Mike Flanagan, most known for creating recent horror TV hits like The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass, has said that he would love to direct a horror video game. The Netflix alum is known for weaving complex human stories into an eerie horror atmosphere, making his creations some of the most popular content on the streaming giant. It's also not the first time he has talked about working on a video game in the future.
Regarding his recent affirmation, Flanagan said he "would LOVE to" in response to a fan tagging him in their wish for him to make a horror video game on Twitter. The writer/director has been promoting his new Netflix horror mini-series, Midnight Mass, on the social media platform, so has been quite active on the platform recently. This single tweet has received more attention than many others, sitting at over 5,000 likes, and hundreds of comments and retweets from people like Troy Baker, and Wes Keltner, the co-creator of Friday the 13th: The Game.
There has been rampant fan-casting in the comments, with people airing their wishes for Flanagan to take on projects like Silent Hill, House of The Dead, Clock Tower, or to work with The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog. While the attention of such a notorious horror director might sway these titles and studios to hand a big franchise to him, Flanagan might follow in the footsteps of Host writer Jed Shepherd and turn his movie and TV talents into an original IP, like Shepherd is doing with the crowdfunded live-action horror video game, Ghosts.
Flanagan first made his wish to make a horror video game public during Netflix Geeked Week in June this year. During a conversation with actor and collaborator Raul Kohli while the latter played the scary Resident Evil Village, the horror director responded to Kohil's question "Would you ever take your talents to the video game world?" With "I would love to, I would absolutely love to." In the same interview, Flanagan admitted that "horror video games are a big nope for me, especially first person stuff," which would make the prospect of turning his talents to a first-person horror title a very interesting possibility.
Although a lot of horror video games depend on jumpscares and have little character development, it would be unlikely for The Haunting of Hill House creator to make a game like this, as he is known for his character writing, as well as his terrifying scares. Reinforcing this in the Geeked Week interview, he said "Having time to spend with characters and atmosphere--I want that over scares, everytime. If you care about people, the scares land". This philosophy makes the fan cries for collaboration with Naughty Dog make a lot of sense, as the developer has come to be known for its excellent character and story writing.