Mike Flanagan Says This Forgotten Stephen King Show Had 'A Major Impact' on Him

In the 20th century, Stephen King had his favorite director – Frank Darabont, who adapted The Mist, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.

In the 21st century, this title has passed to Mike Flanagan, whose collaboration with King began with the adaptation of Gerald's Game and has lasted for almost ten years now.

Even After 30 Years, Mike Flanagan Still Loves Stephen King's The Stand

It turns out that the recognized master of the horror genre fell in love with projects based on King's works 30 years ago, when he saw The Stand. In his review on Letterboxd, Flanagan confessed his love for this miniseries:

“I watched it over four nights as it aired, and it had a major impact on me. This was before "peak TV", [...] and it helped define what it meant to make a miniseries. [...] There is much about this miniseries that I loved thirty years ago, and will love always.”

And it seems that The Stand really had a big influence on the director – he himself has become something of a king of horror miniseries on Netflix, having made such gems as Midnight Mass, The Fall of the House of Usher and more.

What Is The Stand About?

There's a deadly virus leak at a secret base – the entire lab staff dies at their workstations. One of the guards miraculously escapes with his wife and child.

But even they cannot escape a terrible fate, as they become carriers of the infection, causing a terrible epidemic that kills thousands. Before he dies, the guard manages to tell of a mysterious man from whom there is no escape.

1994's The Stand Is Way Better Than the 2020 CBS Version

In 2020, another adaptation of The Stand was released – a limited series starring Whoopi Goldberg. The new series showed that this apocalypse story is too epic for the filmmakers – the CBS project received a crushing 25% from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes.

Thus, Mick Garris' limited series remains the most worthy adaptation of The Stand there has ever been – if you have already read the original and want to see it on the small screen, you should go back to the 1994 version, despite the outdated visual effects.

What Did Viewers & Critics Think of The Stand?

EW critic Ken Tucker said:

“The Stand itself isn't the perfect King adaptation, that doesn't really matter, because perfection isn't what a pop-culture omnivore like King aims for anyway. He's after glorious excess, and The Stand has that in spades.”

• The Stand has 70% from critics and 73% from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes.

• On IMDb, the series has a score of 7.1/10.