All 5 Mike Flanagan Horror TV Shows, Ranked

At this point, we can pretty much confirm that Netflix and Mike Flanagan are a match made in heaven. The successful director has proven to have a flair for horror shows that combine genuine scares with deeper emotional themes, as we can see from the extremely consistent output he's had in collaboration with Netflix. Often adapting his work from classic horror stories, each of his shows is a gem, and even the weakest among them is head and shoulders above most of their competitors. 

So how we sort the best from the only slightly less good? Well, it's a highly technical procedure of combining critical response with our own authorial judgment. But put together, these sources have led us to our definitive ranking of all the horror series Mike Flanagan has made with Netflix, so you can enjoy all of his creepy little stories to your heart's content. And after you're done watching, you've got Flanagan's new deal with Amazon, where he'll be adapting Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" and "Carrie," to look forward to.

• Cast: Bruce Greenwood, Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas
• Episode Count: 8
• Year: 2023
• Where to Watch: Netflix

Based on the eerie Edgar Allan Poe short story of the same name, "The Fall of the House of Usher" is the latest adaptation of a family that seems to have a deep generational rot to it. The characters have names that are homages to different works by Poe, and that's not where the illusions end — although the framing device is primarily influenced by the title piece, it also borrows liberally from other stories by the master horror writer. 

Relying heavily on his stalwart ensemble cast of familiar regulars, including Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas, Rahul Kohli, Kate Siegel, and several others, Flanagan builds a damning case against the existence of the billionaire cast. But although it's a compelling character drama as well as an effective horror series, there's something about "The Fall of the House of Usher" that feels as though it's stretched a bit too thin, or that Flanagan has pulled from too many different ideas to do justice to them all.

• Cast: Iman Benson, Igby Rigney, Ruth Codd
• Episode Count: 10
• Year: 2022
• Where to Watch: Netflix

"The Midnight Club" isn't Mike Flanagan's best-known show on Netflix, but it has a charm all its own. Based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Pike, who along with R.L. Stine basically cornered the market on preteen and teen horror in the '90s, "The Midnight Club" revolves around a group of terminally ill kids who gather together to tell each other scary stories every night. Basically like a really depressing version of "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" meets "Stranger Things."

The focus of the series is on the stories that the teens tell, but there's also a lingering melancholy that underlies the relationship between the characters themselves — they have a pact that whichever one of them dies first will attempt to communicate with the rest of the group as a spirit. With characters who are easy for the audience to sympathize with and plenty of scary, disturbing moments, "The Midnight Club" is an endearing exercise in YA horror, even if it doesn't quite reach the heights of some of Flanagan's other series.

• Cast: Victoria Pedretti, Henry Thomas, Amelia Eve
• Episode Count: 9
• Year: 2020
• Where to Watch: Netflix

In the immediate aftermath of "The Haunting of Hill House," expectations were high for its spiritual successor, "The Haunting of Bly Manor." And although the latter doesn't quite reach the heights of the original series, it's still an eerie yet delicate slice of gothic television. Victoria Pedretti stars as Dani, a young American woman in the 1980s who takes on the job of nanny at a remote English estate. The role is an isolated one, but she has her own reasons for wanting to get away from the world. 

Still, Bly Manor is undeniably strange, as are her two young charges, all with their own secrets frightened of being discovered. Based on Henry James' novella "The Turn of the Screw," "The Haunting of Bly Manor" has atmosphere to spare, although the story sometimes becomes a little too muddled for its own good. It may not be the very best production that Mike Flanagan has put out, but the stunning cinematography and top-notch ensemble cast make it still worth watching.

• Cast: Zach Gilford, Hamish Linklater, Kate Siegel
• Episode Count: 7
• Year: 2021
• Where to Watch: Netflix

On the surface, "Midnight Mass" could be accused of being just another vampire story. But lurking underneath is something much more potent, a meditation on grief and regret and the ways in which we fight to be worthy of the best versions of ourselves. Mike Flanagan himself acknowledges that "Midnight Mass" is one of his most personal stories. It stars Zach Gilford as Riley Flynn, a young man who fled his isolated island home after high school to become a successful financier, only to have his life come crashing down after killing a woman while driving under the influence. Returning home after years in prison, he's uncertain of himself and his place in the world. 

But his home is not quite the place he left, with a mysterious new priest in town (Hamish Linklater) turning the devout into fanatics and the ambivalent into regular churchgoers. And what lurks beneath this newfound piety is darker and more malevolent than he ever could have imagined. "Midnight Mass" is a slow burn of a horror drama, one that trusts its audience to stick with it to be rewarded, and its gamble pays off — by the end of the series, we find ourselves thoroughly under its spell. And it received praise from none other than Stephen King, and if that's not a shining endorsement of its horror credentials, we don't know what is.

• Cast: Michiel Huisman, Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas
• Episode Count: 10
• Year: 2018
• Where to Watch: Netflix

Of all of Mike Flanagan's Netflix horror productions, "The Haunting of Hill House" is the one that made the biggest impact. Based on the novel by Shirley Jackson, this classic haunted house series tells the story of the Crain family, whose lives have been haunted by their experiences at Hill House. The malevolent energy of the house is inescapable, even decades after they last set foot within its walls. But when an unspeakable tragedy occurs, the Crain children are forced to confront their trauma head-on.

"The Haunting of Hill House" features an excellent cast of actors portraying both the younger and older versions of the Crains, each entirely believable as members of a family that has been put through the wringer, and who have extremely complicated relationships as a result. But the real star of the show is Hill House itself — or rather, how Flanagan depicts it as a living, breathing entity that exists solely to make its inhabitants suffer. And if your heart doesn't jump into your throat whenever the Broke Neck Lady appears, you've got ice running through your veins.