I've never seen a TV Show do a complete 180 like Bly Manor did. The first 5 episodes are completely, intolerably boring, but those last 4 episodes are incredible. I was even crying in the last two. However, Mike Flanagan should have directed all the episodes, or maybe just got another director to do them all.
Let's talk about...[Insert film/person]
They give away the "master of horror" titles way too easily these days.
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Have you seen Haunting season 1? That alone would give him one, but he directed so many gems, Doctor Sleep included. One of the rare horror directors nowadays that actually gets horror. The way he uses it to spice up primarily character driven story has been a blessing for years now.Master Virgo wrote: ↑October 29th, 2020, 11:32 amThey give away the "master of horror" titles way too easily these days.
As for Bly manor, his wife Kate Siegel (which I generally like) has been so horribly miscast and terrible in that b&w episode that I couldn't believe my eyes and ears (from the way she let her contemoporary self quirks overcome the royalty of the character to that godawful accent). Wonderful photography, music and script though. I noticed her cracks during that stellar one take Haunting episode.
I've not yet seen all of Haunting of Hill House, just the first two episodes. I really liked the second one. I love the way the story transitions from one sibling to the other.
I have seen Doctor Sleep and I don't know why people think it's a gem. I saw the directors cut and it felt like the film could either have been a lot shorter or the pacing is just too slow for the entire thing idk.
I have seen Doctor Sleep and I don't know why people think it's a gem. I saw the directors cut and it felt like the film could either have been a lot shorter or the pacing is just too slow for the entire thing idk.
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I enjoyed Bly Manor for its setting and most of the characters, but holy shit, it was so heavily sentimental I simply couldn’t handle it without cringing. So in a way, I liked its beginnings more than its endings. I get the themes it’s trying to communicate, but it was just too cheesy for my tastes. Too messy.
Episode 8 and its placement honestly confused the shit out of me. I feel a part of why I actually found the beginning more intriguing (even if slow as fuck) was that I didn’t know shit about what made the house be the way it was. Overexplaining by shoving in yet another unrelated arc this late into the show (when the show itself doesn’t even really follow its “ghost” rules too) just made me go “ah ok”. I get how it relates to memory and love, but you do not need to know everything in a ghost story. And this season in general just tells too much. I just felt mostly disconnected from the characters, even if I’d normally empathize heavily with their experiences. I think I read a comment somewhere saying it seemed like the show didn’t just take inspiration from two stories - “the turn of the screw” and “the jolly corner”, but many more, which left its characters feeling as if they don’t necessarily fit in each others’ stories as well.
Also it’s weird that the narrator has the capacity to retell the entire story with explicit details when there was no way she could have possibly known most of them tbh.
I know people love this for the whole ~it’s a love story~ thing and LGBTQ+ representation (which ofc is great), but I honestly feel like I’m going crazy whenever I see people talk about how good this was, especially in comparison of how good Hill House was. By far the most interesting episode is the Hannah Grose episode, and the possible parallels to memory and dementia or alzheimer’s.
Episode 8 and its placement honestly confused the shit out of me. I feel a part of why I actually found the beginning more intriguing (even if slow as fuck) was that I didn’t know shit about what made the house be the way it was. Overexplaining by shoving in yet another unrelated arc this late into the show (when the show itself doesn’t even really follow its “ghost” rules too) just made me go “ah ok”. I get how it relates to memory and love, but you do not need to know everything in a ghost story. And this season in general just tells too much. I just felt mostly disconnected from the characters, even if I’d normally empathize heavily with their experiences. I think I read a comment somewhere saying it seemed like the show didn’t just take inspiration from two stories - “the turn of the screw” and “the jolly corner”, but many more, which left its characters feeling as if they don’t necessarily fit in each others’ stories as well.
Also it’s weird that the narrator has the capacity to retell the entire story with explicit details when there was no way she could have possibly known most of them tbh.
I know people love this for the whole ~it’s a love story~ thing and LGBTQ+ representation (which ofc is great), but I honestly feel like I’m going crazy whenever I see people talk about how good this was, especially in comparison of how good Hill House was. By far the most interesting episode is the Hannah Grose episode, and the possible parallels to memory and dementia or alzheimer’s.
