Tag: Mike Flanagan

My Top 25 Most Anticipated Films of 2025

It’s a new year, and there is so much good cinema to look forward to in the coming twelve months. Today, I want to highlight specifically twenty-five of these films and count down to the film that I am the most excited to see in the new year. Now, granted, some of these films could theoretically be moved to 2026, but all of the films on my list are either currently listed as 2025 films or are expected to come out this year. If available, I’ll also post trailers for films, but, of course, not every film production has begun its marketing campaign. Also, if you are interested in a longer list of films that I am excited to see in 2025, then allow me to point you in the direction of my Letterboxd list, which contains 80+ films — click here to check it out! But let’s now count down from 25 to no. 1. What are the films that I am the most excited to see in 2025?

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2023 TV Catch-Up / Backlog: The Greats | Bite-Sized Reviews

(Clockwise L-R) Natasha Lyonne in POKER FACE (Peacock / SkyShowtime), Harrison Ford and Lukita Maxwell in SHRINKING (Apple TV+), Carla Gugino in THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (Netflix), FOR ALL MANKIND (Apple TV+), and THE BEAR (Disney+ / FX).

Just like with the previous edition of Additional Bite-Sized Reviews, the point of this post is to function as a review compilation, if you will, of some notable 2023 television series that I’ve either just caught up with or which I never found the time to write about when they were released way back when. For this post, I have specifically highlighted five of the past year’s best shows. For quite a few of these, I had initially intended to write extensive, long reviews, but time flew by and now I just feel the need to get my thoughts out there on some of my favorite shows from 2023.

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REVIEW: Midnight Mass (2021 – TV Series)

Hamish Linklater as Father Paul Hill in MIDNIGHT MASS — Photo: Netflix.

Series Created & Directed by Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House; Doctor Sleep) — Available on Netflix.

At this point, I feel like Mike Flanagan is becoming a master of horror. I don’t think it happened over night, though. I think his output was fairly consistent in the beginning, but the latest works in his oeuvre are just outstanding. While I think Oculus, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and Hush were all right, I think Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, and his Netflix shows (The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor) are all great must-watch horror films or shows. I think he has this ability to find beauty in even some of his more frightening works, and that is also true of his latest horror series, Midnight Mass, which I think is pretty much on par with the truly excellent Hill House.

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REVIEW: The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020 – TV Series)

Photo: Eike Schroter / Netflix.

Series Created by Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House; Doctor Sleep) — Available on Netflix.

I’ve been a huge fan of Mike Flanagan for a couple of years now. He is a horror-focused filmmaker, who hasn’t yet made a huge misstep. Instead, he has actually made some of the previous decade’s very best horror films. Gerald’s Game was one of the best and biggest film surprises of 2017, and his sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep, was phenomenal. On Netflix, he has also been given the chance to create, direct, and shepherd the outstanding horror series The Haunting of Hill House, which was such a runaway success that it became an anthology series. The Haunting of Bly Manor is the next chapter of that great horror anthology series, and, even though it is not as good or memorable as Hill House, Bly Manor is another great entry in Flanagan’s increasingly impressive horror oeuvre. Continue reading “REVIEW: The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020 – TV Series)” →

REVIEW: Doctor Sleep (2019)

Theatrical Release Poster – Warner Bros. Pictures

The following is a review of Doctor Sleep — Directed by Mike Flanagan.

How do you please the fans of two very different masters of storytelling (i.e. Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick) when the storytellers’ understanding of The Shining differs so much that the author, Stephen King, once disowned director Stanley Kubrick’s extremely popular adaptation? How do you continue the story of The Shining on the big screen, when King and Kubrick’s endings are in conflict with each other? Those questions made the adaptation of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, a sequel to his hit novel The Shining, an incredibly daunting task exactly because audiences would expect it to also be a sequel to Kubrick’s beloved masterpiece. Mike Flanagan, a promising horror filmmaker who adapted Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game into a terrific Netflix film, was eventually chosen for the difficult task. Ultimately, I think Flanagan, who both wrote, directed, and edited Doctor Sleep, did an outstanding job. Flanagan has confidently united two clashing visions in this quite satisfying, but undeniably unnecessary sequel. Continue reading “REVIEW: Doctor Sleep (2019)” →

REVIEW: The Haunting of Hill House (2018 – TV Series)

Release Poster – Netflix

The following is a review of the Netflix limited series The Haunting of Hill House — Directed by Mike Flanagan.

With films like Oculus, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Hush, and Gerald’s Game, filmmaker Mike Flanagan has started to make quite a name for himself. He has become a reliable horror filmmaker, and after Gerald’s Game, in particular, it certainly felt like he had gotten into the right meeting rooms. Suddenly, he had signed on to adapt Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, and right now he is ready with these ten episodes of The Haunting of Hill House — a great Netflix’s horror series that is as sad as it is terrifying. Continue reading “REVIEW: The Haunting of Hill House (2018 – TV Series)” →