Mike Flanagan: The Man Who Perfected Horror Anthology

2026 has proven to be a great year for horror buffs thus far, with recent film releases such as Backrooms, Hokum, and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple all receiving high praise from critics and audiences alike. Alongside these films, however, is a catalogue of horror anthology series, both recent and past, that pack even more of a punch in terms of scares and story.

Horror TV series have come a long way since the days of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with The Walking Dead and American Horror Story (both released in the early 2010s) allowing the genre to shine as a TV staple. As we began to move from cable TV to streaming services, horror quickly followed suit, and director Mike Flanagan stepped up to show audiences just how powerful horror can be as a tool for good storytelling.

Flanagan began his career by writing and directing various low-budget horror films, such as Absentia (2011) and Oculus (2013), both of which remained largely unknown yet received positive reviews from critics. In 2015, Flanagan was chosen by Jason Blum to direct Ouija: Origin of Evil(2016), and the prequel quickly became the highest-rated film out of the Ouija series, with critic Katie Rife describing it as “better in every conceivable way”.

A couple of years later, Flanagan would switch directions from films to TV and, in 2018, released his most well-known piece of media: The Haunting of Hill House. With a rating of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.6 out of 10 on IMDb, The Haunting of Hill House redefined the horror anthology genre by relying less on jump scares and more on using supernatural horror to explore the complexities of familial relationships and generational trauma. Flanagan achieved the perfect balance of horror and storytelling as the story allows audiences to connect with the characters in a far deeper way, and the tense build-up to the scares is often just as rewarding as the scares themselves. What makes The Haunting of Hill House so effective is that there is not a single wasted shot. Everything in Flanagan’s shows is meticulously planned out, no fluff or filler, just a wonderfully dark look into the life of a family torn apart by grief.

In 2020, Flanagan released The Haunting of Bly Manor, a show with a similar cast and concept to Hill House but with an entirely new story and creative plot twists, which garnered just as much attention and praise as Hill House. Between 2020 and 2026, Flanagan released three more series for Netflix, with the most recent being The Fall of the House of Usher, an adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story of the same name. Although most of his shows feature the same cast of actors, the contrasting plots and innovative storytelling leave each show feeling new and engaging. The Fall of the House of Usher in particular features a new style, with each episode being centred around a different member of the Usher family and their eventual demise.

Mike Flanagan’s fresh perspective and creative ideas have cultivated a new type of horror, one that feels fresh, emotional, and genuinely terrifying. His insistence on focusing the horror around the story, rather than the other way around, creates a truly immersive viewing experience that allows you to feel just as invested in the story as the characters you’re watching. Flanagan’s take on horror is one that will leave you on the edge of your seat, and cements him as a pivotal figure within the horror sphere.