Every Mike Flanagan Netflix show ranked from worst to best, including 'The Fall of the House of Usher'
Netflix's "The Fall of the House of Usher" has been spooking viewers this month.
The series is Mike Flanagan's last for the streamer ahead of his new deal with Amazon Studios.
Insider has ranked all of Flanagan's Netflix shows, including "House of Usher," from worst to best.
5. "The Midnight Club" (2022)
Okay look, just because "The Midnight Club" has the most jump scares in an episode of television doesn't mean that it deserves the top spot. It follows a group of terminally ill teens in the Brightcliffe Hospice who meet up at midnight and swap spooky stories with one another.
It's a cool little premise that works well for the most part, but the pacing is way off, and it's missing the taut tension that Flanagan usually brings to the small screen.
The show adapts some of "The Midnight Club" books by Christopher Pike, but ten episodes might've been too many. Maybe if it was an eight-episode season, it would've landed better.
It's a shame because there's still plenty to enjoy — mainly in the dynamics between the teenagers – but it just doesn't have the same memorable impact as Flanagan's other shows.
4. "The Haunting of Bly Manor" (2020)
There are some who might be annoyed at "The Haunting of Bly Manor" being towards the bottom of the ranking, but stick with us on this one.
Make no mistake, Flanagan's 2020 series is a stunning drama that pulls on the heartstrings throughout with its story of Dani (Victoria Pedretti) and Jamie (Amelia Eve) grappling with grief and ghosts in the titular house. But compared to "The Haunting of Hill House," it's a little disappointing, largely because it doesn't have the same scariness with some of its ghosts.
Yes, the spirit of Edmund (Roby Attal) is creepy, and the faceless Lady in the Lake (Kate Siegel) has the occasional jumpy moment, but it feels like Flanagan eased off the spooks with "Bly Manor."
Maybe it's a victim of the hype machine because "Hill House" came first, which set the bar very high for what audiences should expect from Flanagan, and if the tables were turned then "Bly Manor" could've ended up higher in the ranking.
Again, it's still a beautifully tragic drama with some genuinely heartbreaking performances. T'Nia Miller and Rahul Kohli really shine when the focus occasionally drifts onto them, rather than Dani.
3. "The Fall of the House of Usher" (2023)
Flanagan's latest TV project, "The Fall of the House of Usher," weaves together elements from gothic short stories, poems, and novels written by Edgar Allan Poe, and folds them into an overarching plot which is taken from the author's short story of the same name.
The huge ensemble cast features many of Flanagan's most frequent collaborators like Kate Siegel, Rahul Kohli, Henry Thomas, Samantha Sloyan, and T'Nia Miller, and each of them get their chance to shine as every episode focuses on the downfall of one Usher sibling.
But the most impressive star in the show is Carla Gugino, who plays Verna, the mysterious entity who dismantles the Usher family one-by-one with a terrifying flair. It's so much fun to see Gugino weaponize Verna's charm to manipulate the entire family and toy with them before their respective gruesome deaths.
Flanagan makes sure there are some well-placed scares throughout the series, but it isn't as jumpy as some of his previous work. The creepy foreboding atmosphere works a treat, although it doesn't patch up the gaps in the middle of the series where the pacing drops the ball a little.
The talent of its cast, the ambitiousness of the story, and the overall execution of the show is impressive. But the horrendously gooey ending to episode two is what will go down in the horror history books.
2. "Midnight Mass" (2021)
Oh, "Midnight Mass," you twisted little beauty. The seven-episode miniseries is set on the fictional coastal community of Crockett Island as Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) returns home after killing a young woman while driving drunk.
At the same time, the island's church gets a mysterious new priest, Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater), who starts to perform minor miracles for his parish. The priest's so-called miracles actually come from a leathery, winged creature that he believes is an angel. Tell that to the hundreds of cats it butchers across the island.
Flanagan's shift from ghosts to a demonic creature is a welcome new string to his horrific bow, and the "angel" is so unsettling whenever it's onscreen. The scene where Father Hill reveals it to his congregation is so intimidating.
"Midnight Mass" also benefits from being intensely personal to Flanagan. The series examines what it's like to have a crisis of faith through Riley's return home, and how some can excuse even the most heinous acts of violence under the guise of religion. And most importantly, it also preaches that if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
1. "The Haunting of Hill House" (2018)
Flanagan's first Netflix series, "The Haunting of Hill House," is still his best work for the streamer. It's loosely adapted from the book of the same name by Shirley Jackson, and follows the Crain family as they reckon with the trauma of growing up in Hill House.
Patriarch Hugh Crain (Henry Thomas) and his wife, Olivia Crain (Carla Gugino), buy the old mansion and move their family into it. They end up fleeing the house in the middle of the night after enduring months of terror at the haunted property.
While the show could've easily fallen into a "monster-of-the-week" type show thanks to all the different ghosts in Hill House, Flanagan uses the impressive ensemble cast to tell a much bigger story about the effects of childhood trauma through a horror lens.
The series largely revolves around the mystery behind a particular ghost, the Bent-Neck Lady, and her tragic backstory. While the Netflix series is incredibly scary, the heartbreaking story is as devastating as it is horrifying.
Flanagan also delivers one of the best jump scares ever. Anyone who's seen it will know exactly which moment we're talking about. And if you haven't watched it yet, well, buckle up.
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