Ranking Mike Flanagan's Netflix Horrors, From The Haunting of Hill House to The Fall of the House of Usher

Throughout Mike Flanagan's five-year-long partnership with Netflix, one thing has become clear: Flanagan doesn't make a bad show. The horror maestro – known for directing movies like Hush, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and Doctor Sleep – has developed a particular knack for television. His episodic, character-driven storytelling lends itself to the medium, proven time and time again since The Haunting of Hill House first premiered in 2018. Rooted in gothic horror and often based on classic works of literature, each series is a study in the many ways a person can be haunted. Familial trauma, addiction, regret, belief, and profound love in the face of horror define Flanagan's works and provide a roadmap for each endeavor. He also benefits from the easy familiarity and professional shorthand that comes with working with the same group of people for several years (Mike Flanagan's Repertory Players, if you will), which includes memorable performances from Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas, Kate Siegel, Samantha Sloyan, Annabeth Gish, and Rahul Kohli, among others. 

With the release of The Fall of the House of Usher, Flanagan's last show with Netflix before he pivots to a new deal with Amazon Prime Video, we figured that it's the right time to take stock of the five horror series he has released under the streaming giant's banner. From The Haunting of Hill House to The Fall of the House of Usher, here is the definitive ranking of every Mike Flanagan show.

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5. The Midnight Club (2022)

Definitely the inferior show compared to its counterparts, The Midnight Club still has lots to love. Set at the Brightcliffe hospice center outside of Seattle, the show chronicles eight terminally ill teens in the 1990s as they meet at midnight to swap scary stories. Filled with jump scares and existential pondering, the horrors of the kids' stories are nothing compared to their real life impending demises and the spooky history of the manor, which is run by a mysterious doctor (Heather Langenkamp). Understandably obsessed with death, members of the group have a pact that when one of them dies, they must try their hardest to reach out and make a connection to the others from beyond the grave. The series, co-created by Leah Fong, is based on Christopher Pike's young adult horror books and was intended to be a two-season-long limited series (rather than a standalone miniseries). Netflix axed the show less than two months after its release, which left the story on an indefinite cliffhanger as opposed to the satisfying conclusions of Flanagan's other works. While charming and sufficiently creepy, the show's greatest obstacle is its inevitable comparison to its predecessors, which are in a league of their own.

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

Flanagan's last project for Netflix is the first to feature a group of truly irredeemable people, rather than the redemption prospects that the horror auteur usually concerns himself with. Based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher follows the family behind Fortunato Pharmaceuticals, the distributors of the "non-addictive" (read: deathly addictive) opioid Ligodone. As each of Roderick Usher's (Bruce Greenwood) six adult heirs are killed off in bizarre and tragic ways amidst a trial against his company, he and his sister (Mary McDonnell) must contend with a startling, shape-shifting face from their past (Gugino). It's a story told in hindsight, with the defeated Usher patriarch recounting the end of his bloodline to a longtime adversary and investigator (Carl Lumbly) over drinks. Succession and the Sacklers are the inevitable comparisons here, but the show leaves its contemporaries behind and ultimately becomes a cautionary tale that no empire can grow under a capitalistic society without making a deal with the devil. It's a pleasure to watch each Usher fall in increasingly gory and metaphor-laden ways, but in making a show about some of the worst people alive, the story struggles to capture some of the lasting impact of its predecessors' beloved characters.

3. The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)

In the final episode of The Haunting of Bly Manor, after the mysterious narrator (Gugino) has recounted her ghost story on the eve of a wedding, the bride-to-be notes that it was actually a love story. "Same thing, really," the narrator replies, capturing the essence of Bly Manor and the driving, tender force behind most of Flanagan's works. Based on The Turn of the Screw and elements of Henry James' other works, The Haunting of Bly Manor follows an au pair (Victoria Pedretti) tasked with looking after a man's niece and nephew on the grounds of an English estate in the 1980s. Haunted in her own right, she meets and befriends the rest of the household staff: a gardener (Amelia Eve), a housekeeper (T'Nia Miller), and a cook (Kohli). Things go bump in the night, of course, and the group begins to uncover the centuries-old horrors of Bly, including the faceless, ruthless lady in the lake. Brush back the mystery and horror, and the heart of the story is the blooming romance between the au pair and the gardener, which grapples with concepts of devotion and sacrifice in a romantic tribute to traditional gothic horror. Slightly more insular than its Hill House predecessor, Bly Manor trades some of its scares in for a sweeping, unforgettable love story.

2. The Haunting of Hill House (2018)

The Haunting of Hill House's ranking over Bly Manor all comes down to one thing: the bent neck lady. Flanagan's first Netflix project was already a successful foray into Shirley Jackson's iconic novel, but the halfway point of the series reveals the story's true intentions and Flanagan's knack for pulling the rug out from under viewers. Set in two timelines, The Haunting of Hill House tracks the modern day, adult Crain children as they grapple with the events that surrounded their upbringing in the most haunted house in America. Issues with addiction, intimacy, and control haunt each of the five children and prove to be too much to bear for the youngest siblings, with one in rehab (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) and the other returning to Hill House to kill herself (Pedretti). As the self-destructive group contends with their sister's suicide, they must also unpack the fateful night in 1992 that resulted in the death of their mother (Gugino) and a permanent splintering of the family. Flashing back and forth between the two eras of the Crain family, the show creates a thrilling mystery surrounding that night that's impossible to look away from. While The Haunting of Hill House doesn't quite stick its sanguine landing, it's a near-perfect series that helped define our current age of prestige horror television.

1. Midnight Mass (2021)

As Flanagan's only TV show not based on pre-existing literature, the tight and self-contained Midnight Mass was a gamble at the outset. Set on Crockett Island (the "Crock Pot" to locals), a 127-person fishing community decimated by an oil spill a few years prior, the show follows the events that ensue when a young priest (Hamish Linklater) comes to the island with enough charisma, understanding, and apparent healing power to spark interest from even the greatest of skeptics — including viewers. The island's inhabitants include an atheist doctor (Gish), a Muslim sheriff (Kohli), a Catholic zealot (Sloyan), a pregnant school teacher (Siegel), and a not-so-prodigal son fresh off of a four-year prison stint for a fatal drunk driving accident (Zach Gilford). When churchgoers begin to experience miracles, a fervor is created around communion and piousness, and the mysteries surrounding the priest and an ominous, unseen presence on the island are gradually, achingly revealed. The show is by no means anti-religious (in fact, it has something quite thoughtful to say about community and belief), but it ultimately serves as a cautionary tale against religious extremism in any form. While Midnight Mass is less superficially scary than the other titles on this list (although the rare, pointed jumpscare serves as a reminder that you're still in a Flanagan feature), the true horror is bone-deep and lies in the slow, haunting build to the final two episodes and an Easter Vigil for the ages.