10 Must-Watch Horror TV Shows for Mike Flanagan Fans

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If you enjoy the work of Mike Flanagan, you’ll love these horror TV shows. He’s known for creating truly scary stories that also have emotional depth and well-developed characters. Whether it’s the intense scares in The Haunting of Hill House or the thoughtful themes in The Midnight Club, these series are perfect for watching during Halloween or any time of year.

These horror shows, whether they’re thrilling stories about adults dealing with difficult memories from their youth or collections of standalone stories, share a lot of similarities with Mike Flanagan’s work. Like Flanagan’s series, they focus on strong emotions and well-developed characters, making them a great choice for his fans.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

While the creatures in Midnight Mass aren’t quite the same kind of villains as those in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, both shows deliver fantastic vampire stories. What makes them special is that they focus just as much on how the characters develop as they do on the monsters themselves.

Mike Flanagan’s 2019 Netflix series and Buffy the Vampire Slayer both take place in small towns where ordinary people encounter unimaginable evil. It’s just as enjoyable and frightening to watch the residents of Crockett Island work together to survive, similar to how much we appreciate the teamwork between Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her friends.

As someone who loves a good scare with a lot of heart, especially after seeing what Mike Flanagan can do with emotional horror, I’ve really come to appreciate how powerfully Buffy could hit you with its sadder moments. The episode “The Body,” where Buffy deals with the death of her mother Joyce (played brilliantly by Kristine Sutherland), is absolutely devastating – it’s a truly gut-wrenching piece of television.

Hemlock Grove (2013-2015)

This early horror series from Netflix features ghosts, a spooky town, and a string of murders. Like all of Mike Flanagan’s shows on streaming platforms, it centers on characters grappling with death, and the residents of Hemlock Grove are particularly troubled by it.

Even though Hemlock Grove isn’t an anthology series – it has three seasons – it’s a great choice if you enjoy Mike Flanagan’s style of focused storytelling. Each season is relatively short, with just 10 to 13 episodes. Despite not being renewed for a fourth season, Hemlock Grove remains a thrilling and enjoyable series to watch all at once.

The Walking Dead (2010-2022)

Though Mike Flanagan usually focuses on ghosts and haunted locations – rather than zombies – the strong emotional core of The Walking Dead would likely appeal to fans of his horror series on Netflix. If he were to tackle a story about a world-ending event, it’s safe to say it would be just as full of surprising and impactful deaths as the AMC show.

Like Mike Flanagan’s shows, The Walking Dead really invests in its characters. While it’s full of scares and intense moments, it’s the people and their relationships that truly keep you hooked.

Yellowjackets (2021-Present)

The soccer team in Yellowjackets experiences a similar level of intense trauma as the characters in Mike Flanagan’s shows. Because of its emotionally challenging themes, the series will likely resonate with viewers who enjoyed Hill House, Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, and The Fall of the House of Usher.

If you enjoyed the flashbacks in Hill House and The Fall of the House of Usher, you’ll probably love how Yellowjackets jumps between the past and present. It’s unusual for a show to make its flashbacks as captivating as what’s happening now, but Yellowjackets pulls it off.

The show is compelling enough to make you constantly worry about what will happen to the characters, and with mysteries like the Antler Queen and unsettling events like cannibalism, it’s impossible to look away.

American Horror Stories (2021-2024)

Mike Flanagan is known for creating truly excellent horror anthology series. When you finish watching shows like Hill House or Midnight Mass, you feel like you’ve experienced something special and impressively told. You might also enjoy Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Stories, which features a different story in every episode.

What makes this series so good is its incredible variety – there’s truly something for every horror lover. Fans of haunted house stories will enjoy the first two episodes of season one, which take place in the Murder House from American Horror Story. Other standout episodes explore a terrifying hospital, a deadly tapeworm, and the well-known urban legend of Bloody Mary.

Chucky (2021-2024)

Everyone knows the killer doll from the Child’s Play movies is a classic, so many wondered if a TV show was a good idea. Thankfully, the SyFy series Chucky is well-made, genuinely frightening, and a lot of fun – proving it was absolutely worth doing. Just like The Haunting of Hill House, the show gives its child characters the same thoughtful attention and respect as the adult ones.

The show is especially effective at portraying the influence the doll has on young Caroline Cross (Carina London Battrick), highlighting just how threatening it is. It also thoughtfully explores Jake Wheeler’s (Zackary Arthur) grief over his father’s death, similar to the way Hill House and The Midnight Club sensitively address loss.

Supernatural (2005-2020)

While the show follows brothers Sam and Dean Winchester on exciting adventures – road trips and hunting supernatural beings – at its heart, it’s a story about their difficult childhoods, the strong bond they share as family, and the complex emotions they grapple with.

Mike Flanagan’s shows often explore similar ideas, so fans of his work will likely enjoy Supernatural. The series follows Sam and Dean as they grapple with the grief of losing their mother, Mary (Samantha A. Smith), while also uncovering the mysteries surrounding their parents’ past.

As a big movie fan, I’ve noticed something cool: even the seemingly lighter or less essential parts of a film – the moments that might feel like ‘breathing room’ – often carry a subtle undercurrent of melancholy. It’s like even those ‘filler’ scenes contribute to the overall emotional weight and aren’t totally without purpose, leaving you with a lingering feeling, even if it’s just a touch of sadness.

Castle Rock (2018-2019)

People often compare Mike Flanagan’s storytelling to that of Stephen King, which is fitting considering Flanagan is a longtime fan and is currently adapting King’s novels Carrie and The Dark Tower for television. If you’ve enjoyed Flanagan’s shows on Netflix, Castle Rock is a great series to watch next.

This Hulu series, which ran for two seasons, adapts several stories and characters from Stephen King’s work, featuring iconic locations like Shawshank State Prison and the memorable character Annie Wilkes (played by Lizzy Caplan) from Misery.

If you enjoy Stephen King’s stories and Mike Flanagan’s emotionally driven horror, Castle Rock is an engaging watch. Sissy Spacek delivers a nuanced performance as Ruth Deaver, a woman facing difficult circumstances.

The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)

Mike Flanagan’s horror series have been consistently strong, but it’s worth revisiting the classic anthology, The Twilight Zone. Even after all these years, each episode still manages to be both unsettling and thought-provoking, forcing us to consider the world in a new light.

As a total movie and TV fanatic, I’m telling you, some Twilight Zone episodes still hold up incredibly well. Things like characters meeting their doubles, journeys into space, and that classic one with William Shatner on the plane – “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” – are just as gripping now as they ever were. If you enjoyed the spooky tales the teens shared at Brightcliffe Manor in The Midnight Club, you’ll love the unsettling atmosphere and clever surprises The Twilight Zone delivers.

Archive 81 (2022)

Mike Flanagan’s horror series all share a consistently unsettling atmosphere. This holds true for his one-season Netflix show, Archive 81, which follows the mysterious experiences of an archivist named Dan Turner, played by Mamoudou Athie.

Like many of Mike Flanagan’s shows, Archive 81 creates a deeply unsettling atmosphere, largely thanks to its central location: the Visser apartment building. As Dan investigates old videotapes made by Melody Pendras (Dina Shihabi), the Visser becomes a truly creepy and memorable place, comparable to the haunted locations in Flanagan’s other series like Brightcliffe Manor and Hill House.

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2025-10-25 18:51