Director Mike Flanagan of The Life of Chuck discusses themes of horror, hope, and insights inspired by RuPaul.

      Director Mike Flanagan, known for The Life of Chuck, spent several years in filmmaking and reality television before he broke into the industry with the low-budget supernatural horror film Absentia in 2011, funded by a Kickstarter campaign. Its success led to his long-awaited 2013 hit Oculus and many more respected horror films.

      However, his goal wasn’t just to instill fear.

      “Soon after Oculus, I came to realize that my kids would someday evaluate my work, and I asked myself, ‘What message are you leaving for them?’” Flanagan shared with MovieMaker. “My approach started to shift. Although initially, I was excited to create frightening stories with dark conclusions, I grew increasingly uneasy about exposing my children to stories filled with despair.”

      Flanagan's reputation grew with films such as Hush, Before I Wake, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and two adaptations of Stephen King’s works: Gerald’s Game (2017) and Doctor Sleep (2019). He also achieved success on television with five Netflix series over the past seven years: The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, and The Fall of the House of Usher.

      Throughout this journey, he started to “ prioritize stories that highlight hope, empathy, and bravery.” His latest film, The Life of Chuck, embodies these principles while incorporating all the lessons he has learned. Featuring Tom Hiddleston, it represents another adaptation of a Stephen King tale, focusing on humanity rather than horror.

      “I view the world as a frightening place, and I believe my children will face horror, fear, and anxiety more intensely than I did at their age,” Flanagan comments. “It’s crucial for me to tell scary stories, but I aim to narrate them in a way that encourages viewers, and my kids if they engage with them, to discover ways to be brave, to embrace empathy, forgiveness, and hope, even in the darkest and most terrifying times.”

      In our latest segment of Things I’ve Learned as a MovieMaker, Mike Flanagan shared insights on genre, lessons from a RuPaul project, and the impact of sobriety on his success. Here are his thoughts.—M.M.

      Mike Flanagan: Insights as a Moviemaker

      1. Sci-fi poses questions, while comedies provide comfort. During a conversation with Guillermo del Toro for Netflix, I described the horror genre as a “mirror,” to which Guillermo replied: “Hatred and fear are mirrors. Love is a window into another world.” I’d like to add my perspective on genres: sci-fi explores possibilities and what might occur, while comedies serve as a form of release.

      2. The scare is not the main focus of a horror film. To me, the scare is the least significant element and often the easiest to achieve. I once believed that the essence of horror was confronting someone with what fundamentally terrifies them, be it the unknown or uncomfortable truths about humanity. Nowadays, I feel it’s more crucial to address how to face that horror rather than just creating the scare.

      3. You can learn significant filmmaking lessons from unexpected places, such as editing a RuPaul music video. I dedicated five years in Los Angeles to pursue my goals, and after nine years, I was still trying to make it happen. During that time, working full-time as a reality TV editor turned out to be an incredible learning experience.

      I learned how to construct narratives from raw footage under tight deadlines and how to elicit emotions or arcs even from non-existent material in my archives. This improved everything I did. As a director, I became more adept at knowing what to capture to ensure I had all I needed during editing.

      One of my favorite reality projects was editing RuPaul’s video for “Jealous Of My Boogie,” which creatively integrated moments from that season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, a style of editing I’ve continued to use. The techniques I developed for that video assisted me in projects like Absentia and Oculus, and it remains one of the most enjoyable experiences I had while editing, even if the song is now stuck in my head.

      4. Film school is unnecessary, but studying film is vital. I've seen captivating films made with just phones, as well as costly senior thesis projects from prestigious film schools that fell short.

      Understanding past works enhances your appreciation for how today’s editing software evolved, ultimately improving your craft.

      5. Developing a vision for a story can be humbling. “Vision” is a term often overused in the industry. In my view, having a vision for a project is quite straightforward. It’s simply what you can envision—a waking dream or a light show in your mind. Translating that vision to an external screen involves hundreds of people syncing with you.

      It emerges organically in your mind, but the challenge lies in how to articulate it: how to express it on