watching a new mike flanagan really is like this place has everything: a complicated family dynamic, a could’ve been great love dashed by human failing, meditations on life in the face of death, a classic “are these ghosts real or are they just in my head/does it matter if they’re real to you?”, and, perhaps most importantly, a truly spooky house with wild shit going on in the basement.
One criticism of Mike Flanagan's works that I can't bring myself to agree with is that they are too saccharine and sentimental. Not that there isn't any truth to the statement in general but I don't consider it as a drawback.
I relish melodrama. It is refreshing to watch characters not holding back from expressing their unadulterated emotions, both good and bad, and not acting like stoic robots just for the sake of forcing subtlety. If they are in love, they love to the fullest. If they are unhinged, they go all out with it.
how is ed flynn (midnight mass) and froderick fucking usher (fall of the house of usher) played by the same person?
henry thomas has Range
like RANGE
he's the imperfect father, who wants to do better (ed) , he's the uncle, who'll raise the kids (henry), he's basically death himself (freedom jack) and then no-hinges-no-door insane, shit husband, more of a son than a father frederick usher
Can I just appreciate the fact that while Mike Flanagan has the actors he loves working with and frequently appear in his shows/films he always adds new actors to his cast with each show?
Bonus because none of the actors in his cast are like mega-famous (i mean Julia Roberts or RDJ level) although they're super talented! I think more directors need to follow this example and work with new, talented actors rather than exhausting the entire budget just to hire an A-lister and then doom the rest of the production. I know that certain filmmakers think that hiring someone who is already very famous will bring in more of an audience but there are so many talented and wonderful actors around who are literally just waiting for their breakthrough in the industry and it's such a waste that some filmmakers decide to give even more spotlight and money to actors who are already millionaires and have absolutely no issue booking jobs.
Btw I'm not saying hire lesser known actors out of pity, I'm saying that talent doesnt always mean fame, and there are plenty of talented actors who aren't going to cost the entire budget of a production which means more money to spend on crew, costumes and set design.
I really liked how the One Piece live action did that too, none of the actors were very famous A-listers (correct me if I'm wrong though), and most of them had their first major role in the show. They were all super great and I doubt they will have trouble booking jobs in the future!
The cast of Mike Flanagan’s newest series, The Midnight Club, talk about their biggest fears, secret talents, and which cast member is the easiest to scare.
Mike Flanagan is doing what Ryan Murphy tried and failed to do with AHS. The Haunting series and the Midnight shows are genuinely unnerving but Flanagan doesn’t rely on gore and gratuitous sexual violence to make them affronting in the way Murphy does. AHS is good but it just doesn’t quite get into the psychological horror in the way that Haunting and Midnight do.