The movies and TV shows of Mike Flanagan have proven time and time again that he is one of our greatest modern storytellers, regardless of genre. However, many would agree that he has made some of the best horror movies in recent memory and his spooky TV shows are essential reasons why Netflix is one of the best streaming services to subscribe to today.
The filmmaker has an upcoming 2025 movie on the horizon called The Life of Chuck – an adaptation of a Stephen King short story starring Tom Hiddleston – and an upcoming horror movie which will be his take on the Exorcist franchise. In honor of his exciting forthcoming efforts, let’s revisit Mike Flanagan’s greatest hits from both the big and small screen, along with a tip on how to watch them.
Midnight Mass (2021)
Limited Series
Starring: Hamish Linklater, Zach Gilford
What it’s about: A new, young priest’s arrival to an isolated island community has a seemingly miraculous effect until the truth behind the astonishing circumstances is revealed.
Why it is one of Mike Flanagan’s best: Without giving too much away, Midnight Mass – one of Mike Flanagan’s most personal creations – is a limited series that reinvents a very familiar topic of horror lore, complemented by his signature knack for moving family drama and other grounded themes.
How to watch Midnight Mass
The Midnight Club (2022)
Limited Series
Starring: Iman Benson, Igby Rigney
What it’s about: A group of terminally ill teens who take turns sharing scary stories each night discover their hospice hides a dark secret.
Why it is one of Mike Flanagan’s best: Bearing no connection to Midnight Mass (save a few Midnight Mass cast members appearing), The Midnight Club is a frightening and heartbreaking coming-of-age drama inspired by the work of Christopher Pike that was sadly canceled after one season (despite Flanagan’s ideas for Season 2).
How to watch The Midnight Club
The Fall Of The House Of Usher (2023)
Limited Series
Starring: Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood
What it’s about: A wealthy pharmaceutical company owner confesses the startling secret behind his success and its connection to the untimely deaths of his children.
Why it is one of Mike Flanagan’s best: Cleverly taking inspiration from the work of Edgar Allan Poe, Mike Flanagan crafts The Fall of the House of Usher into a cautionary family drama of undeniably epic proportions, told in just eight episodes.
How to watch The Fall of the House of Usher
The Haunting Of Hill House (2018)
Limited Series
Starring: Michel Huisman, Elizabeth Reaser
What it’s about: Years after strange and traumatic events at their former home, the past continues to haunt a dysfunctional family, and in more ways than they may even realize.
Why it is one of Mike Flanagan’s best: For its time, there were few horror TV shows like The Haunting of Hill House – a grounded, heart-wrenching, and beautifully acted family drama loosely inspired by author Shirley Jackson’s classic ghost story, elevated by unbelievable technical mastery and indelibly frightening images… if you can spot them all, that is.
How to watch The Haunting of Hill House
The Haunting Of Bly Manor (2020)
Limited Series
Starring: Victoria Pedretti, Oliver Jackson-Cohen
What it’s about: An American woman accepts a job as an au pair for a charming, orphaned brother and sister at a beautiful mansion that still appears to be burdened by more than just its recent tragedies.
Why it is one of Mike Flanagan’s best: Based on the work of Henry James, The Haunting of Bly Manor is a heartbreaking and beautifully acted romantic tragedy with its own assortment of memorable ghosts.
How to watch The Haunting of Bly Manor
Absentia (2011)
Movie
Starring: Katie Parker, Courtney Bell
What it’s about: After a woman invites her sister to move in with her, new and unexplainable evidence linked to her husband’s long, mysterious disappearance begins to come to the surface.
Why it is one of Mike Flanagan’s best: Despite a next-to-nothing budget that is clear in every frame, Absentia is a frighteningly bizarre and even more frighteningly relatable adult bedtime story for adults and one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime.
How to watch Absentia
Oculus (2013)
Movie
Starring: Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites
What it’s about: A woman ropes her younger brother, who was recently released from a mental institution, into her plea to prove an antique mirror is alive and the true cause of their tragic childhood.
