Looking over the past few articles I’ve written, I think I’ve made my love for animation pretty obvious. I’ve rambled about the Spider-Verse movies, Hazbin Hotel, Nimona, and even The Owl House last year. But as much as I adore a fun, colourful animated project, sometimes my interests also swing in the opposite direction. I also really enjoy the horror genre, and one of my favourite directors I’ve come across is Mike Flanagan. I first found him through The Haunting of Hill House which remains a favourite today, but that’s not the only show he’s done. Mike Flanagan has some other truly impressive horror projects under his belt, and some incredibly talented actors that take on different roles in his various series. If you’re in the mood to watch something spooky, here are his shows I’d recommend!
1. Midnight Mass
An isolated religious community on an island. A new priest. Whispers of an “angel” amidst strange happenings, like dead cats strewn across a beach and miraculous healings. This is a good show to watch if you’re interested in religious horror. Flanagan pulled from his own experiences of serving as an altar boy in the Catholic Church as a kid, and his upbringing inspired the small-town setting. Although this one ranks lower for me on personal preference, it still has some great moments — a visual detail I really like is the ghost who haunts one of the main characters as police lights faintly flash through the holes of her injured face.
2. The Fall of the House of Usher
As of February 2024, this is the newest of Flanagan’s projects. Loosely adapted from the Edgar Allen Poe story of the same name, the show follows the Usher family, the corrupt, wealthy owners of Fortunato Pharmaceuticals. Opening with the joint funeral of three out of the six Usher heirs, the family patriarch — Roderick Usher — extends an invitation to the attorney who has been trying to take them down. In the boarded-up, abandoned, crumbling home of his childhood, Roderick offers to make his full confession: he will explain not only the true story of how he came to own this drug empire, but also how each of his six children really died. Even though we technically know their fates, the mystery of how and why each of them met their demise is very compelling, and often poetic.
3. The Haunting of Bly Manor
Bly Manor pulls inspiration from stories by Henry James, including “The Turn of the Screw.” It has a very archetypal horror set-up: an American governess named Dani is hired to care for two British children on the family’s wealthy estate. The children have been plagued with tragedy, first through the deaths of their parents and then their previous caregiver, Miss Jessel. No stranger to grief herself (being haunted by the sudden death of her fiance), Dani has a strong desire to care for these kids, even when the manor’s ghostly inhabitants begin to make themselves known. Though chilling at times, this show also fosters a bittersweet Gothic love story between Dani and the estate’s gardener, Jamie. Flanagan’s best projects are intensely character-driven, and Jamie and Dani — especially in the last few episodes — absolutely steal the show.
4. The Haunting of Hill House
The Haunting of Hill House is still easily one of my favourite horror shows of all time. And while “Haunting” is in the name (because it’s adapted from Shirley Jackson’s novel of the same title), at the core of Hill House is a story of grief, love, and family trauma. On its surface, this show has a very classic premise: a family moves into a haunted house and has to contend with the ghosts within. However, it also follows two timelines: the past, with five young kids and their parents moving into Hill House, and the present — the same kids all as adults now, with very different reactions to the hauntings of their youth and very different ways of coping with trauma. Heart-wrenching and beautiful, but with plenty of mystery and scares to keep you on your toes, this is undoubtedly my favourite project by Flanagan.
With each new series (all available to watch on Netflix!), Flanagan has kept me on my toes through jump-scares, plot twists, and character-driven stories. So far, he’s done a wonderful job of adapting well-known horror stories, and I can’t wait to see what he does next!