8 Years Ago, Stephan King’s Best Director Started a Winning Trend for Netflix (And Now He’s at a Rival Streamer)

Skip to content It has been eight years since the man Stephen King calls his best adapting director made a streaming series that started a winning trend for Netflix. In a recent social media post, King said that the best director to ever take on his work is Mike Flanagan, and there is a good reason for that. Flanagan has directed some incredible adaptations of King stories, starting with Gerald’s Game in 2017, followed by Doctor Sleep in 2019 and The Life of Chuck in 2025. Now, Flanagan has released the new streaming series adaptation of King’s first-ever published novel, Carrie. However, Flanagan is even better known for a Netflix trend he started eight years ago today.

On October 12, 2018, Flanagan’s horror miniseries The Haunting of Hill House premiered on Netflix, and it was an instant success. What is even more impressive is that two years later, on October 9, 2020, he released The Haunting of Bly Manor, another big success for the streaming service. For five years, Flanagan was the most bankable name for horror during Halloween month.

In 2018, Flanagan brought his adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House to Netflix, and it was a critical success. The series followed a family who lived in the haunted Hill House years earlier until the death of their mother in the house caused them to flee the ghosts and spirits that haunted it. In the present day, all the kids have grown into adults with mental health issues thanks to their time there, and they are all called back, along with their dad, to revisit the haunting so the house can finish what it started so many years before.

The Haunting of Hill House has an impressive 93% Rotten Tomatoes score and was honored at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, and Saturn Awards. It was also a streaming success, so Netflix came back and had Flanagan work on more horror miniseries. Two years later, he adapted the work of Henry James into the miniseries The Haunting of Bly Manor. While it had the same “Haunting” moniker, it shared only the idea that Flanagan was adapting classic horror novels for the streaming service. Bly Manor followed hauntings in the mysterious Bly Manor and was based mostly on The Turn of the Screw.

This then became an annual tradition for Flanagan and Netflix. In 2021, he released Midnight Mass at the end of September; in 2022, The Midnight Club hit Netflix on October 7; and in 2023, he adapted Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, which arrived on October 12. Midnight Mass was an original series based on a fictional novel a character in his movie Hush was writing. The Midnight Club was based on stories by Christopher Pike. This all stopped when Flanagan’s exclusive contract with Netflix ended, and he moved on.

In 2026, Mike Flanagan has combined his two great loves into one project. On October 7, Flanagan’s new horror miniseries Carrie has hit Prime Video. This is part of Flanagan’s new deal with Amazon, which replaced his Netflix deal. What makes it so special is that Carrie continues the theme of Flanagan releasing horror streaming shows during the Halloween season, but it is based on Stephen King’s novel, which brings everything back home for the director/showrunner.

What is even bigger is that this could all lead to the most important adaptation of Flanagan’s career. King hinted that if Carrie does well on Prime Video, something big could come in the future. Flanagan has already hinted that he plans to make The Dark Tower into a series, with possible movies added in. He wouldn’t be the first person to want to do this, as Ron Howard was also once involved with the development of the franchise. However, given what Flanagan has done so far with his King adaptations and his success at producing streaming series, he could finally be the person to bring the fan-favorite story to the world.

Flanagan has become a Halloween-season favorite for streaming services and fans, and if Carrie works out well, he could quickly become the most popular Stephen King director of all time. The series is already receiving positive reviews, and this could finally give fans the version of The Dark Tower they were cheated out of when the movie based on the books ended up going off the rails in 2017.

What are your thoughts on Mike Flanagan and his streaming horror series? Let us know if you want to see Flanagan taking on The Dark Tower in the comments below.