Old houses have an uneasy weight to them. And the bigger they are the heavier they get. Every room, with its forgotten relics and long-faded memories, somehow feels both empty and full. It’s as though everyone who has ever wandered those halls has never truly left—and never will. Now this spooky season we’re getting another terrifying tale of such a place. Netflix has followed up on the nightmarish success of The Haunting of Hill House with a story about a home where ghosts live side-by-side with the living. It’s a mansion where the death of two wealthy parents had dire consequences on everyone left behind. But we’re not talking about Bly. We’re talking about Batman and The Haunting of Wayne Manor. The place where every Bruce Wayne begins, returns, and lives forever.
Beware spoilers for The Haunting of Bly Manor. But the Batman stuff is all fair game.
This devilishly good crossover is the newest Nerdist Remix from our very own mad scientist, Matt Caron. He weaved together the story of Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Bly Manor with cinema’s many, many Batmans. And with so many Bruce Waynes haunting the halls of his family’s estate, that means reliving the death of a whole lot of Thomases and Marthas Wayne too. That’s only fair, since their deaths will haunt Batman movies forever apparently.
But while this mashup makes the Dark Knight’s life (and afterlife) seem bleaker, there are some elements of a Bly Manor existence that are an improvement for Bruce. Rather than one single servant he has a whole team of them. And if he had been raised by Alfred and The Haunting of Bly Manor‘s Hannah and Owen, Bruce might never have even put on his cowl and become a masked vigilante.
Warner Bros.
Sure, he might have literally been haunted by ghosts instead of metaphorical demons, but that might have been easier. It’s not like the Joker and Penguin were a day in the underworld park. But this way he gets all of Omar’s puns to make him happy.
Just keep Bruce away from wells. That’s true at both Wayne and Bly Manor.