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 Flangan’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’s Best Netflix Twist Recreated A Chilling Scene From A 15-Year-Old Obscure Horror Movie
The best twist in a Mike Flanagan Netflix show was seemingly inspired by a terrifying scene from an obscure but brilliant 15-year-old horror movie.
Haunting Of Hill House’s Bent-Neck Lady Twist Might Explain The Shining’s Ending
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 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.
Hill House And The Overlook Hotel Share Several Other Parallels
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.
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.”
The Haunting of Hill House
Loosely based on Shirley Jackson’s novel of the same name, The Haunting of Hill House follows the Crain family’s experience in their beautiful – and deadly – home. With a story told using two timelines simultaneously, The Haunting of Hill House chronicles both the haunting itself, and the lasting effect it had on the Crain children as they struggle through adulthood decades later. Directed by Mike Flanagan as the first entry in his Haunting anthology, The Haunting of Hill House features a large ensemble cast including Michiel Huisman, Elizabeth Reaser, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Kate Siegel, Victoria Pedretti, Carla Gugino, and Henry Thomas.
- Release Date
- October 12, 2018
- Cast
- Michiel Huisman , Carla Gugino , Henry Thomas , Elizabeth Reaser , Oliver Jackson-Cohen , Kate Siegel , Victoria Pedretti , Lulu Wilson , Mckenna Grace
- Genres
- Drama , Supernatural , Horror
- Rating
- TV-MA
- Seasons
- 1
- Story By
- Shirley Jackson, Mike Flanagan
- Writers
- Mike Flanagan
- Streaming Service(s)
- Netflix
- Directors
- Mike Flanagan
- Showrunner
- Mike Flanagan
