Every Mike Flanagan Netflix show, definitively ranked from worst to best

Mike Flanagan is a modern day horror auteur. Like his contemporaries Ari Aster and Jordan Peele, his name has become synonymous with the genre as a reliable man to call for fresh and original horror. Nowhere has received as much work of Flanagan’s than Netflix. Over the last decade, Mike Flanagan has released a horde of horror on the streaming service, but has gained most success and mainstream notoriety for his horror series – of which there are now five. With the dust settling on the latest, The Fall of the House of Usher, and with myself as a huge genre and Flanagan fan, here are all the Netflix Mike Flanagan shows definitively ranked.

5. The Midnight Club

I think I’d have really enjoyed this if I was 12. If that feels a bit shady and mean spirited, I would say that’s kind of intentional. A real lack of solid performances and an uninteresting premise make The Midnight Club never feel like it hits flight. It feels like Mike Flanagan has decided to make a dark Nickelodeon show. Not as many Flanaverse regulars in the cast, an unspooky feel to it all. A bit of a miss.

4. The Haunting of Bly Manor

Huge shoes to fill for The Haunting of Bly Manor, and to say it didn’t manage to fill them is the biggest understatement of the century. Nothing about Bly Manor kicks in the way it should – the characters are annoying, the acting isn’t as good and the family drama at the heart of it has nothing on its predecessor. Flanagan gives his adaptation of The Turning of the Screw his all, and Victoria Pedretti is admittedly great, but it pales in comparison to the other show it shares half a name with.

3. The Fall of the House of Usher

The latest of all the Netflix Mike Flanagan shows ranked here, and the final – as Flanagan’s contract with Netflix comes to an end, is a mixed bag, but ambitious. The Fall of the House of Usher chucks Edgar Allen Poe at Succession, and it’s got a flair for the weird, the sadistic and the downright explicit. Some of the tales of how the Usher children met their demise are thrilling, and others less so. It adapts the Poe short stories with a love for them and with originality, but meanders a bit and is a bit too campy to be truly scary often.

Carla Gugino is amazing, as always. Less amazing is Rahul Kohli, who seemingly forgot how to act for this one. I’m normally a huge fan but his role here is super jarring and doesn’t suit him as an actor at all. Kate Siegel should have been killed off later because I missed her character so much as the episodes went on.

2. Midnight Mass

The most underrated of all the Mike Flanagan shows ranked here, Midnight Mass hit Netflix abruptly and didn’t seem to make the same bang as the ones before it. A huge shame, considering this is one of the freshest and most fully realised of all Flanagan’s work. The premise is instantly engaging – an isolated island with secrets, and a charismatic priest who has found something terrible that he believes is an angel. The carnage, the brutality, the claustrophobia of the island – all works perfectly. The cast smash it out the park, too.

I also just LOVE that Kate Siegel, who plays Erin, also played the lead role in Mike Flanagan’s film Hush. That character was a writer, and the author of a book called Midnight Mass. Cherish that. I think it’s very telling that the top two Flanagan shows are the ones where Mike directed every episode. For Midnight Mass, he directed, wrote, produced and edited all seven episodes. It was a passion project for him, and it shows. Rewatch it.

1. The Haunting of Hill House

Where to begin with The Haunting of Hill House, honestly. It truly is a genre masterpiece. In my opinion, it’s the greatest horror film or show of the 2010s, without question. It’s just really, really special. But what makes it so? It strikes the genius balance of extremely emotional family drama with uncompromising terror. The Haunting of Hill House is truly scary. It features some of the most unsettling spooks and most unexpected and well timed jump scares of pretty much any horror I can think of. This would all be fine and dandy, but it’s the cast and the Cranes who elevate this show to another dimension of great. Whether you’re in the past with what they went through in Hill House or in the present, where the family is fractured and still trying to cope – you’re in the palm of their hands you’re that invested. This show will break you into pieces but make you thank the lord it was ever made. A horror masterclass.T

All of the Mike Flanagan shows ranked here are available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.

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