Mike Flanagan has been praised as the modern master of horror. Delivering horrifying jump scares, unnerving slashers, and haunting stories. There are plenty of scary moments to choose from, which made it difficult to narrow these moments down. Mostly finding his home on Netflix, Mike Flanagan is responsible for the majority of the best scares found on the streaming platform. With movies such as Hush and Gerald's Game, as well as original series like Midnight Mass and The Haunting of Hill House. Here are the scariest moments in Mike Flanagan's movies and TV shows.
6 Man Reveals Face - Hush
The reveal isn't necessarily scary, with it not being a jump scare or some horrifying imagery that Flanagan usually delivers. The reveal instead has us terrified for the fate of Maddie (Katie Siegel). With Maddie being deaf, audiences are already filled with an unnerving sense of tension and dread for her character. But when Maddie tells the man attempting to kill her (Josh Gallagher Jr.) that she is deaf, hoping he will leave her alone, the man instead takes off his mask, suggesting that the man is here to stay, and that this suspenseful cat-and-mouse chase will end with one of them dying.
5 Baseball Boy's Death - Doctor Sleep
Doctor Sleep, adapted from the book written by horror legend Stephen King, delivered some unique scares and horrifying imagery. But none will stick with you more than the death of the baseball boy (Jacob Tremblay). Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) and her tribe of Shine Vampires feed and gain their powers by killing children. At the beginning of the film, we see a similarly haunting scene, but that feels like a nice walk in the park compared to the horrific death of baseball boy.
Held in a somewhat ritualistic circle, the baseball boy lies in the middle with tears in his eyes, along with some truly haunting screams. This is what makes the scene so difficult to watch, Jacob Tremblay delivers a performance that is way too good, to the point where this scene feels almost too real, and even Stephen King said this scene was too much. However, when the vampires begin to feed on the boy, this is when his screams get louder and more painful, resulting in a terrifying and all-around haunting scene.
4 The Shocking Twists - Oculus
Oculus is certainly one of the most underappreciated horror movies of the 2010s, mostly due to the twist that no one saw coming. The supernatural mirror seen in the film is responsible for many flashbacks and hallucinations, making the characters and audience unaware of what actually is real and what isn't. For instance, Kaylie (Karen Gillan) bites into a light bulb that we and Kaylie are led to believe is an apple. By the time the characters attempt to destroy the mirror, the mirror decides to pull a switcheroo. Tim Russel (Brenton Thwaites) finally presses the button to send the heavy anchor flying towards the mirror to destroy it.
However, we quickly learn that Tim just killed his sister, who was standing in front of the mirror this whole time, unbeknownst to Tim and the audience. A moment mirroring his childhood, Tim is once again arrested as the video footage just shows Tim blatantly murdering his sister. This scene is so incredibly shocking, that your jaw will undoubtedly have dropped to the floor for the remainder of the flick.
3 Demon Reveal - Ouija: Origin of Evil
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It's very rare for a prequel to be better than the original, but out of nowhere came Mike Flanagan's terrifying Ouija: Origin of Evil, delivering an interesting story and some disturbing visuals and jump scares. None are more scary than the first reveal of the dark figure known as Ghoul Marcus. This demonic entity has a ghastly design, with glowing orange eyes, a skinny physique, and long limbs, who also has his mouth sewn shut.
Yes, this design is scary enough, but his reveal only makes him a more horrifying antagonist and makes for the scariest scene in the movie. The whole scene is brilliantly built-up to make audiences feel uncomfortable, with Doris Zander (Lulu Wilson) asking the Ouija board, "What happened to her neck?" But, as we all know, playing with a Ouija board is a big no-no. She starts to see some spooky images, as she looks through the Ouija board's planchette, all before the haunting reveal of Ghoul Marcus before he horrifically begins to possess Doris Zander.
2 Non-Stop Jump Scares - The Midnight Club
Flanagan's latest Netflix series perhaps isn't the scariest series he has created, but this jump scare, or should we say, numerous jump scares, are utterly terrifying and have even earned itself a Guinness World Record. Flanagan won the world record for having the most jump scares in a single episode of TV ever created, with a total of 21. Mike Flanagan decided that one jump scare isn't scary enough, so instead he throws 21 jump scares at audiences in rapid, non-stop succession. Mostly of a ghoulish screaming girl, but also a brilliant and successful jump scare, using a black cat. Although not all of these jump scares succeed, you will most likely jump out of your skin for the majority of them.
1 Jump Scare in Car - The Haunting of Hill House
This scene from The Haunting of Hill House became synonymous with the show, and is easily one of the scariest and one of the most unexpected scares on TV. This tense scene between Theodora (Kate Siegel) and Shirley (Elizabeth Reeser) is hauntingly broken up, as a screaming Nell appears between them while they are driving, causing them to crash. This jump scare is completely unexpected and is easily one of the scariest moments in the series and in any Mike Flanagan project.