Mike Flanagan may have single-handedly* reinvented TV horror with the one-two punch of his Netflix anthology series, The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor. (*Including, of course, Flanagan's talented cast and crew, and the long-standing works the contemporary retellings are based on.) In both the 2018 series and 2020's own follow-up tale, Flanagan's angle opted to put twists and turns on horror tropes while fully steeping his stories in the genre itself. Are there jump scares, phobias, and supernatural spooksters from the unimaginable beyond? Yes, of course. But the real horror in The Haunting of episodes is in the very real psychological terror that haunts every one of us and the evils we do to each other.

Flanagan understood as much. That's why he chose the works of Shirley Jackson and Henry James for his Haunting of anthology series. First reimagining Jackson's own 1959 gothic horror novel "The Haunting of Hill House" for the titular series, then adapting multiple Henry James' works like "The Turn of the Screw," "Owen Wingrave," "The Jolly Corner," "Sir Edmund Orme," "The Romance of Certain Old Clothes," and "The Beast in the Jungle", Flanagan seems to have found his groove in making old horror new again. So one wonders, with two The Haunting of titles under his belt and enjoying critical and viewership success, what's next?

That's our question, anyway. We can't wait to watch the next haunted house story from the mind of Flanagan, but also can't help to wonder what source material he'll draw upon next. We're so enthusiastic, in fact, that we've done some of the heavy lifting in the meantime. What follows is our suggestions for Season 3 of the fantastic horror anthology series, The Haunting of ...

The Many Disturbing Works of Edgar Allan Poe

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So far, The Haunting of stories have mainly focused on a malevolent force embodied by an overlarge house, a cast of psychologically damaged characters wondering if they are in fact going crazy, and a compelling mystery tying those two aspects together. Poe basically made his career on those very same tenets. What better collection of oddities to pull from for Season 3 of The Haunting of series?

Honestly, the more difficult question here is which of Poe's many stories do you focus on? Or which ones to you include at the expense of the many, many others? Well, to that end, we've put together the short stories that focus mainly on mysterious circumstances taking place in an infamous abode. These range from immense elaborate estates meant for the upper echelon of society, to asylums and morgues, to the rather mundane dwelling in which cold, calculated murders take place. Here are our favorites.

The Masque of the Red Death

Boy, 2020, am I right? What a time to revisit this classic Poe piece in which the 1%ers -- notably royal lords and ladies -- sequester themselves in a castellated abbey to avoid the common rabble and the plague known as the Red Death. Far from observing social distancing measures, the well-to-do invitees of Prince Prospero engage in a lavish party, throwing all other caution to the wind as they think themselves safe behind closed doors. The problem is that even the most isolated estate with the stoutest of doors can't keep death at bay.

This story could serve as a wonderful anchor piece for Flanagan should he choose to go a bit on-the-nose with social commentary, but it's also a rather colorful one for the production design team to have a literal ball with. And even if it's not the only story told in The Haunting of, it'd make for a great root tale complemented by the others on this list.

The Fall of the House of Usher & The Haunted Palace

This is honestly the first haunted house that came to mind when thinking of a third season of The Haunting of. When first seeing the title country house situated near a mountain lake, the unnamed remarks upon the sizable crack extending from the house's roof all the way down through its foundation and into the grounds toward the lake itself. That's a powerful visual note and a fantastic metaphor to play with as the show goes on. It's the Usher siblings and their ill-fated demise in the fracturing house that form the core mystery here, one that's hinted at and interrupted by "The Mad Trist", a fairy tale of sorts and "The Haunted Palace", a musical poem also written by Poe. These additional bits of fiction give Flanagan plenty more fantasy fodder and room to play, much like the origin story of Bly Manor provided for a full episode outside of the current timeline.

The Premature Burial, The Black Cat, and The Cask of Amontillado

When it comes to Poe's go-to phobias, being buried alive pops up more often than not. These three short stories, along with a plot point in The Fall of the House of Usher, center on the horrifying prospect of being buried before shuffling off that mortal coil. These stories in particular span the range of the macabre from a mere unhealthy obsession with the fear of death and being buried alive, to animal torture and murder, to outright premeditated murder of fellow human beings. Regardless of how these stories would be handled in The Haunting of, the fear of being buried alive is an intimate one that is broadly relatable but rarely displayed in modern horror these days. Flanagan's next haunted house could hold more than just secrets and mysteries in its depths.

