With this year's Halloween series The Fall of the House of Usher, Mike Flanagan continues his triumphant horror journey on Netflix.
Almost every year, a new thriller miniseries created by Flanagan lands on the streaming service, and each time, the filmmaker manages to surprise viewers and take them on a mind-bending journey into a world of terrifying fantasy.
Flanagan's stories are always well-crafted and masterfully told, the frights – hair-raising, the cliffhangers – fascinating, the twists and revelations – shocking. Such a skill undeniably comes from both innate talent and learning heavily from his predecessors and colleagues.
So what movies inspire the iconic horror maker? In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, he gave 14 examples. Made up of titles that are as underrated as they are worthy of your attention, the list will be valuable to any genre fan.
Mike Flanagan's Horror Binge List
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Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017) – Issa Lopez's modern fairy tale of Mexican kids lost in an urban jungle and doing whatever it takes to survive.
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A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) – Ana Lily Amirpour's genre-bending vampire western set in Iran is about an antihero vigilante with a taste for bad men.
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Harpoon (2019) – Rob Grant's wicked horror comedy follows three friends who get stranded on a ship in the middle of the ocean and discover a new, darker side to themselves.
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Lake Mungo (2008) – Joel Anderson's mockumentary-style ghost story about a haunted family turns into a mind-bending existential horror.
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The Endless (2017) – Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson's sci-fi horror centers on two brothers who return to the cult they belonged to as children and stumble upon dark secrets.
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A Dark Song (2016) – Liam Gavin's independent film is a story of loss and grief wrapped in a form of occult ritual as a woman tries to bring back her deceased son.
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They Look Like People (2015) – Perry Blackshear's directorial debut turned a tiny budget into a huge advantage. The story of a paranoid man who sees monsters around him is stripped of expensive effects, but perfectly written and acted.
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Possum (2018) – Matthew Holness' psychological thriller centers on a disgraced puppeteer who returns to his childhood home and is forced to confront his past traumas.
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The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014) – Adam Robitel's found-footage masterpiece follows an Alzheimer's patient whose footage reveals a sinister presence.
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Freaks (2018) – Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein's sci-fi thriller centers on a family where the father forbids his seven-year-old daughter to go out, but she does anyway.
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The Blackcoat's Daughter (2015) – Oz Perkins' slow-burning supernatural film follows Catholic boarding school students as they encounter evil forces.
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The Invitation (2015) – Karyn Kusama's suspenseful film is about a dinner party gone wrong.
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Creep (2014) – Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass' clever found-footage horror follows a videographer who comes to film an eccentric client for a day. But as the day progresses, the assignment becomes increasingly bizarre.
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Cargo (2017) – Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling's character-driven zombie film revolves around a family trying to survive in the midst of a deadly disease outbreak.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes.