Ranked: The Films of Mike Flanagan

Indie horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan’s best 5 films ranked in order of eeriness

With maverick indie director Mike Flanagan’s Hasbro-based board game sequel Ouija: Origin of Evil still in theaters and critics and audiences applauding its macabre and sophisticated merits, we thought it wise to review our five favorite feature films that were directed, co-written, often edited by the talented filmmaker and rank them in order of effectiveness.

Mike Flanagan, born in Salem in 1978, began dabbling in cinema in university, creating a series of short films that exemplified his interest in well-written characters and dramatic arcs. That, coupled with an interest in the plight of women during the notorious Salem witch trials, would form the foundation of Flanagan’s narrative approach. That emotionally sophisticated aesthetic would be reflected in his sense of style in the years to come, with student films like Still Life and Ghosts of Hamilton Street, with the director favoring long takes, slow zooms, existential moments of reflection, strong family bonds and the heart breaking destruction of those very bonds.

Flanagan is not merely a horror filmmaker. He’s a master filmmaker, full stop, one who uses the genre to push deeper explorations into the human condition and the fragile states of mind of good people put under great deals of pressure.

Here then is five great feature films by Flanagan. See if you agree with our ranking and if you haven’t seen these pictures, do so immediately.

 

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