Mike Flanagan has become Hollywood’s resident master of deep and thought-provoking storytelling. After building most of his career making small-scale horror films like Absentia, Oculus, and Ouija, the director moved on to bigger projects such as the Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Shining sequel Doctor Sleep. The remarkable thing with most of his recent work is that he combines incredible suspense and truly scary scenes with story characterization, something which is sadly lacking in the genre.
This skill though has also made him a sought-after director within the genre, and one of the reasons why he is able to secure the big projects he has been getting of late. According to Deadline, Flanagan’s next big film that he’ll produce and direct is the horror The Season of Passage, based on the novel by Christopher Pike.
Seasons of Passage was written in 1993 and follows the story of a manned expedition to Mars. The story combines elements of sci-fi and horror and is based around the central character Dr Lauren Wagner. A story that should certainly make the best use of Flanagan’s remarkable talents. It’s a popular novel that reportedly received a big bidding war for its film rights before Universal Pictures acquired them, and I guess to make the most of their expenses, they need to make sure they get the right person to make it a success. Based on Flanagan’s recent track record, he should be the right director do the job.
The horror genre continues to suffer from a lack of originality and too many mediocre films, so it’s exciting to see people like Flanagan getting more work as he tries to inject some fresh storytelling back into the genre.
Last Updated: April 20, 2021
