Mike Flanagan has created some top-tier horror for film and television, but he admits to not being a big fan of horror growing up. He eventually gained an appreciation for the genre as a filmmaker, directing films like Doctor Sleep and miniseries like The Fall of the House of Usher. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Flanagan admits he’s jaded towards most of today’s horror films, but says a couple of films still scare him to death.
It took a while for Flanagan to warm up to horror movies. “I couldn’t watch horror movies as a kid,” the Oculus director said. “They scared me too much.” That changed for him in 1988, when the Stephen King It miniseries aired on ABC, and initially “traumatized” him. However, he eventually became a King fan, and is now adapting his work to film. His latest movie, The Life of Chuck , is based on a Stephen King novella and stars Tom Hiddleston in the lead role.
The Life of Chuck is a fantasy drama, but Flanagan’s bread and butter is still horror. He has single-handedly made Netflix a destination for horror, with his film Gerald’s Game (based on Stephen King’s novel) and the miniseries The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, and The Fall of the House of Usher. Flanagan admits “It’s very rare that a (horror) film affects me,” but does point out two horror films that still disturb him. Oddly, both are foreign films: Lake Mungo and Martyrs.
Movies That Scare the Horror Director of the Moment
Lake Mungo is a 2008 Australian found-footage horror film that didn’t get a wide release, but it built up a fan base in the years that followed, thanks to streaming. The film documents the events after the drowning of sixteen-year-old Alice Palmer. When supernatural events begin occurring around the Palmer home, the family travels to Lake Mungo in search of the truth and a ghost story unlike any other.
Horror fans find the film genuinely creepy, particularly when they discover Alice’s ghost appears in several scenes unnoticed, and can be caught on a second watch. Flanagan admits the film “truly frightened me into getting up off of the couch,” adding that it “chilled me to the bone.” He isn’t alone: Get Out director Jordan Peele said Lake Mungo is one of the films that scares him the most to this day.
Lake Mungo
is currently streaming on Prime Video, Tubi, Plex, and Freevee.
Martyrs is a French-Canadian production is so disturbing, some horror fans refuse to watch it again. It tells the story of Lucie (Mylène Jampanoï), a woman out for revenge on the people who kidnapped and tortured her as a child. With the help of her friend Anna, Lucie discovers revenge may turn up horrors worse than she ever dreamed.
The film’s prolonged depictions of sadistic torture were too much for even the film’s biggest fans to endure. Flanagan says “There’s a lot of gore, but it’s gore with a point. I generally don’t love splatter.”
Martyrs
is now streaming on Tubi and Plex.
Flanagan is about to tackle one of the biggest horror franchises of all time: The Exorcist. After the legacy sequel The Exorcist: Believer flopped in theaters last year, Universal is going back to the drawing board, with Flanagan coming in to hopefully get the film series back on track. While he makes no guarantees, Flanagan insists his Exorcist sequel is “the scariest movie” he’s ever made.
The Life of Chuck
is yet to received a release date.