Everyone can appreciate classic horror movies like “Scream,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Chucky.” But I often find that modern horror never fully hits the spot for me. Sure, I enjoyed “The Exorcist” and “Insidious,” but if one person really does horror the best, it’s Mike Flanagan.
The first series I watched was “The Haunting of Hill House.” Now, for some of my readers, horror might not be your thing, and I understand. But what I love about his shows is that they’re not just horror. They’re stories. You might get a few jump scares or gore, but all of them add to the story. It’s never just random scares.
“The Haunting of Hill House” takes place across two timelines and follows the Crain family.
In 1992, the Crain family moved into a home to renovate it. At the time, the children experience strange paranormal activity in the house, from doors that never seem to open to frequent nightmares and ghosts. The second timeline follows the siblings as adults, trying to make sense of what happened in the house, and memories are brought back after tragedies. The show explores mental health, suicide, family relationships, forgiveness and moving on after grief.
Not to mention the show has one of the arguably best quotes in TV history:
“Forgiveness is warm. Like a tear on a cheek. Think of that and of me when you stand in the rain. I loved you completely. And you loved me the same. That’s all. The rest is confetti.”
I don’t want to go too deep into spoilers, but if you’re going to watch any Mike Flanagan show first on Netflix, I would recommend this one.
Another amazing show by him is “Midnight Mass.” Again, it has elements of horror, but it also has fantasy elements of vampires and demons.
This show follows the members of Crockett Island, a small, dying fishing community. The town’s elderly priest goes on a sabbatical and doesn’t return due to his health, so a young, charismatic and quite handsome priest steps in for the time being.
Slowly, the town begins to experience inexplicable miracles. The show also explores the role of religion. Crockett Island has a Muslim police officer who is quite skeptical of these miracles, and his son, who seems to be swayed by this revival. It examines how far people are willing to go when following and obeying orders in the name of Christianity.
One character, Beverly, played by Samantha Sloyan, absolutely nails her role. I have never hated a character more than her. Samantha Sloyan also appears in the new “Carrie” adaptation.
I think that’s another thing I love about Mike Flanagan: He uses the same actors. So even though a series ends, usually after no more than 10 episodes, the same faces keep coming back in new roles. I haven’t watched a series of his that I wasn’t a fan of; honorable shout-out to “The Midnight Club” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
I’m also yet to watch “Carrie” on Amazon, but the show has an 85% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has already been renewed for a second season.
For Flanagan’s movies, I haven’t watched many of them, but I have seen the first 40 minutes of “The Life of Chuck,” and I mean, I was obsessed. But I couldn’t finish it, nor do I want to. Whatever the ending is, I know it will disappoint me.
From what I gathered, a man named Chuck is dying, and we see bits of his life, but the rest of the world is ending as well, almost like an apocalypse. The only thing people seem to be aware of is that they keep seeing posters saying, “Thanks, Chuck,” without any context.
I’m OK with not knowing the ending because, from the 40 minutes I watched, I decided that Chuck has a world inside him. We all do. We’re all our own walking planets, filled with the people who shape us. And when we begin to die, they die with us. Their world is ending, too.
I could be completely wrong, but I like my idea better.