Berenice

Another "buried alive" story from Poe, this one strikes more romantic and personal chords than the above-mentioned titles. It also ups the creepiness factor by a few factors. One of Poe's other central themes is that of an unexplained and incurable illness afflicting a main character, and in the case of "Berenice", it's the title character who suffers this misfortune.

Berenice is the once-beautiful cousin to the obsessive, amnesiac Egaeus, but she herself suffers from an unnamed degenerative disease and bouts of catalepsy. As both of the characters' maladies progress throughout the story, things end rather grisly, both with a premature burial of the former, and a grave-robbing, teeth-collecting ::shudder:: incident committed by the latter. It's about as creepy as Poe gets, and Flanagan could sure tweak the story to suit his needs.

The Oval Portrait

Portrait play a big role in The Haunting of series, so why not bring a companion piece to the fellow 19th century work "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" into the mix? This short story of Poe's, one of his shortest, once again deals with nearsighted obsession; a fascination with fading, transient beauty; and a supernatural force that transcends human frailty and weakness. More interestingly, it starts out with the unnamed narrator seeking refuge in an abandoned building, a theme that's repeated on occasion in Poe's work. That could make for a curious kernel of an idea for how disparate and unrelated characters come to inhabit the same haunted house in Season 3. As for "The Oval Portrait," it's a quick tale to tell, but a creepy one to experience, and a perfect fit for The Haunting of...

The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether

About as close to dark humor as Poe gets, this short story has a Shyamalan-worthy twist near the end. Having the benefit of some 150 years of fiction and, yeah, you might see it coming, but the "inmates are running the asylum" idea would make for a fun bit of storytelling for Flanagan & Co.

The Pit and the Pendulum

While I don't expect Flanagan's next The Haunting of... to include torture victims of the Spanish Inquisition, this story features perhaps Poe's most famous psychologically scarring setup. A prisoner is confined in a totally dark pit, using only their own clothing and wits to suss out the nature of their predicament. Having barely dodged certain death multiple times, they eventually find themselves strapped to a wooden frame with a razor-sharp blade suspended above them, swinging back and forth on a slowly descending pendulum. It's tailormade for suspense and makes your skin crawl at the same time. I don't know how Flanagan would work such a SAW-worthy aspect into The Haunting of, but featuring a similar device in the subterranean crypt of the haunted house would certainly up the intensity a bit.

The Tell-Tale Heart

Back to the buried alive motif, this story is perhaps the best instance of the phobia mixed with the Flanagan-friendly idea of psychological torment derived from guilt. Poe focuses more on the emotional side of murder -- both the events leading up to it and the resulting effects from it -- than the reason for the murder itself, but explanations of the irrational behavior of human beings was never really his strong suit. Besides, you spend enough time being watched by a "vulture-eyed" old man and see how long your sanity holds out.

Murders in the Rue Morgue

One of Poe's acclaimed detective stories, this classic tale includes a seemingly impossible double murder and conflicting witness testimonies. It also includes an absolutely ridiculous solution that no one in their right mind could have seen coming, which is why Poe was the perfect person to write it. Could Flanagan fold in the insane and unpredictable events of "Murders in the Rue Morgue" into Season 3 of The Haunting of...? We doubt it, but we live to be surprised!

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There's plenty of Poe to work with, but if Flanagan wants to go for something a little less obvious, we've put these suggestions out into the collective unconscious for good measure.

Wilkie Collins’ 'The Woman in White'

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Image via Penguin

Contemporary to Poe and Henry James comes Wilkie Collins's 1859 novel, The Woman in White, widely regarded as one of the first mystery novels and an early forerunner of the sensation sub-genre of literary novels. It may be a little less on the supernatural side, but what it lacks in spooky scares it more than makes up for in psychological torment.

Check out the synopsis (via Amazon):

The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter is drawn into the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his "charming" friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons and poison.

Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism.

'Hell House' by Richard Matheson

For a more contemporary take on haunted houses, we turn to acclaimed horror writer

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Image via Tor Books

Richard Matheson and the 1971 novel "Hell House." Though the story's roots are undeniably grown from the other entries in this list, Matheson's angle of spiritualism versus science is a rich one from which to mine content. And if it scared Stephen King, it should scare just about everyone else.

Here's the synopsis (via Amazon):

Rolf Rudolph Deutsch is going die. But when Deutsch, a wealthy magazine and newpaper publisher, starts thinking seriously about his impending death, he offers to pay a physicist and two mediums, one physical and one mental, $100,000 each to establish the facts of life after death.

