Every Mike Flanagan TV Series, Ranked

Haunted family dramas, creeping dread, and gothic twists collide

Mike Flanagan is certainly having a moment this year. After the success of Prime Video's Carrie — and its season two renewal — more eyes are on him and his works than ever before. Luckily, he has a fairly solid backlog of TV shows and films for viewers to peruse. In fact, hardly anybody is creating consistent, high-quality horror for film and television like Flanagan is.

One of the strongest traits of his work is how much it speaks to the human condition, and how well he is able to weave the horror elements into those stories. It's also just a fact that Flanagan hasn't worked on a "bad" show. Each new one has brought a different flavor of grief, connection, and just straight-up horror. From haunted houses and familial trauma to existential supernatural drama, Flanagan has made a name for himself within the genre.

6. The Midnight Club (2022)

Based on Christopher Pike's YA novel, The Midnight Club follows a group of terminally ill teenagers in a hospice manor who meet after dark to share spooky tales, much like a modern Are You Afraid of the Dark? Co-created with Leah Fong, The Midnight Club is a deviation from Flanagan's normal form. Originally designed to be a continuing series, Netflix unfortunately canceled it after one season, denying any hopes of a natural conclusion for the story.

Even with an open ending, there is a lot to enjoy about The Midnight Club. Because of their structure as stories within a story, the tales that these kids tell can range from spooky to sci-fi, which is more than enough to keep viewers' attention. This also allowed Flanagan to adapt more of Pike's other stories. Though the unfortunate endgame of the manor is death, The Midnight Club still reminds viewers that there is life worth living, even with the clock ticking down.

5. Carrie (2026)

While Flanagan is no stranger to adapting Stephen King's works at this point, Carrie was the first time that he had adapted one for television. The expansion into a miniseries allowed for further exploration into the story, and it also gave Flanagan more room to make necessary changes. The decision to adapt it into modern-day high school is certainly one of them, but the series gave Flanagan room to flesh out elements that film runtimes don't allow.

When Carrie White's (Summer H. Howell) overbearing father dies, Carrie is placed into public school for the first time. This decision leads to a catastrophic destruction of the town, as well as the deaths of many of her classmates. This is the story of Carrie that most know; Flanagan uses the time allotted in a series to expand her world further. One major change is the humanization of Carrie's mother, Margaret (Samantha Sloyan). With season two officially coming, fans are eager to see how the dominoes Flanagan set up in the season one finale will fall.

4. The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)

The Haunting of Bly Manor is based on Henry James's novella "The Turn of the Screw," adapted for a 1980s timeframe. Though the show has the usual haunted elements viewers have come to expect, they merely serve as a backdrop for queer romance, in what is probably Flanagan's most heartfelt show to date. When au pair Dani (Victoria Pedretti) arrives at Bly Manor, where she is going to be looking after two orphaned children, she quickly finds out that the manor is home to more than just the living.

Dani and Jamie's (Amelia Eve) romance takes center stage, but the show also has a special way of touching on regret and loss that really leaves a mark. The relationship between Hannah (T'Nia Miller) and Owen (Rahul Kohli) especially touches on missed chances and what could have been. While there are scares in The Haunting of Bly Manor, the scariest part of it is definitely how lonely the absence of love can be.

3. The Haunting of Hill House (2018)

Based on Shirley Jackson's book of the same name, The Haunting of Hill House was Flanagan's first foray into Netflix. The show follows the Crain siblings, who suffered unimaginable trauma as children when their mother (Carla Gugino) took her life at Hill House. The lasting effects of that trauma molded the children into who they are as adults, each with a different recollection of their youth. It isn't until they all meet up again that they begin confronting that past, questioning everything they thought they knew.

The movement between past and present is handled masterfully, and is the reason why the payoff for this series is so high. As we watch each sibling, we know just how they're going to end up. That foreboding and anguish, as well as the pemature grief viewers get, make the siblings' stories linger long after the series ends, and it's one of the reasons it's a show that can benefit from a repeat watch.

2. The Fall of the House of Usher (2023)

Flanagan uses his final Netflix series to turn the tales and poems of Edgar Allan Poe into a gruesome story of a failing pharmaceutical empire and the rotten family behind it, the Ushers. In fact, there isn't really anything redeemable whatsoever about any member of this family, which is why it's difficult to feel bad for them as a supernatural force begins picking them off one by one. If there ever was a chance to root for the demise of others, this is it.

The series also has one of Flanagan's grisliest scenes in "The Masque of the Red Death," which is an episode best avoided if you can't stomach certain things. While each episode is a different Poe story, the connecting thread is that each child must pay for the transgressions of their father, Roderick (Bruce Greenwood). The Fall of the House of Usher brings with it a sort of vicious joy at watching the crumpling of the Ushers while also featuring Kohli, Mark Hamill, and Gugino in some of their best performances in a show that even Stephen King has praised.

1. Midnight Mass (2021)

When Father Paul (Hamish Linklater), a charming young priest, shows up to the small, isolated community of Crockett Island, he brings not only what appear to be miracles, but also something more dangerous than anyone on the island can comprehend. With Flanagan's other works on this list being adaptations, Midnight Mass stands out as his only original material. The balance it creates between humanity and the supernatural is magnificent, allowing for exploration of themes such as faith, addiction, and loss.

Midnight Mass is up at the top for a reason. Riley (Zach GIlford) retreats to Crockett Island after four years in jail, where he was imprisoned for killing somebody while drunk driving. As the residents start to question Father Paul's miracles, they also begin questioning their own faith and the lengths they will go in order to believe. The story itself is a slow-burn, but the payoff is worth it for a wholly original vampire tale.