No CGI on these 2 creepy scenes on ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor,’ ‘The Haunting of Hill House’

If you have seen both “The Haunting of Hill House” and “The Haunting of Bly Manor,” you probably already know that creator Mike Flanagan and other people behind them don’t do cheap scares.

In a roundtable interview with the press including GMA News Online, returning stars for “Bly Manor” Victoria Pedretti and Henry Thomas talked about some creepy scenes that didn’t even need the help of computer-generated images (CGI).

(Warning, spoilers ahead!)

The character of Henry Thomas, who plays Henry Wingrave, the uncle of the two orphaned children inside Bly Manor, is influenced by two Henry James books, “The Turn of the Screw” and “The Jolly Corner.”

At the latter part of the series, his “alter ego” will show up and smile an unsettling creepy grin.

According to Henry, he thought there would be edits and CGI on the post-production for that scene but he was surprised they left it as is.

“About the grin, I didn’t think that the  grin was actually gonna be used. I thought they were gonna go in with computers and enhance it because in the script it was written as something that was gonna be incredibly exaggerated but they left it,” Henry told the press during the interview.

Henry admitted that he was a bit worried at first.

“So I was a little bit worried about what I had done thinking that they were gonna use it but I’m happy about it,” he said.

Meanwhile, Victoria who previously played Nellie on “The Haunting of Hill House” said they did the same with her portrayal of the iconic “Bent-Neck Lady.”

“That happened to me in the first episode. I thought in the first episode where I was like they were gonna have my jaw fall open they just left it as it is.”

Henry and Victoria thought it was great as is that’s why the post-production team decided to leave it that way.

Henry said the last few projects he has had with Mike was great since he was able to play diverse characters.

“You never feel as though you’re doing the same thing and that keeps it exciting for me as a performer and it was fun to do a scene where I was interacting with myself,” he said. “It was a challenge and I enjoyed it.”

Henry’ character is influenced by two characters from Henry James’ books, the uncle from “The Turn of the Screw” and the alter ego from “The Jolly Corner.” In “Bly Manor,” the actor said he was able to blend the influences into his character with the help of their incredible script.

“It was a choice to play the alter ego shadow Henry as being very sleek and very clean and very crisp and much more together than the real Henry and the gradually show the weak becoming stronger and stronger becoming stronger,” he told GMA News Online.

“It was an interesting choice that was already written into the script and as far as I was concerned I just had to make a couple of decisions with the turn of the line but that was as far as it went,” he added.

Aside from Victoria and Henry, returning stars from “Hill House” in “Bly Manor” include Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Kate Sigel, and Tahirah Sharif.

“The Haunting of Bly Manor” is set in 1980s England. After an au pair’s tragic death, Henry Wingrave (Henry Thomas) hires a young American nanny (Victoria Pedretti) to look after his orphaned niece and nephew (Amelie Bea Smith, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) living at Bly Manor with their home chef Owen (Rahul Kohli), groundskeeper Jamie (Amelia Eve) and housekeeper, Mrs. Grose (T’Nia Miller). 

“The Haunting of Bly Manor” will premiere Oct. 9 on Netflix with nine episodes. – RC, GMA News