Mike Flanagan has the creative leeway to do pretty much whatever he wants under the terms of his exclusive Netflix development deal, but the filmmaker is sticking to what he knows best. The Doctor Sleep and Oculus director is working on yet another episodic horror series for the platform based on acclaimed comic book Something is Killing the Children.
Flanagan and regular creative collaborator Trevor Macy are co-writing and executive producing the project with an eye toward shooting a pilot in the hopes Netflix will give the green light to a full series order, with Macy set to act as showrunner. There’s no word on whether or not Flanagan will direct any of the episodes, but the smart money would be on him helming at least the first installment.
Something is Killing Children takes place in the sleepy town of Archer’s Peak in rural America, where a string of youngsters start to go missing. Most of them never return, but the ones who do come burdened with terrifying tales of monsters. Mysterious stranger Erica Slaughter shows up on the scene, and as you can probably guess from her name, takes matters into her own hands and seeks to eradicate the creatures plaguing the town, which sounds right up Flanagan’s street.
Not content with creating acclaimed smash hits The Haunting of Hill House and spiritual successor The Haunting of Bly Manor, Flanagan already has another two shows in various stages of production for the streamer. Midnight Mass is wrapped and expected to premiere before the end of this year, while the similarly titled but unrelated The Midnight Club finishes production later this month, with Something is Killing the Children looking like it’ll be next on the docket.