Why it is one of Mike Flanagan’s best: Also one of the best Karen Gillan movies, Oculus is, like many of Mike Flanagan’s films, a great horror movie that explores grief and trauma, for its astonishingly clever, emotionally moving, and relentlessly chilling execution of the otherwise overdone concept of haunted mirrors.
How to watch Oculus
- Stream Oculus on Paramount+
- Stream Oculus on Pluto TV
- Rent or buy Oculus on Amazon
- Buy Oculus on Blu-ray on Amazon
Ouija: Origin Of Evil (2016)
Movie
Starring: Elizabeth Reaser, Annalise Basso, Lulu Wilson
What it’s about: In 1967, a Los Angeles charlatan hopes a Ouija board may help her staged séances, but it only seems to have an upsetting effect on her youngest daughter.
Why it is one of Mike Flanagan’s best: Ouija: Origin Of Evil is a prequel that most agree majorly improves on its predecessor (the 2014 board game adaptation Ouija) as both another investing family drama and a love letter to ghost stories of Hollywood’s golden age.
How to watch Ouija: Origin of Evil
- Stream Ouija: Origin of Evil on Netflix
- Rent or buy Ouija: Origin of Evil on Amazon
- Buy Ouija: Origin of Evil on Blu-ray on Amazon
Before I Wake (2016)
Movie
Starring: Kate Bosworth, Thomas Jane, Jacob Tremblay
What it’s about: A grieving couple adopts an 8-year-old boy whom they learn possesses an unusual, uncontrollable gift that makes him a danger to himself and others unless he can keep himself from falling asleep.
Why it is one of Mike Flanagan’s best: Another moving family drama and supernatural commentary on grief from Mike Flanagan is Before I Wake – one of the best horror movies on Netflix, despite initially intending for a theatrical release before Relativity Media went bankrupt.
How to watch Before I Wake
Hush (2016)
Movie
Starring: Kate Siegel, John Gallagher Jr
What it’s about: A sadistic masked murderer breaks into the secluded home of a successful author but decides to prolong his plan into a deadly cat-and-mouse game for his own amusement when he learns that she is deaf.
Why it is one of Mike Flanagan’s best: Mike Flanagan takes a familiar concept (the home invasion thriller) and enhances it with clever imagination, grounded characters, and an unwavering aura of suspense in Hush, which also contains a retroactive Midnight Mass Easter Egg.
How to watch Hush
Gerald’s Game (2017)
Movie
Starring: Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood
What it’s about: A woman’s weekend getaway with her husband evolves into a horrifying fight for survival when their plan to spice things up takes an unexpected turn.
Why it is one of Mike Flanagan’s best: Mike Flanagan’s Netflix original adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, Gerald’s Game, is a taut, subversive, and unapologetically grim tale of redemption and self-discovery that also includes a retroactive Midnight Mass Easter Egg.
How to watch Gerald’s Game
Doctor Sleep (2019)
Movie
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyleigh Curran
What it’s about: Dan Torrance finally learns to let go of his demons and realize the benefit of his extraordinary telepathic gift but is forced to confront his past when he meets a girl whose similar (and far more powerful) abilities put her in grave danger.
Why it is one of Mike Flanagan’s best: Mike Flanagan achieves both a faithful adaptation of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep and a worthy follow-up to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining with this unsettling, wonderfully surreal, and heartfelt thriller featuring one of the greatest modern horror movie villains, Rose the Hat.
How to watch Doctor Sleep
More recently, Mike Flanagan wrote what I believe is the best segment from the 2024 anthology horror movie, V/H/S/Beyond, “Stowaway,” which was also directed by his wife and frequent collaborator, Kate Siegel. At this point, after seeing him put out masterpiece after masterpiece, I am willing to follow this astonishingly creative filmmaker wherever he goes.
