The Haunting of Bly Manor Revives A Forgotten Horror Book Adaptation

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Among Mike Flanagan’s impressive horror series on Netflix, one stands out as being based on a book that was previously made into a fantastic, though often overlooked, horror film.

Mike Flanagan is well-known for creating horror movies and TV shows inspired by classic literature. While he doesn’t usually make strict, word-for-word adaptations, he skillfully borrows strong characters and key ideas from the original stories and updates them for modern audiences.

Netflix’s The Fall of the House of Usher is a great example of how creator Mike Flanagan adapts Edgar Allan Poe’s work. The show doesn’t just base itself on one story, but weaves in elements from many of Poe’s poems and tales. Flanagan used a similar technique with another Netflix horror series, finding inspiration from both a famous book and its original movie adaptation.

The Haunting Of Bly Manor & The Innocents Are Loose Adaptations Of Henry James’ The Turn Of The Screw

Both Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Bly Manor and Jack Clayton’s 1961 film, The Innocents, draw inspiration from Henry James’ classic horror story, The Turn of the Screw. However, The Innocents stays much closer to the source material and has received critical acclaim, earning a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Check out the movie’s trailer below:

Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of The Turn of the Screw updates the classic story for a modern audience, feeling more like a gothic reimagining of several works by Henry James. Although there are some stylistic differences, it mostly stays true to the original story’s structure and preserves its intentionally ambiguous storytelling.

Both the film and the series offer distinct takes on the Henry James story, but they also have surprising similarities. These connections weren’t accidental; Mike Flanagan deliberately included nods to The Innocents in his series.

The Haunting Of Bly Manor “Celebrates” Jack Clayton’s The Innocents

Mike Flanagan shared in an interview with The Daily Dread that he’s a big fan of Jack Clayton’s The Innocents. He explained that when his team began working on The Haunting of Bly Manor, they screened the film in Steven Spielberg’s private theater at Amblin on their first day together.

The filmmaker explained he wanted to highlight The Innocents because, despite being well-regarded, it’s often overlooked. Although it came out before Robert Wise’s The Haunting and used many of the same filmmaking methods, it’s rarely discussed alongside that famous horror movie. Because of this, Flanagan and his team made a point of including subtle references to it throughout their work.

As a horror fan, I’m always a little sad when incredible films like The Innocents seem to fade from memory. It really is one of the greatest adaptations of a horror novel ever made! Thankfully, Mike Flanagan is a huge fan too, and I’m so grateful he paid tribute to it in his Netflix series. He really did it justice!

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2025-11-16 03:39