Director Mike Flanagan Says Season Two of ‘The Haunting’ is “Unbelievably Scary”

It’s a great time to be director Mike Flanagan. Last year, his series, ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ received wide spread acclaim. This November his much-anticipated film adaptation of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep will hit theaters. And now he is returning to Netflix for the next chapter of ‘The Haunting’.

The first season of the hit Netflix series was based on Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. The second time around, Flanagan will take on the story of Henry James’ 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw. Flanagan recently spoke with Birth.Movies.Death and gave fans some insights into what lies ahead. “We’re looking at all the ghost stories of Henry James as the jumping-off point for the season, so it very much is a whole new deal,” he says. “It’s a cool way to expand on some of the things I loved about season one, but within the framework of a new story, without having to be restrained by the decisions we made last time. For Henry James fans, it’s going to be pretty wild, and for people who aren’t familiar with his work, it’s going to be unbelievably scary. I already think it’s much scarier than season one, so I’m very excited about it.”

New Characters, Familiar Faces

So season two will feature a brand new story and characters. But Flanagan also reveled that fans will still see some familiar faces around ’Bly Manor’. Victoria Pedretti and Oliver Jackson-Cohen who portrayed Nell and Luke Crain in ‘Hill House,’ have both signed on. “We’re hanging the season on Victoria Pedretti [playing the governess Dani] and Oliver Jackson-Cohen, and in addition to them, there are going to be other familiar actors from season one,” Flanagan reveals. “Beyond that, I’ve got quite a few candidates among new faces who I really love, but we haven’t formally cast anybody yet.”

If you loved the practical effects in season one, you’ll be seeing much more in season two. “That’s part of the DNA of ‘The Haunting’ for me—that old-school approach to the ghosts,” he says. “In particular, we’re having an enormous amount of fun talking about how to take some of the ideas from season one about hidden ghosts and things like that, and find new gears for them this time. It’ll be the same type of story, and we’ll treat the ghosts very much the same way.”

After Flanagan wraps up season two of ‘The Haunting’ he’ll start production on another Netflix project. However, we will be keeping a close eye on him for more spooky features. Since Flanagan has now helmed two Stephen King adaptations we may eventually see a third, says the director. “Depending on how Doctor Sleep does, we’ll see what movie opportunities there will be. I’ve been talking to Stephen King a lot about what we might want to do together after this, so we’ll see how it goes.”

You can catch Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep in theaters November 8. What are you hoping to see in ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor‘? Leave us a comment and let us know! Be sure to follow ScaryNerd for more of all things horror!

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