Stephen King might be the master of horror, but when it comes to freaky streaming shows, Mike Flanagan is royalty. Like, the crown prince of spooks or something.
While he's done his share of scary movies – from "Doctor Sleep" to Netflix's "Gerard's Game" – the writer/director has also made a cottage industry out of creating creepy series great for a Halloween binge. These shows in the "Flanaverse" boast a repertory company of actors and usually some sort of literary influence: For example, Flanagan's adapted the classic King novel with his latest, "Carrie." But while it's fun to visit the Flanaverse, you wouldn't want to live there. Most of its residents die and become ghosts, ghouls, or vampires, though often very artfully.
Whether you're a superfan
digging into "Carrie" or need to catch up on all the previous series first, here are Flanagan's six streaming horror series, ranked:
6. 'The Midnight Club' (2022)
Based on Christopher Pike's 2004 young-adult novel (and other Pike stories), the mystery series centers on a young woman named Ilonka (Iman Benson), who's placed into hospice with thyroid cancer. She joins a group of other terminally ill teens who secretly meet at midnight to tell scary tales (and reveal their backstories) while unearthing secrets of the place's dark history. More emotional than terrifying, "Club" ended up canceled with a ton of hanging plot threads, but brought horror icon Heather Langenkamp ("A Nightmare on Elm Street") back to the genre and made Irish standout Ruth Codd a new member of the Flanaverse regulars.
Where to watch: Netflix
5. 'Carrie' (2026)
Flanagan's trenchant adaptation of King's 1974 coming-of-age novel brings the title character (played by the excellent Summer H. Howell) into the social-media generation. After her father's death, Carrie is sent to public high school by social services – much to the horror of her religious, overprotective mom (Samantha Sloyan) – and the kid navigates the highs and lows of young adulthood, struggling with mean-girl bullies, active shooter drills and her nascent telekinetic powers. Flanagan expands the scope of the King story with a host of beleaguered characters, plus adds a mysterious new element to the mythology as well. But the updated take on that prom scene is still fire, the climax to a remake eerie in its timeliness.
Where to watch: Prime Video
4. 'The Fall of the House of Usher' (2023)
Powerful siblings Roderick (Bruce Greenwood) and Madeline Usher (Mary McDonnell) run a corrupt pharmaceutical corporation, and just as the law comes for them, so does something supernatural. Roderick comes clean with a police investigator (Carl Lumbly) about the strange deaths of his six heirs – told through modern reimaginings of Edgar Allan Poe tales like "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Black Cat" – as well as the Ushers' auspicious rise back in the day and how a mysterious raven-haired woman (Carla Gugino) plays a role in both past and present. Flanagan really embraces his horror roots with some seriously gory scenes (including one gnarly sequence involving acid and a rave) and brings Poe back to pop culture in a major way.
Where to watch: Netflix
3. 'The Haunting of Hill House' (2018)
The supernatural family drama is a loose adaptation of Shirley Jackson's 1959 book – an all-timer of a ghost story – that takes place over two timelines. In the 1990s, Hugh (Henry Thomas) and Olivia Crain (Gugino) moved their five kids into a fixer-upper mansion. But in the process of flipping it, they find it's full of all kinds of paranormal weirdness (like the Bent-Neck Lady!) and end up fleeing the place in the dead of night. Decades later, the estranged siblings and their dad (now played by Timothy Hutton) are still processing what happened when a tragedy brings them back together. And the series lives up to that "haunting" part: One intricately crafted episode set in a funeral home will chill you to the bone.
Where to watch: Netflix
2. 'The Haunting of Bly Manor' (2020)
Victoria Pedretti, who stars in the most frightening "Hill House" scene, follows up that performance with a lead role in this 1980s-set gothic retooling of Henry James' works (most notably the 1898 novella "The Turn of the Screw"). Dani (Pedretti) is a young American hired as a governess for a pair of orphaned British kids, and she moves to a grand family estate in the English countryside. She becomes fast friends with the housekeeper (T’Nia Miller), chef (Rahul Kohli) and groundskeeper (Amelia Eve) while faced with phantom apparitions and dark figures (including a faceless Lady of the Lake). Through many twists and creepy turns, "Bly Manor" winds up a harrowing yet surprisingly heartfelt story about ghosts, love and ghosts who fall in love.
Where to watch: Netflix
1. 'Midnight Mass' (2021)
Flanagan's masterwork about religion, addiction and redemption is also his most original effort, though there is still some literary inspiration: the Bible. Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) returns to his island community home after losing his faith while serving four years in jail for killing a woman in a drunk-driving accident. This black sheep's arrival coincides with that of the new priest Father Paul (Hamish Linklater), and a rash of miracles and supernatural incidents spark a holy revival, though there is definitely a darkness enveloping the isolated place. "Mass" is a soulful blend of what Flanagan does best, blending emotional gravitas with sheer terror, and it also intriguingly reinvents a classic monster archetype.
Where to watch: Netflix
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Every Mike Flanagan horror series, ranked – From 'Carrie' to 'Midnight Mass'
