It’s not crazy to talk about Mike Flanagan as The most essential author that Netflix has on the payroll. So far all of his series are being counted as successes, from ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ to ‘Midnight Mass’, and the thing points to ‘The Midnight Club’ following the same path.
Enough to consider him one of the most important authors of current terror. Y every master of the genre has his own references. Flanagan has been pretty transparent about them in the past, and it’s interesting to see him talk about his favorite movies. Today we collect three of his favorites that we consider the most recommended and that can be found on streaming platforms.
‘At the bottom of the stairs’ (‘The Changeling’, 1980)
Address: Peter Medak. Distribution: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas, John Colicos, Jean Marsh.
Flanagan comments that ‘At the bottom of the stairs’ is one of the first horror movies and it was one of those that left him completely terrified. He also speaks of her as the most influential in its own styleand it’s not hard to see why when looking at clues like the location in a haunted mansion or how it deals with ghosts as symbolism of personal trauma.
Peter Medak creates a completely essential film within the cursed houses aspect, creating a disturbing and heartbreaking atmosphere with very well thought out and placed elements. His elegant and virtuosic staging helps to create that supernatural and chilling atmosphere that has made it a total gem of the genre.
See on Filmin, on Movistar + and on FlixOlé
‘The Shining’ (‘The Shining’, 1980)
Address: Stanley Kubrick. Distribution: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson.
make a sequel to an unappealable classic as this is a sign of both his veneration and recklessness on his part. But he did so with the fabulous ‘Doctor Sleep’, which is capable of paying homage to both Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick (something much more complicated than it seems to say).
And it’s really tempting to put yourself in the position where you can actually wander around those iconic sets, turned into suffocating claustrophobic labyrinths by Kubrick’s precise and twisted direction. Oppressive and unsettling atmospheres shape a masterful piece of psychological horror that continues to be among the top of a filmography full of classics like Stanley’s.
See on HBO Max and Movistar + | Criticism in Espinof
‘The thing (The enigma of another world)’ (‘The Thing’, 1982)
Address: John Carpenter. Distribution: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, David Clennon, Richard Dysart.
In addition to good taste, Flanagan displays incredible insight as he praises the John Carpenter classic. Beyond the brutal gore and show the monster sequences‘La cosa’ the way in which the characters deal with an extreme situation like this remained engraved in him, something that undoubtedly marks his work on projects such as ‘Hill House’ or ‘Midnight Mass’.
It is undeniable that the combination of the portrait of paranoia and the shocking monster horror work, excellently constructed with cutting-edge special effects for the time, have made ‘The Thing’ a perfect horror movie. Even a perfect movie, dry. Carpenter makes powerful, characterful work that continues to survive scrutiny 40 years later.
See in Filmin | Criticism in Espinof