5 Best Mike Flanagan Horror Movies & TV Shows to Watch While Waiting for The Dark Tower
The director and his work are loved by horror fans, critics, Stephen King, and filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and William Friedkin.
In a dozen years, Mike Flanagan has had a fantastic career, starting with movies made for pennies, going on to become one of the main stars of modern horror, making a sequel to The Shining, and adapting Stephen King. What's next?
His next project is another King adaptation – this time The Dark Tower. To make the wait easier and more exciting, we suggest you prepare and explore the director's best works.
1. The Fall of the House of Usher, 2023
Roderick Usher owns a pharmaceutical business with his sister. Each of his six children either works for their father or has their own business. But suddenly, within a week, all of Roderick's sons and daughters die, allegedly in accidents.
After the funeral, Usher invites a prosecutor who has been trying to prove the family's connection to many crimes. The businessman promises to confess to all violations of the law, including murder. But he tells such strange things that it is hard to believe.
The series became an adaptation of the story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe, but with minor changes. Flanagan not only found the opportunity to add other works by Poe to the adaptation, but also moved the action to the present day.
2. Doctor Sleep, 2019
We all remember when young Danny Torrance was confronted with the horrors of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining and witnessed his father's madness. Many years later, he has not recovered from the shock and tries in every way to heal his traumatized consciousness.
One day he meets another woman with the same gift as him, and she needs his help to escape from a group of hunters who feed on children with psychic abilities.
Doctor Sleep is both a fascinating road movie full of chases and pursuits, and a psychotherapeutic drama about acceptance and how pain makes us who we are.
3. Midnight Mass, 2021
The son of a fisherman, Riley, returns to the island. The man has a history of alcoholism, drunk driving, murder, and prison. His godless life has led him to exile from home and the loss of his future.
But he won't find faith in his native land: even though the only entertainment for the locals is Sunday church, there is no trace of God in these lands.
In a quiet place that is frightening not with screams and blood, but with the viscous atmosphere, Mike Flanagan explores the topic of faith and fanaticism and how close these concepts are to each other.
4. The Haunting of Hill House, 2020
The story of the Crain family unfolds in two time periods – in the early 90s, when they lost their mother, and in the present, when they try to remember how it really happened, while living with a bag of childhood traumas.
Mike Flanagan managed to adapt the original source into a technically flawless masterpiece about fighting inner demons and accepting yourself regardless of the number of wrong decisions you made.
5. Oculus, 2013
In 2013, Mike Flanagan did his best to change our attitude towards antique mirrors forever. His movie is about a mirror of unknown origin that possesses supernatural powers.
Anyone who encounters it experiences powerful hallucinations and begins to show a tendency toward manic behavior and violence. The Russell family begin to have serious feuds with each other under the influence of the mysterious mirror.
The movie takes place simultaneously in the present and 11 years ago, which allows the plot to take the most unexpected turns.