Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House and this year’s The Haunting of Bly Manor gifted us with some of the best works in horror television of all time. The bingeable storylines riddled with hidden bonus ghosts to keep us on edge comes from the mind of Mike Flanagan, who has become a definitive filmmaker of the genre in recent years with projects like Shining sequel Doctor Sleep, Hush and Gerald’s Game. Although Bly Manor was a huge hit, another Haunting chapter is not currently on the way.
Both Hill House and Bly Manor are contained storylines that adapted pieces of horror literature into modern, limited TV series. Hill House retold Shirley Jackson’s famed novel, while Bly Manor loosely drew from Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw. The main common threads between the two is Flanagan, and the filmmaker enlisting many of the same actors. When a fan on Twitter asked Flanagan about his plans for another Haunting series, here’s what he said:
At the moment there are no plans for more chapters. Never say never, of course, but right now we are focused on a full slate of other Intrepid projects for 2021 and beyond. If things change we will absolutely let everyone know.
After the success of the pair of the series, we’d think the anthology would keep going, but, alas, Mike Flanagan has other plans up his sleeve. His independent production company, Intrepid Pictures, which brought us all his work dating back to 2013’s Oculus, is instead moving forward with a slew of other projects. The first being Midnight Mass, another Netflix series that Flanagan just wrapped production on last week.
Midnight Mass is reportedly about an isolated island community that begins to experience miraculous events and creepy omens after a charismatic priest arrives. While it’s not a Haunting series, it will feature some of the cast from Hill House and Bly Manor. Flanagan’s wife Kate Siegal will, of course, have a role after playing the Lady of the Lake and Theodora. Henry Thomas is also part of the cast, after starring in both series, and Bly Manor newcomer Rahul Kohli is also on the cast list.
Aside from Midnight Mass, Mike Flanagan is also developing a series called The Midnight Club, which will be about a group of terminally ill patients at Rotterdam Home who gather to tell ghost stories. The horror filmmaker is also rumored to be making a movie called Hallorann, which would be a Shining prequel about the Overlook Hotel’s cook, Dick Hallorann. Though, in a recent appearance, Flanagan said he wasn’t sure the project would “go any further,” but explained he hopes to get it back on track someday.
Another Haunting series may not be coming right now, but Mike Flanagan is hard at work concocting more thrills and traumas for fans of his television series, and that’s still good news. I believe we need some more time to work through the tragic ending of Bly Manor anyway, don’t you think?
