Hill House & Bly Manor Team Noticed “Changes” in Netflix Relationship Before Moving to Amazon

Netflix managed to score some mainstream horror TV success stories in The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor anthology series – thanks to a creative team that included showrunner/producer Mike Flanagan, and executive producer Trevor Macy. The successes of Hill House and Bly Manor led to the continued success of Flanagan and Macy’s Midnight Mass miniseries – but more recently things hit a wall. 

Flanagan and Macy once again partnered on a horror-drama project – this time a YA horror show called The Midnight Club that was intended to run several seasons. Well, Midnight Club was canceled by Netflix after one season, and around the same time it announced that Flanagan and Macy signed a new exclusive multiyear deal with Amazon Studios, effectively breaking their longtime relationship with Netflix. 

So what happened? 

Haunting of Hill House Creators Address “Changes” at Netflix 

In a new interview, Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy address what led them to break ranks with Netflix and head to Amazon. According to the two creators, they began noticing changes at Netflix that made them reconsider renewing their deal:

“I think it’s safe to say that a lot has changed in the industry and Netflix in the four years since we started our deal,” Flanagan explained to Deadline. “So, as this year started and we knew we were coming up to the end of it, we thought it would be very prudent to stick our heads out, look around and see what else may be there for us. Given how much change everything’s gone through in the last few years, we were feeling like there might be a better fit for us, and we’re very much feeling like Amazon is that.”

That’s a very prudent way of saying that ‘things got weird at Netflix’ and it was time to seek out greener pastures. Flanagan went on to get specific about how changes in Netflix leadership and policy changed things for him and Macy: 

“When we came to Netflix, Cindy Holland was still heading it – I think we felt a real alignment in our priorities. I don’t think we were feeling as strongly for the last year for sure, but the last couple of years really,” Flanagan admitted. “It’s amazing how much has changed; the whole town feels completely different since then. I think it was definitely inevitable that you’re going to look around.”

Trevor Macy was more even more diplomatic in referencing how Netflix’s financial and subscriber challenges became major news as competitors like Disney+, HBO Max, and Prime Video gain ground in teh market: 

“We’ve had some success with Netflix but they’ve had quite a year. And, they’re exploring how they’re going to respond to that as a company. We’ve noticed changes in our relationship with them — not all bad but we’re in a different place, and we felt earlier this year that we should look around for somebody on whose service our stuff might be a better fit.”

While those explanations are fine, they don’t necesarrily account for what happened to a show like The Midnight Club. Was it underserved by Netflix, or just an idea that Flanagan and Macy had that quite hit? At the very least, brand perception and format will be different at Amazon, which is focused on building major blockbuster-sized content brands on Prime Video, as well as a dedication to weekly episodic viewing as opposed to binge releases. 

You can still watch Flanagan and Macy’s Netflix series now.