In the world of horror storytelling, few creators are quite as busy across multiple platforms as genre mastermind Mike Flanagan. Fans are currently waiting to see his latest entries to the slate of upcoming Stephen King adaptations, the impending feature The Life of Chuck and the still in-development Dark Tower series for Amazon. But it turns out we don’t even need to wait until those projects arrive to get hyped for even more excellence, as two new Flanagan-centric projects were announced nearly back to back. Let’s dive in.
Director's Commentary With Mike Flanagan
As anyone who’s had the pleasure of peeping out Mike Flanagan’s home releases is aware, the writer/director is nearly as good at delivering behind-the-scenes facts and anecdotes about his projects as he is at crafting the scenes themselves. So it’s no small victory for cinephiles that he now has a new podcast dedicated entirely to such fascinating backstories, in the form of Director’s Commentary with Mike Flanagan.
Elijah Wood, Daniel Noah and Lawrence Inglee’s production shingle SpectreVision has expanded its genre footprint with the launch of SpectreVision Radio, which will produce and distribute a variety of podcasts devoted to movies, music and the arts in general, while maintaining the company’s embrace of all things weird and spooky. While some original projects will be further seasons of already existing series, Director’s Commentary is part of the new wave of audio programming for horror fans to get lost in.
The best thing about this news? We don’t even have to wait around to get a taste of the new podcast. Director’s Commentary has already released its first pair of episodes, which serves as an example of how this unique format will work. The first ep is a 40-minute interview with the filmmaking collective Radio Silence, comprising Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Justin Martinez, and Chad Villella; the second ep is a full-length conversation between Flanagan and Radio Silence as they watch the 2019 darkly comedic horror Ready or Not.
Assuming nothing change up from week to week, Flanagan will be sitting down with a different genre filmmaker in each episode for both a standalone chat as well as a deep dive into one of the guest’s movies. It’s horror nerd catnip to the fullest.
V/H/S/Beyond
As awesome as the above podcast will be when it comes to exploring other artists’ work, it’s perhaps even more exciting to know that we’ll be watching another Flanagan-scripted tale that isn’t tied into any of his other upcoming works. As reported by Variety, Flanagan will be collaborating anew with wife and frequent project star Kate Siegel for her directorial debut.
This won’t be a full feature, however, as the Flanagan/Siegel team-up will be for the upcoming horror film V/H/S/Beyond, the latest sequel in the ongoing anthology film series that utilizes a variety of twisted tales to celebrate the videotape aesthetic and the years of its popularity. Could the “Beyond” part of the title mean we’ll be getting into Laserdisc and DVD formats? It’s not clear at the moment, but what is clear is the confirmed lineup of filmmakers crafting the film’s “bloodcurdling tapes,” as seen below.
- “Stork” - Directed by Jordan Downey, written by Downey and Kevin Stewart
- “Fur Babies” - Directed and written by Christian Long and Justin Long
- “Live and Let Dive” - Directed by Justin Martinez, written by Ben Turner, story by Martinez and Turner
- “Dream Girl”: Directed by Virat Pal, written by Pal and Evan Dickson
- “Stowaway”: Directed by Kate Siegel, written by Mike Flanagan
- A special presentation by Jay Cheel
If Kate Seigel's "Stowaway" is indeed the final film of V/H/S/Beyond, it could indeed be the standout anchor of the piece that ties everything together. But who am I kidding? Even if it's just five minutes of non-sensical fluff, it will still be among my favorite horror experiences of 2024.
V/H/S/Beyond is set to debut streaming as a Shudder exclusive on Friday, October 4, while it's still unclear when Mike Flanagan's The Life of Chuck will arrive in theaters. While waiting for more clarification and a trailer for the upcoming anthology feature, check out everything else hitting the big screen with our 2024 release schedule.
