Based on Henry James’ novella THE TURN OF THE SCREW, THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR (Netflix) brings back most of the cast of the successful HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE for another emotional, creepy ride. The character-driven narrative was a big too slow burn for me, and the gradual collision of its parts didn’t produce as big an explosion as HILL HOUSE achieved (starting with that stupendous episode 6 at the funeral home). Nonetheless, it’s a great ghost story–multilayered, emotionally deep, and very Gothic.

The story focuses on Dani, an American plagued by guilt living in the UK, where she applies for and gains a job as a governess for two precocious but troubled children, Miles and Flora, whose parents died a year earlier. The staff–the kind-hearted housekeeper, humorous cook, and brassy gardener–welcome her, as do the children, though the kids appear to have a secret. The secret, of course, has to do with a haunting…

Despite taking a bit too long to build tension, this was very enjoyable fare. As with HILL HOUSE, we get frequent digressions in various episodes to examine past events and how they affected each of the major characters. As with HILL HOUSE, sometimes the ghosts are psychological–the “Ghost” in the character arc portrayed as a recurring, haunting mental image–and sometimes the ghosts ar all too real. This is clearly a story about people that happens to have ghosts in it, not the other way around. All the characters are likeable or at least sympathetic. There are thankfully fewer jump scares than HILL HOUSE, as I’m not a big fan of the device, but when they come, they’re much more powerful, particularly when the main ghost is revealed. On a final note, I particularly enjoyed how a same-gender romance was portrayed. It feels completely organic–the people involved displayed real chemistry that starts the first time they meet–and is the best portrayal I’ve seen.

Overall, I’m thankful for this series, which reminds us that in a genre crammed with torture, shock, and jump scares, there are great literary horror watches that focus on character and theme.

DON’T HUGE ME I’M SCARED is a 6-part indie musical/comedy/horror web series released from 2011 to 2016 by British filmmakers Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling. Rolling out like a horror version of SESAME STREET on crack, it’s honestly one of the most deeply provocative, entertaining, and strangest things I’ve ever seen on the internet.

Each episode starts off as a typical show for kids, complete with a stylized, colorful set and three characters, Yellow Guy (a boy like Bert or Ernie), Red Guy (a creature like Grover or Oscar the Grouch), and Duck (a talking duck). They find themselves in a situation, and an object on the set comes to life to sing a song to teach them something about a topic such as Creativity, Time, Technology, Love, Healthy Eating, and Dreams. The lessons start off educationally until sliding headlong and in a surreal way into a darker, nastier, very adult interpretation of the topic, resulting in the characters being brutalized. This could have come across as a shtick, but it’s done so well, and you sympathize with the characters so much, it’s super dark and compelling.

Part of the wonder of the show is the amazing detail in set design and techniques used to tell the story. Easter eggs abound, many visible only on repeated or even frame by frame viewings, all of them hinting at a deeper story. The storytelling techniques combine live action, puppets, cartoons, and computer animation. The songs are catchy ear worms. The surreal horror aspect is creepy as hell. And the end of episode 4 and the last episode bring in what appears to be a meta commentary on corruption in content creation in children’s programming, a larger story that ties the whole thing together but is very open to interpretation as to exactly what that story is.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend it. All the episodes are here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ux2ZxSXePs&t=1221s.

I liked Joe Hill’s LOCKE AND KEY comic series quite a bit and was excited to hear it would be coming to Netflix. Unfortunately, despite some nice threads and plenty of promise, the adaptation, which deviates quite a bit from the comics’ darker material, feels like standard TV fare, and by the end had me banging my head against the wall at characters making constant terrible decisions without any consequences.

The story follows the Locke family, which is moving into the father’s ancestral home, Key House, after he is murdered by a student at the high school where he worked. Everyone is grieving or dealing with guilt. The three kids in the family try to make their way at their new school. Then the youngest begins to find mysterious keys around the house, each of which grants a magical power. Unfortunately, an evil entity also needs the keys, which it intends to use to unleash hell. This begins a cat and mouse game where the kids use the keys to gain powers while fending off the evil entity, which often has the upper hand.

The result was not bad for me so much as simply lackluster and overly familiar. The keys were fantastic, a really fun element in the story that kept me interested. The characters, unfortunately, weren’t exactly likeable, and the villain was dastardly and conniving to the point of being eye-rolling. Some of this was in the acting, while much of it was simply an adaptation of very dark and powerful material to render it safely packaged for a wide TV audience. By the end, the characters were making one terrible decision after another, generally without consequences.

So overall, LOCKE AND KEY was okay for me, a fairly decent watch but lacking the strength of its source material and paling in comparison with other amazing shows.