Mike Flanagan (born May 20, 1978)^[1][2] is an American filmmaker and partner in Intrepid Pictures. Flanagan is best known for his work in horror films and television series, which has attracted praise from Stephen King, Quentin Tarantino, and William Friedkin, among others, for his directing and lack of reliance on jump scares.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

Flanagan's films, all of which he directed, wrote, and edited, include Absentia (2011), Oculus (2013), Hush, Before I Wake, Ouija: Origin of Evil (all 2016), Gerald's Game (2017), and Doctor Sleep (2019). He also created, produced, and served as showrunner on the Netflix supernatural horror anthology series The Haunting, which consists of The Haunting of Hill House (2018), a season based on Shirley Jackson's novel of the same name,^[8] and The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020), a season based on the horror novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, both of which he has directed, written, and edited episodes. Flanagan also created and directed the Netflix horror miniseries Midnight Mass (2021), The Midnight Club (2022), and The Fall of the House of Usher (2023).

Flanagan is married to actress Kate Siegel, who has been featured in most of his works since Oculus. They also wrote the screenplay of Hush together. Other frequent collaborators of Flanagan's include Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas, T'Nia Miller, Samantha Sloyan, Rahul Kohli, Bruce Greenwood, Zach Gilford, Robert Longstreet, Michael Trucco, Annalise Basso, Lulu Wilson, Annabeth Gish, Igby Rigney and Alex Essoe, among others.^[9]

Early life

Flanagan was born in 1978 in Salem, Massachusetts. His father was in the United States Coast Guard, and the family moved around often. Although he only briefly lived in Salem, it left an impression on him, and Flanagan retained an abiding interest in both the Salem witch trials and associated topics, such as ghost stories and horror fiction. Flanagan eventually ended up in Maryland, where he was a student at Archbishop Spalding High School and later attended Towson University.^[2] He graduated with a BA in Electronic Media & Film and a minor in theater.^[10]

Career

Flanagan's student films were more oriented toward melodrama. He later characterized them as "unfit for public consumption" but called them "incredible learning experiences".^[2] After graduating, he directed Ghosts of Hamilton Street (2003), filmed in Maryland with local actors,^[11] including Scott Graham, whom Flanagan met at Towson. Graham would go on to star in Flanagan's 2006 short film, Oculus: Chapter 3 – The Man with the Plan, which he made for $1500.^[10]

Flanagan originally intended for the Oculus story to be told in a series of short films, but he could not find the financing. Instead, he shot the chapter that included a back story and used that to demonstrate that he could direct a horror film. The short proved popular at film festivals, and producers were interested in developing the concept. However, they either wanted to shoot it as a found footage film or rejected Flanagan's stipulation that he direct the feature-length adaptation. Flanagan directed Absentia (2011), which was financed through a Kickstarter campaign, in response to this rejection.^[2] Made for $70,000 and filmed in his Glendale, California, apartment, Absentia was released direct-to-video but gained popularity when Netflix offered it on its streaming service.^[12] After its surprise success, Flanagan continued to shop Oculus around. Intrepid Pictures took an interest in the concept and agreed to let Flanagan direct. The feature version of Oculus was filmed in 2012 and released theatrically by Relativity Media in 2014.^[13]

Flanagan shot his next film, Before I Wake, in 2013. It was acquired by Relativity Media in 2014 and was originally scheduled for release on May 8, 2015, but was pushed back to September 25, 2015 and later pulled from the schedule entirely when the company filed for bankruptcy. After a year in bankruptcy court, Relativity announced that Before I Wake would be released on April 8, 2016, but missed that date did not release the film as the company struggled to get back on its feet.^[14] The film was then scheduled for September 9, 2016, but three weeks ahead of this release Relativity once again pulled the film, prompting a public argument between Flanagan and Relativity CEO Ryan Kavanaugh on Twitter. Kavanaugh claimed September 9 was a "bad date," while Flanagan suggested that Relativity wasn't financially able to release the film.^[15] Relativity never did release the film, as Kavanaugh sold Relativity to Singapore-based social networking platform YuuZoo in October 2016.^[16] Netflix eventually acquired the rights and released the film in January 2018.^[17]

