Will There Be a Third ‘Haunting’ Show After ‘Hill House’ and ‘Bly Manor’ on Netflix?

If you’ve heard anything about The Haunting of Hill House series on Netflix, you’ve probably heard only good things. The show and its companion season, The Haunting of Bly Manor are some of the most well-made horror you can see on screen.

Unlike some of the competition, this is a series that maintains its momentum from start to finish. In fact, the show’s tremendous success (making Thrillist’s top 25 of all time) and a huge following has many wondering about a possible third season.

A wildly successful start for the ‘Haunting’ horror series

The series’ premise is built on Shirley Jackson’s decades-old horror novel, with a basis in real life, according to Mental Floss. With its mixed cast of familiar faces like Timothy Hutton and Carla Gugino and newer faces like breakout star Victoria Pedretti, you’d be forgiven if you had low expectations.

Mike Flanagan’s careful writing, directing, and all-around running of the creation of The Haunting of Hill House brought out the best in his cast, though, and ensured a popular and critical success.

Will a third ‘Haunting’ series really happen?

If you’ve been spooked by worries that a third season might not be in the works, your fears may be well-founded — at least for now, they say at Netflix Life. Flanagan and many of his cast favorites have been busy with other projects, reports IndieWire, including a new series, the much-anticipated Midnight Mass.

According to What’s on Netflix, more Haunting seems likely, though no official announcements have been made. Despite fan fervor to continue the anthology, it would be hard to top a series even Steven King Tweeted praise for. 

What makes ‘Haunting’ such a great TV show?

If you’ve somehow missed watching the 2018 first installment of the series, it tells the story of the Crain family’s paranormal, often tragic experiences. The action moves seamlessly between the Crains’ past at the haunted Hill House mansion and the present at daughter Shirley’s funeral home.

Hutton and Henry Thomas alternate as present and past family patriarch Hugh Crain and Gugino shines as his wife, Olivia. The adult children are played by Michiel Huisman (Steven), Elizabeth Reaser (Shirley), Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Luke), Pedretti (Nell), and the always-intriguing Flanagan favorite Kate Siegel (Theo).

Having found great success with the first season, Netflix renewed the anthology for a second season which premiered in October 2020. The follow-up, standalone series, The Haunting of Bly Manor takes its inspiration from Henry James’s famous story, The Turn of the Screw, and other works. While many cast members from Hill House returned for Bly Manor, there’s no connection between the two series, though they share the dual timeline structure and much of their feeling is similar.

Bly Manor events follow Pedretti’s character, au pair Dani Clayton’s spooky experiences with charges Flora (Amelie Bea Smith and Christie Burke), Miles (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Thomas Nicholson), and their uncle Henry (Henry Thomas and Duncan Fraser). A strong cast brings back many other Hill House alums along with fresh faces, including relative newcomer Amelia Eve as love interest Jamie. 

In each installment, we come to care as deeply for the characters as Flanagan and the actors clearly do. Pedretti poured so much into her tragic role as Dani, she claims it was her most demanding role. One of the qualities that makes this such a popular, admired series, suggests No Film School, is that it has “one foot in horror and the other foot in our hearts.” 

If you’re still looking for a good horror series to binge on Netflix

While you’re hoping for a third season of Haunting or waiting for Midnight Mass to premiere, Netflix still has plenty of original horror to keep you checking if the doors are locked. Binge their ominous heart transplant series Chambers or brutal and gory Hemlock Grove.

To explore the wider world of horror, try out South Korea’s historical zombie-fest Kingdom, India’s futuristic Ghoul, or France’s creepy Marianne.