While there is a lot of competition for the title, Mike Flanagan earned the accolade of the greatest horror miniseries of all time six years ago when the director released Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House. The horror miniseries rarely receive as much attention as horror movies or horror TV shows in of format, but the format offers directors an opportunity to tell a bigger, more immersive story without necessarily committing to multiple seasons. From 1978’s Salem’s Lot to 2017’s Twin Peaks: The Return, the horror miniseries has a unique place in cultural history.

Within this space, Mike Flanagan is one of the masters of the miniseries. Mike Flanagan’s projects include exciting efforts like the Stephen King adaptation The Life of Chuck and an Exorcist sequel, his first miniseries remains his crowning achievement.

Why The Haunting Of Hill House Is The Best Horror Miniseries Of All Time

Mike Flanagan’s Loose Shirley Jackson Adaptation Set The Standard

2018’s The Haunting of Hill House is the best horror miniseries in the format’s history, despite stiff competition from the likes of 1990's IT and 2008’s Dead Set. The series radically alters Shirley Jackson’s novel of the same name, borrowing character names and a haunted house setting but otherwise turning an insular story of psychological breakdown into a sprawling tale of inter-generational trauma. Where Jackson’s novel zeroes in on the troubled psyche of its protagonist, Flanagan's The Haunting of Hill House gives every member of the troubled Crain clan a moment in the spotlight.

The Haunting of Hill House is notable primarily for the show’s ability to bounce seamlessly between genuinely terrifying horror sequences and emotionally charged family drama.

The Haunting of Hill House is a deeply empathetic study of addiction, codependency, infidelity, and parental neglect that manages to humanize its heroes and villains alike. There isn't a weak link in the cast, although Carla Gugino provides the best work in her long screen career as the alternately terrifying and tragically sweet Olivia Crain. Comfortably the best horror show of the last decade, The Haunting of Hill House is notable primarily for the show’s ability to bounce seamlessly between genuinely terrifying horror sequences and emotionally charged family drama. Neither element feels phoned-in by this masterful miniseries.

The Haunting Of Hill House Had A Massive Impact On Mike Flanagan's Career

The Horror Miniseries Was Followed By Numerous Major Hits

The Haunting of Hill House was a huge critical success, and this inevitably rocketed Flanagan to horror superstardom. Before his Jackson adaptation, Flanagan was best known for smaller horror movies like Oculus and Hush, as well as the surprisingly solid sequel Ouija: Origin of Evil. After The Haunting of Hill House, Flanagan went on to make three more Netflix horror miniseries that almost equaled the critical acclaim of his first. Although his 2019 sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep, was a box office disappointment, Flanagan’s small screen work soon made him one of the genre’s most notable names.

The Haunting of Bly Manor failed to recapture the rapturous reception of The Haunting of Hill House but remained critically well-liked.

Now, the director is set to adapt Stephen King’s The Dark Tower novels as part of his Amazon deal, while Flanagan’s Exorcist sequel is likely to be his biggest movie yet. The Haunting of Bly Manor failed to recapture the rapturous reception of The Haunting of Hill House but remained critically well-liked. 2021’s Midnight Mass was a return to form for a director who had barely slipped, almost equaling The Haunting of Hill House’s success among reviewers. Meanwhile, 2023’s The Fall of the House of Usher showed Flanagan’s funny side with a gory, satirically sharp horror-comedy.

Mike Flanagan Came Close To Topping The Haunting Of Hill House Just 3 Years Later

Midnight Mass Was Almost As Incredible As The Haunting of Hill House

Although it was fun to see Flanagan offer a broader, sillier, and more colorful brand of horror with The Fall of the House of Usher, this isn’t the closest that the filmmaker came to outdoing The Haunting of Hill House. The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass are almost as good as each other, and Flanagan’s 2021 miniseries features some of the best writing in his career. Only the fact that The Haunting of Hill House is much more traditionally scary means Midnight Mass is not quite as well-loved as its 2018 predecessor.

A slow-burn horror story preoccupied with faith, rationality, and religion, Midnight Mass tackles small twon communities the way that The Haunting of Hill House peers into the dark side of the nuclear family. Both shows offer astounding comion to deeply flawed characters and manage to bring complex moral dilemmas to life via vivid genre storytelling, but Flanagan’s Jackson adaptation remains his standout work. Thus, Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House still stands head and shoulders above most horror miniseries.

The Haunting of Hill House is available to stream on Netflix.