Dr. Lionel Barrett, the physicist, accompanied by the mediums, travel to the Belasco House in Maine, which has been abandoned and sealed since 1949 after a decade of drug addiction, alcoholism, and debauchery. For one night, Barrett and his colleagues investigate the Belasco House and learn exactly why the townfolks refer to it as the Hell House.

The Haunting of Starship 'Event Horizon'

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Image via Paramount Pictures

Okay, this one obviously pushes the boundaries and sensibilities of Flanagan's The Haunting of... by quite a few (million) miles, but how fun would it be see a haunted house story ::echoey voice:: in spaaaaace? One of the best examples of that idea is the 1997 Paul W.S. Anderson sci-fi flick Event Horizon. Don't write this one off; it's a wild, psychologically tormented ride through every individual crew member's worst nightmares and guiltiest secrets, all of which come to bear in a perceived reality thanks to the sentient ship's trip into an alternate hellish dimension. Yeah, it's wild stuff, and we'd love to see more of it!

Here's the synopsis:

When the Event Horizon, a spacecraft that vanished years earlier, suddenly reappears, a team is dispatched to investigate the ship. Accompanied by the Event Horizon's creator, William Weir (Sam Neill), the crew of the Lewis and Clark, led by Capt. Miller (Laurence Fishburne), begins to explore the seemingly abandoned vessel. However, it soon becomes evident that something sinister resides in its corridors, and that the horrors that befell the Event Horizon's previous journey are still present.

'House of Leaves' by Mark Z. Danielewski

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Image via Pantheon

"You said it was a horror story, but it's actually a love story." That paraphrasing can be used to describe either Flanagan's existing The Haunting of... series or the work of Mark Z. Danielewski in his debut novel "House of Leaves." This non-traditional novel has a lot going on between the many, many pages, but at its core is a house that appears much larger on the inside than seems possible by its exterior. That's barely scratching the surface of this many-layered tale, which is what makes it perfect for someone like Flanagan and an anthology like The Haunting of...

Here's the synopsis (via Amazon):

Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth -- musicians, tattoo artists, programmers, strippers, environmentalists, and adrenaline junkies -- the book eventually made its way into the hands of older generations, who not only found themselves in those strangely arranged pages but also discovered a way back into the lives of their estranged children.

Now, for the first time, this astonishing novel is made available in book form, complete with the original colored words, vertical footnotes, and newly added second and third appendices.

The story remains unchanged, focusing on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story -- of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.

V. C. Andrews' 'Flowers in the Attic'

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Image via Gallery Books

Buckle up for this one because ... yikes. If you're not already familiar with V.C. Andrews' controversial work "Flowers in the Attic," it suffices for now to say that the 1979 gothic novel was but the first in the long-running series of stories following the Dollanganger Family. But boy does this first book pack in a lot of storytelling, so much so in fact that it's easy to say, "Yup, that's enough for me," after only reading the first novel. That first book may just be enough for Flanagan & Co. as well, though the option to continue the story certainly exists.

Here's the synopsis (via Amazon):

At the top of the stairs there are four secrets hidden—blond, innocent, and fighting for their lives…

They were a perfect and beautiful family—until a heartbreaking tragedy shattered their happiness. Now, for the sake of an inheritance that will ensure their future, the children must be hidden away out of sight, as if they never existed. They are kept in the attic of their grandmother’s labyrinthine mansion, isolated and alone. As the visits from their seemingly unconcerned mother slowly dwindle, the four children grow ever closer and depend upon one another to survive both this cramped world and their cruel grandmother. A suspenseful and thrilling tale of family, greed, murder, and forbidden love, Flowers in the Attic is the unputdownable first novel of the epic Dollanganger family saga.

R.L Stine's 'Welcome to Dead House'

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Image via Scholastic Paperback

Things got a little serious with that last entry so let's lighten it up somewhat with one of my childhood favorites: R.L. Stine's "Welcome to Dead House", the first in the best-selling Goosebumps series. Is the kid-focused story about a home for wayward, blood-drinking zombies a bit too tropey and childish for the likes of Flanagan? Maybe. But maybe there's something to the spectacular success of the Goosebumps series that's worth another look from a more mature perspective.

Here's another look at the synopsis to refresh your memory (via Amazon):

11-year-old Josh and 12-year-old Amanda just moved into the oldest and weirdest house on the block--the two siblings think it might even be haunted! But of course, their parents don't believe them. You'll get used to it, they say. Go out and make some new friends.

But the creepy kids are not like anyone Josh and Amanda have ever met before. And when they take a shortcut through the cemetery one night, Josh and Amanda learn why.