Mike Flanagan’s previous comments about Netflix refusing to release his shows on Blu-ray and DVD have gone viral after recirculating on social media.
Last year, the creator of popular Netflix horror series including The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher said the streamer was “actively hostile” to putting out his work on physical media while responding to a fan question on his blog.
“In the years I worked at Netflix, I tried very hard to get them to release my work on Blu-ray and DVD. They refused at every turn,” Flanagan wrote. “It became clear very fast that their only priority was subscriptions, and that they were actively hostile to the idea of physical media.”
He continued, “While they had some lingering obligations on certain titles, or had partnerships who still valued physical media, and had flirted with releasing juggernaut hits like Stranger Things, that wasn’t at all their priority. In fact, they were very actively trying to eliminate those kinds of releases from their business model.”
Flanagan went on to call out streamers in general for removing content on a whim. “The danger comes when a title is only available on one platform, and then — for whatever reason — is removed. We have already seen this happen,” he wrote. “If those titles existed on the marketplace on physical media, like HBO’s Westworld, the loss is somewhat mitigated (though only somewhat.) But when titles do not exist elsewhere, they are potentially gone forever.”
He then explained The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor are only available on Blu-ray and DVD because they were co-produced with Paramount, which “retained the physical media rights for those titles, and were permitted to release them.”
However, his Netflix originals — including Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, and Fall of the House of Usher — were not protected in the same way and thus physical releases were “entirely at Netflix’s discretion.”
This has led to Flanagan seeking out physical copies of his own work through “bootleg” Blu-rays created by people who use “other means.” Describing his unofficial Midnight Mass Blu-rays, Flanagan said, “I found these online, it wasn’t difficult, and it wasn’t expensive. I’m told the quality of torrent sites is pretty great. And honestly, at this point, given Netflix’s position on the matter… I’m very glad they exist.”
Unfortunately, there is even less motivation for studios to create physical releases since Flanagan shared his comments last year. Not only has Netflix shut down DVD rentals, but Best Buy confirmed it was phasing out DVD and Blu-ray sales.
Flanagan has since moved to Amazon for his current TV deal, but his next big project is a “radical new take” on The Exorcist for Blumhouse.