Mike Flanagan

Flanagan is an American writer, director and editor best known for OCULUS, ABSENTIA and HUSH. He was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1978 to Timothy and Laura Flanagan. The family relocated frequently, as Timothy was in the U.S. Coast Guard, and finally settled in Bowie, Maryland. As a child, he would shoot and edit short movies on VHS. This continued as he attended Archbishop Spalding High School in Severna Park, Maryland, where he was active in the theatre department and the president of the Student Government Association. A graduate of Towson University's Electronic Media and Film department, he began his feature film career at the age of 21, just as digital video was beginning to become a presence in film production, making several digital features as an undergraduate. In 2005, Flanagan turned to the horror genre for the first time with the short film OCULUS: Chapter 3. Planned to be one installment of an anthology series about a haunted mirror, the film shot on the miniscule budget of $2,000 went on to win over a dozen awards at film festivals around the world. In 2011, Flanagan cemented his reputation as a promising horror director with ABSENTIA, a Kickstarter-financed feature shot in and around Flanagan's Glendale, CA apartment, on a shoestring budget of $70,000. This minimalist, dread-filled feature was met with critical acclaim and also won numerous awards on the film festival circuit, establishing him as a "major new talent" (Sound on Sight) in the horror genre. OCULUS was expanded into a feature film in 2012 by Intrepid Pictures, and acquired for a wide theatrical release by Relativity Media following its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013. Trevor Macy of Intrepid Pictures then produced Flanagan's 2014 production of BEFORE I WAKE (often cited as his personal favorite original screenplay), starring Kate Bosworth and Thomas Jane. The film was acquired by Relativity Media for release, but Relativity's bankruptcy in 2015 has left the release status of BEFORE I WAKE in question. In 2015 it was announced that Flanagan had secretly made HUSH with Trevor Macy and Blumhouse Productions. Co-written by and starring Kate Siegel, HUSH premiered at the SXSW film festival before being acquired for global release by Netflix. Siegel and Flanagan married shortly before the film's premiere. In late 2015, Flanagan began production on OUIJA 2 for Universal Pictures, Platinum Dunes, and Blumhouse Productions. The sequel to the enormously successful OUIJA saw Flanagan reunited with OCULUS Producer Trevor and star Annalise Basso.