How Mike Flanagan Became the King of Streaming-Era Horror

Netflix’s newest horror series, The Fall of the House of Usher, is doing a lot of things simultaneously. As we touched on in our full review, this series is part-comprehensive Edgar Allen Poe adaptation, part-Succession-style family drama, and part-rumination on the evils of capitalism (with an eye toward one particularly villainous real-world pharmaceutical company). For the show’s creator and showrunner Mike Flanagan, this is par for the course. 

Over the last decade, Flanagan has solidified his place as one of the most prolific, imaginative, and engaging horror storytellers working in any medium. After beginning his career in the world of independent film, he has slowly transitioned to bigger budgets and grander stories, taking on legendary tales from horror luminaries like Shirley Jackson, Henry James, and Stephen King. It’s that last name, in particular, that best puts what Flanagan is doing into context. Not only is he an avid fan of King’s work, and once and future adapter, but he is, perhaps more than anyone, the heir apparent to King’s place in popular culture. Throughout his career, Flanagan has been able to blend the fantastic, the deranged, and the bone-chilling in a way that remains fresh even as he works at what has become an astonishingly furious clip. The Fall of the House of Usher may be his take on the 19th century’s greatest horror storyteller but, through his work on television and in film, Flanagan is making his case as the Stephen King of the streaming era. 

There’s plenty to be said about Flanagan’s work in film, but it was his overall deal with Netflix back in 2019, and the series that would follow, that truly put him on the map. Turning Shirley Jackson’s 1959 gothic horror novel The Haunting of Hill House into a miniseries may not have seemed an obvious choice, but it quickly became the kind of word-of-mouth hit that makes the streaming era so exciting. This tale of familial trauma would serve as a jumping off point for Flanagan, who would return to the well for The Haunting Of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, and, now, The Fall of the House of Usher. These stories have plenty in common structurally—multiple timelines, family upheaval, apparitions aplenty—and share a surprising amount of on-screen talent as well. Flanagan has created his own little theatrical troupe during his time at Netflix, which includes actors like Rahul Kohli, Carla Gugino, Samantha Sloyan, Zach Gilford, Henry Thomas, and Flanagan’s wife Kate Siegel (all of which appear in Usher). Rather than cause confusion from series to series, this has given what Netflix has deemed “The Flanaverse” a cohesive style and familiarity that benefits each successive show and has given the whole endeavor a feeling of annual tradition, even as each story remains unique.

It’s important to note that the majority of these series’ are literary adaptations. This is, of course, not unique in today’s world of reboots and reimaginings. Though Flanagan’s film career began with original stories like 2011’s Absentia and the wonderfully inventive Oculus, his two most recent films—2017’s Gerald’s Game and 2019’s Doctor Sleep—are both based on novels by King. What separates these adaptations, though, is how willing Flanagan is to take risks as a storyteller, even as he mines pre-existing IP. His series use the stories of Henry James, Shirley Jackson, and Poe not so much as sacred texts, but as jumping off points, frames to be filled, raw materials to be repurposed. When he does adhere more closely to the source text, as he does on his two feature film adaptations of King, he is taking on thornier material than most would attempt. Making a sequel to The Shining, often considered the best horror movie ever, and taking on Gerald’s Game, a story many thought unfilmable in structure, are not projects for the faint of heart, yet Flanagan pulls them off (even receiving rousing support from King himself). 

It’s notable, though, that Midnight Mass, Flanagan’s 2021 vampiric tale of religion, redemption, and recovery—and the only wholly original series that Flanagan has ever made—is perhaps his best to date. It’s here that the themes that run through all of Flanagan’s work exist closest to the surface, perhaps unburdened a bit by the need to reference source material. Religion, namely Catholicism, is a through-line of some of the best horror stories ever told, and it makes sense. Guilt, faith, and wrestling with the unknown are rich veins to tap. Flanagan himself grew up Catholic and served as an altar boy for most of his childhood, and has clearly wrestled with those ingrained beliefs. “My feelings about religion were very complicated. I was fascinated, but angry,” he wrote in an essay for the horror publication Bloody Disgusting around the time of the release of Midnight Mass. “All of that is in the show… that feeling that we are alone in the cosmos, at war with the wish that we aren’t. The danger of moral certainty, the frailty of good intentions, and the defiant endurance of faith itself, even in the face of annihilation.” You could argue the ongoing battle between good and evil is the basis for all horror storytelling, but for Flanagan, those forces are not so easily separated. 

Another trope of horror that has, to my mind, become a bit of a storytelling crutch in recent years is the use of childhood trauma as metaphor. Flanagan does plenty of that in his stories, often braiding a character’s past and present as a way to tell two stories concurrently, but does so in a way that largely avoids the more mawkish tropes some filmmakers fall into. Rather than attempt to elevate his horror as a way to transcend the genre, Flanagan never fully loses sight of the fun inherent in horror, the need for jump scares and internal anguish, for dark figures in the dead of night and the dark corners of our own psyche. 

The Fall of the House of Usher is, in many ways, the end of an era for Flanagan, who recently signed a new overall deal with Amazon Studios. We’ll never know why exactly Flanagan and Netflix decided to part ways, but it surely wasn’t for a lack of success. When we look back, his work as showrunner for this collection of anthology miniseries will no doubt rank up there with some of the most impressive feats in horror storytelling this century. Not only has Flanagan created a style and palette all his own, but has given a whole new generation of horror fans an ample source for inspiration. Flanagan has talked about the importance of writers like R.L. Stine, Edgar Allen Poe, and Stephen King to his creative life and now, with The Fall of the House of Usher, Flanagan caps off a period that puts him in company with those very names. 

Sean Fennell’s work can be see in Flood Magazine, Alternative Press, Paste Magazine, and more. 

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