still have me puzzled. In addition, a few of the episodes took the focus completely off of Dani in order to explain the backstory, which offered some variation in the faces seen on-screen. 

Along with an interesting plot, the horror element in this show was perfectly balanced. I’m not a big fan of jumpscares, but the ones in this show were not too extreme. There were a lot of them in the beginning, but as the show goes on, I felt less anxious watching them. The pitch black shadows and daunting music in the background persisted throughout the entirety of the episodes, so the feeling of apprehension never left me. 

Although there was no great plot twist in the end, the way the unexplained scenes in the beginning episodes come full-circle in the conclusion was definitely entertaining to watch. The ending wrapped up the characters’ backstories and the biggest mysteries that were kept concealed throughout the show. There are still a few questions left unanswered, but I guess that’s the point of a horror show — to keep the audience in suspense. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the show and it was definitely worth binge-watching. The characters and plot developed nicely throughout the show and there was not a single episode that I felt did not contribute to the overall plot in some way. I’m not someone who strongly likes or dislikes horror, so this show was perfect for me. If a horror show that is not too mild or extreme seems appealing to you, “The Haunting of Bly Manor” is worth the watch.