Flanagan wrote and directed Ouija: Origin of Evil, which starred Elizabeth Reaser, Henry Thomas, and Annalise Basso.^[18] Production began in September 2015, and the film was released in October 2016, grossing over $81 million worldwide.^[19] Around the same time, it was revealed that Flanagan had been working on a "secret project" called Hush. Written in 2014 and filmed in March 2015, the project was kept confidential until a screening at the Toronto Film Festival.^[20] Written by Flanagan and lead actress Kate Siegel, and also starring John Gallagher Jr., Michael Trucco, and Samantha Sloyan, the film had its world premiere at SXSW in March 2016 and was released exclusively on Netflix on April 8, 2016 to positive reviews. In 2017 Flanagan directed, wrote, and edited the psychological horror film Gerald's Game, based on the 1992 novel of the same title by Stephen King. The film was released on Netflix on September 29, 2017 to critical acclaim.^[21] King called the film "hypnotic, horrifying and terrific" after watching the rough cut.^[22]

In 2018, Flanagan created, wrote, directed, produced, and edited the Netflix supernatural horror series The Haunting of Hill House, based on Shirley Jackson's novel of the same name.^[8] In 2019, Flanagan wrote and directed the horror film Doctor Sleep, based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King, itself the sequel to his previous novel The Shining. Ewan McGregor stars as the older version of Danny Torrance in the film, which was released in November.^[23][24] In February 2019, The Haunting of Hill House was renewed for a stand-alone second season, titled The Haunting of Bly Manor, based on the novel The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.^[25] It premiered in 2020.^[26] Around the same time, it was also announced that Flanagan had joined frequent collaborator Trevor Macy as a partner in Intrepid Pictures and that the duo had signed an exclusive overall deal with Netflix to produce television content.^[27]

In July 2019, as part of that overall deal, Netflix ordered Flanagan's original horror series Midnight Mass.^[28] Flanagan wrote, directed and served as showrunner on the seven-episode series, which was released in September 2021 to critical acclaim after a production delay in 2020 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.^[29]

In May 2020 it was announced that Flanagan would adapt numerous novels by Christopher Pike into a new series, titled The Midnight Club, for Netflix. Flanagan co-created the series and serves as executive producer and showrunner.^[30]

In October 2021 it was announced that Flanagan would create The Fall of the House of Usher, an eight-episode limited series for Netflix based on the short story of the same name and other works by Edgar Allan Poe. Flanagan directed four episodes of the series, with the other four helmed by his longtime cinematographer Michael Fimognari.^[31]

Upcoming projects

In April 2021, Flanagan was announced to be developing a film for Universal Pictures based on another Christopher Pike novel The Season of Passage.^[32] In December 2022, Flanagan and his partner production company, Intrepid Pictures signed a first-look overall TV deal with Amazon Studios. Flanagan also owns the television rights to The Dark Tower, a series of fantasy novels written by Stephen King.^[33]

In May 2023, it was announced that Flanagan would adapt King's drama novella The Life of Chuck from the short story collection If It Bleeds into a feature film starring Tom Hiddleston and Mark Hamill.^[34]

Personal life

Flanagan was formerly in a relationship with Absentia actress Courtney Bell, with whom he has a son.^[35] Since February 2016, he has been married to actress Kate Siegel, with whom he has two children, one son and one daughter.^[36][35][37]

Flanagan spent years studying various religions. He described Midnight Mass as a passion project, one that was "deeply personal" and dealt intimately with Flanagan's upbringing in the Catholic Church, and his eventual sobriety and atheism.^[38] His father served in the Coast Guard, during which the family lived on Governors Island.^[39]

Filmography

Feature films

Other credits

Student and short films

Television

Editor only

Frequent collaborators

Flanagan is known for his recurring collaborations with certain actors.^{[41][42][43][44][45][46]} When asked about this tendency, and the recurring collaborator section on his Wikipedia page, he described such collaboration (including having other directors on his shows) as being "something that’s very necessary as our company has grown and as our shows have grown". Of career-long DP Michael Fimognari, along with directors Axelle Carolyn and Morgan Beggs he said "I trust those people with my life".^[47]