Top 10 Scariest Things From Haunting of Bly Manor You Didn't Notice the First Time

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Scariest Things from “The Haunting of Bly Manor” You Didn’t Notice the First Time.

For this list, we’ll be looking at small details you likely overlooked while watching this Netflix original horror series. We’ll also be highlighting character moments, story arcs and lines of dialogue that take on way more significance once you know how things end.

This list comes with a MAJOR spoiler warning. If you haven’t finished the season yet, go binge and come back!

Did you prefer the Haunting of Bly Manor or Hill House? Tell us why in the comments below!

We’re starting off with this creepy figure because you definitely noticed him at least once or twice throughout the season. This is also the first of Bly Manor’s resident ghosts that our attention is overtly drawn to by the camera. As Dani gets a late night cup of tea and snack, a long-nosed mask and hooded shoulder come into focus in the foreground. This happens around 33 minutes into the episode. But this isn’t his first appearance. Not only can you see his silhouette in the background moments earlier, but the Plague Doctor is actually hiding beside the stairwell when Dani gets her initial tour of Bly Manor. He then proceeds to hide in plain sight all throughout the series.

Anyone who grew up in a small town can relate to Owen’s speech about Bly. He describes the town as a “gravity well,” a place where people tend to get stuck — even those who really intend to leave. Case in point, Owen traveled to France, where he studied the culinary arts, but now he’s back in Bly, cooking at the manor despite never having liked the place. Your first time through, this just seems like a bit of character development adding meat to the cook’s backstory. But Owen repeatedly uses the word “stuck,” which is a significant bit of foreshadowing. Though he himself doesn’t know it, he’s actually describing a very real effect that Bly Manor has on those who die there.

“Bly Manor” uses a lot of flashbacks. On your first watch-through, these detours into the past can be a bit off-putting due to the lack of scares. This is especially true of Miles’ time at boarding school. In hindsight however, this lengthy flashback is far more significant than we ever could have initially imagined. In class, Miles asks his teacher, a number of very specific questions about demonic possession. The elder Wingrave child has already established himself as rather odd by this point, so we just assume he’s exploring his dark interests. Episodes later, however, when we learn about Quint’s habit of possessing him, his interest in the Exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac makes a lot more sense.

Netflix made no mention of Carla Gugino’s involvement in the second season of “The Haunting”. As such, fans were absolutely delighted when hers was the first face that they saw upon clicking play on the first episode. Gugino plays the narrator, whose actual identity we don’t learn until the very end of the series. Given her limited screen time, you likely didn’t give a second thought to her actions, even after learning who she actually is. But in that first episode, she exhibits some rather odd behaviors, like leaving the door to her room ajar and staring longingly into both a sink and bathtub full of water. On second viewing however, you understand that she’s hoping to be visited by the ghost of her love.

Let’s be honest… unless you’re dealing with a child prodigy, the drawings that kids make are always a little creepy. They’re just such crude, weirdly monstrous representations of the subject matter. At the end of the flashback to Miles’ time at boarding school, we learn that everything he did was a self-destructive bid to be sent home. The reason? Flora’s letter/drawing. We only have a few seconds to look at the drawing, and the words “come home” are what the viewer’s gaze is naturally drawn towards. At this point in time, we haven’t really learned much about Quint or Jessel and as such, not much thought is given to the other two figures in the picture. But there’s a pretty serious implication.

Terrifying. Utterly terrifying. While all the various ghosts in “The Haunting of Bly Manor” are scary in their own right, there’s just something about undead children that chills us to the bone. We get up close and personal with the Little Boy on a couple of occasions. He also gives us one of the show’s best and earliest scares when he’s hiding amidst the dolls in the basement and suddenly moves. Given how creepy he is, you might be happier not knowing, but, like the Plague Doctor, he also pops up a number of times in the background of various scenes. He’s better at hide-and-seek than the doctor, and often blends into his surroundings. But when you do spot him, we guarantee that he’ll make you jump every time.

Hannah Grose is easily one of Bly Manor’s most compelling characters. T'Nia Miller delivers a wonderfully nuanced performance — but one that you really can’t fully appreciate the first time around. The housekeeper is hyper-organized and extremely well put together. And yet, there are these fleeting moments when she seems distracted or as if she’s lost. You’ll also notice that she rarely ever seems to eat or drink and suffers from sharp pains in the back of her head. When we learn of her fate, every moment we spent with Hannah takes on new significance - especially the cracks in the walls. Because Miles is always saying creepy stuff, you likely didn’t think twice about his dream. In retrospect, however, it serves as a major piece of foreshadowing.

From the moment we meet Miles and Flora, it’s clear that — however endearing they might be — they are also rather odd. Flora has some peculiar mannerisms and can clearly see something that the rest of us cannot, but when Miles begins to behave oddly, his aura is far more threatening than that of his sister. As we eventually learn, Miles often cedes control of his body to Peter Quint. Even on a repeat viewing, it can sometimes be hard to tell who is who, but there are a few moments that become all the more chilling, in retrospect, when we consider that Quint was likely behind the wheel. Like… when Miles spies on Dani changing. Or when he touches her hair. Quint does have a taste for nannies.

Little kids always make for a spooky addition to a horror film or series. Same goes for dolls. But add the two together and you get a never ending case of the creeps. Flora doesn’t just like to play with dolls, however; she’s obsessive and very serious about their placement. Everything about her doll house inspires a serious “no feeling”. With everything else going on in the show, what you might not have noticed, however, was the importance of the dolls .They’re stand-ins for the residents of Bly Manor - living and dead. And they seem to serve as a Marauder’s Map of sorts as to where everyone is at a given time. For example, that male doll looming over Miles’ bed strongly suggests that Quint was recently in control.

In one of the show’s many flashbacks, we see Henry Wingrave comforting Flora, telling her to give a story to the mysterious little boy she claims to have seen in her room. He mentions having done the same with a soldier when he himself was her age and living at Bly Manor. The whole thing is framed like they’re talking about imaginary friends, but this is Bly Manor… so we know it’s actually ghosts. We only managed to spot Henry’s ghost story once in the background of episode 3. Actor Andrew Neil McKenzie is credited as the “Soldier Ghost” on IMDB, however, and he’s listed as appearing in six episodes. Have you managed to spot this elusive ghost? Tell us where in the comments below!