The Intriguing Connections Between Mike Flanagan's Shows and Stephen King's Films

Mike Flanagan's Art of Self-Referencing

The scariest twist from a Mike Flanagan show might have offered a clever explanation for the ambiguous ending of a 54-year-old Stephen King movie adaptation. Mike Flanagan's work brims with references and easter eggs to his own work. For instance, The Fall of the House of Usher not only features several references to Edgar Allan Poe's poems and short stories but also drops subtle nods to the director's own movies. Similar easter eggs can be found in Flanagan's Hush and Gerald Game, both of which feature Midnight Mass as a book in their universe. Other than self-referencing his own work in his movies and shows, Flanagan also features subtle nods to classic literature and other films. Perhaps the best example of this would be the Se7en poster in Riley's room in Midnight Mass, which foreshadows how Bev Keane's blind faith would eventually consume her. In all these references, nods, and easter eggs, Mike Flanagan's shows also often walk viewers through complex ideas and concepts that somehow end up explaining the confusing plot lines of other movies and shows, weaving a strange tapestry of interconnected narratives.

Mike Flanagan as taxi driver opening the taxi door for Olivia in The Haunting of Hill House

Mike Flanagan's work is a masterful blend of self-referencing and intricate storytelling, providing a unique perspective on the interconnectedness of narratives and the underlying themes of time and fate. Through his shows, Flanagan delves into the complexity of characters and their relationships, intertwining them with the enigmatic nature of time, ultimately shedding light on the perplexing endings of classic films.

The Temporal Paradox of 'The Haunting of Hill House'

The shocking bent-neck lady twist in The Haunting of Hill House creates a temporal paradox, where Nell becomes the ghost that haunted her all her life. Through this revelation, the show highlights the cyclical and intertwined nature of her life, where time was always a loop for her. When she was alive, she could not help but perceive time linearly, but after death, she realized that the rules of time do not apply to the central house. This temporal paradox in The Haunting of Hill House portrays the tragic inevitability of Nell's fate and how she unknowingly becomes the source of her terror.

The Bent-Neck Lady in The Haunting of Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House's bent-neck lady twist also offers a convincing explanation for The Shining's confusing ending, where the camera pans to a photograph with Jack standing among partygoers from July 4, 1921. Many theories suggest that Jack might have been a reincarnation, explaining why he was in a photo that was clicked long before he was born. However, Jack's presence in the photograph can also be seen as a Hill House-esque non-linear exploration of time, where the past, present, and future are inextricably linked. The rules of time, as humans know them, simply do not exist inside the Overlook Hotel, just like they don't in Hill House.

Jack Nicholson in front of a ballroom crowd in The Shining ending photo from 1921

Parallel Universes of 'Hill House' and 'The Overlook Hotel'

Considering how Mike Flanagan has always been a Stephen King fan and even helmed The Shining's sequel, Doctor Sleep, it seems likely that he might have drawn some inspiration from the Stanley Kubrick horror adaptation. This would explain why the Overlook Hotel and Hill House share several other parallels. For instance, Hill House's 'Red Room' seems to be a play on Overlook Hotel's 'Red Rum.' Both locations were also not haunted because of what happened in them. Instead, the disturbing events that took place in their vicinity were a consequence of the locations being haunted.

The Overlook Hotel

Another interesting parallel between the two fictional landmarks is that the people who die in them become fixtures of the overarching haunting. A fascinating tidbit about the two franchises is that Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House exists as an actual novel in Stephen King's The Shining universe. A small excerpt from Stephen King's The Shining mentions Hill House and proves this: 'There was a little boy to terrorize a man and his woman to set one against the other, and if it played its cards right they could end up flitting through the Overlook's halls like insubstantial shades in a Shirley Jackson novel, whatever walked in Hill House walked alone, but you wouldn't be alone in the Overlook, oh no, there would be plenty of company here.'