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I think we can all agree on one thing at least: Hannah must be protected.
Flanagan is doing Midnight Mass next and will direct most of that if not all so that's better news.
@Nomis, The Shining is probably my favorite movie of all times (no kidding) and Doctor Sleep feels like such a love letter to that movie, but is also a faithful adaptation of the book. I just like Flanagan's personal style as a whole and adore that movie and its deliberately slow, booky pacing. DC even adds chapters.
Ferguson is incredible as a villain and that one scene (you know which one) is peak King horror.
Enjoy the rest of the series! I've seen it twice already.
Flanagan is doing Midnight Mass next and will direct most of that if not all so that's better news.
@Nomis, The Shining is probably my favorite movie of all times (no kidding) and Doctor Sleep feels like such a love letter to that movie, but is also a faithful adaptation of the book. I just like Flanagan's personal style as a whole and adore that movie and its deliberately slow, booky pacing. DC even adds chapters.
Ferguson is incredible as a villain and that one scene (you know which one) is peak King horror.
Enjoy the rest of the series! I've seen it twice already.
have a heartRuth wrote: ↑October 29th, 2020, 12:21 pmI enjoyed Bly Manor for its setting and most of the characters, but holy shit, it was so heavily sentimental I simply couldn’t handle it without cringing. So in a way, I liked its beginnings more than its endings. I get the themes it’s trying to communicate, but it was just too cheesy for my tastes. Too messy.
Episode 8 and its placement honestly confused the shit out of me. I feel a part of why I actually found the beginning more intriguing (even if slow as fuck) was that I didn’t know shit about what made the house be the way it was. Overexplaining by shoving in yet another unrelated arc this late into the show (when the show itself doesn’t even really follow its “ghost” rules too) just made me go “ah ok”. I get how it relates to memory and love, but you do not need to know everything in a ghost story. And this season in general just tells too much. I just felt mostly disconnected from the characters, even if I’d normally empathize heavily with their experiences. I think I read a comment somewhere saying it seemed like the show didn’t just take inspiration from two stories - “the turn of the screw” and “the jolly corner”, but many more, which left its characters feeling as if they don’t necessarily fit in each others’ stories as well.
Also it’s weird that the narrator has the capacity to retell the entire story with explicit details when there was no way she could have possibly known most of them tbh.
I know people love this for the whole ~it’s a love story~ thing and LGBTQ+ representation (which ofc is great), but I honestly feel like I’m going crazy whenever I see people talk about how good this was, especially in comparison of how good Hill House was. By far the most interesting episode is the Hannah Grose episode, and the possible parallels to memory and dementia or alzheimer’s.
-Vader
Yeah The Shining is up there for me as well, I haven't read Doctor Sleep but while I loved McGregor and Ferguson, I think Flanagan could've gotten even more out of the two of them. I think for me with the story having focused more on McGregor would've improved it.m4st4 wrote: ↑October 29th, 2020, 12:38 pmI think we can all agree on one thing at least: Hannah must be protected.
Flanagan is doing Midnight Mass next and will direct most of that if not all so that's better news.
@Nomis, The Shining is probably my favorite movie of all times (no kidding) and Doctor Sleep feels like such a love letter to that movie, but is also a faithful adaptation of the book. I just like Flanagan's personal style as a whole and adore that movie and its deliberately slow, booky pacing. DC even adds chapters.
Ferguson is incredible as a villain and that one scene (you know which one) is peak King horror.
Enjoy the rest of the series! I've seen it twice already.
Thanks btw, I'm watching it with friends of mine so chances of binging it are slim lol but I do like that we've got some time between episodes. It can marinate a bit more that way
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Carla Gugino is the goat but can we add Henry Thomas to this talk, please?! The guy is basically Flanagan's Michael Caine. Excellent turn in Bly recently as well (doppleganger still haunting me) and managed to NOT wreck Nicholson in Sleep.
The guy is super underrated and has range.
As for Sleep, I actually thought Kyliegh Curran as Abra was a show stealer.
The guy is super underrated and has range.
As for Sleep, I actually thought Kyliegh Curran as Abra was a show stealer.
