Beloved Director’s Netflix Horror Shows Rejected from DVD and Blu-ray Releases

Summary

• Physical media for Netflix shows like
  The Haunting of Hill House
  remains unlikely due to Netflix’s prioritization of subscriptions.
• Fans fear Mike Flanagan’s Netflix-exclusive horror series could disappear from the platform without a physical release.
• Despite his efforts, Flanagan was unable to get Netflix to release his shows on Blu-ray or DVD.

Master of horror Mike Flanagan responded to his calls Netflix shows to be released on physical media. Over the past year, it has become clear that finding your favorite movie or TV series on a streaming platform is something that can become difficult if the streamer in question decides to remove titles from its available catalog. This is something fans fear could happen to director Flanagan’s popular horror shows, including The Haunting of Hill House It is Midnight Mass. Flanagan revealed that he tried to get Netflix to release his shows in physical formats, but they refused.

Like many multimedia formats that have reached the end of their useful life, physical media like DVDs and Blu-rays seemed destined to go the way of the VHS tape in the boom of streaming platforms, where anything and everything is – mostly – available. at the touch of a button. However, in recent years there has been a new surge in interest in once again owning a real copy of new movies and TV shows that were originally streaming exclusives. It seems like Flanagan is a big proponent of seeing his creations hit the shelves, but so far his attempts to make that happen have been unsuccessful. According to a post by the President of Physical Media on X/Twitter, Flanagan said:

“During 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. It became clear very quickly that their only priority was subscribers, and that they were actively hostile to the idea of ​​physical media. This is a very dangerous point of view. Although companies like Netflix pride themselves on being disruptive and have proven that they can affect major changes in the industry, they sometimes fail to see the difference between disruption and disruption. can end up, intentionally or unintentionally, causing enormous damage to the very concept of film preservation.”

One of the reasons many people are eager to get their hands on a copy of popular streaming titles comes down to the way any streamer can release titles overnight, even their own exclusives. This happened with the Disney+ series Willow tree, which was removed from the platform after poor initial reception from fans. This means that no one can currently watch the series anywhere – without resorting to piracy, which is on the rise again.

Flanagan’s work at Netflix has been prolific and well-received, but now that the director has switched his allegiance to Amazon Studios, fans are worried that Netflix might decide to shelve his work. Whether this happens or not, the chances of seeing The Midnight Club or The Fall of the House of Usher being released in another format seems like a small thing, as Netflix hasn’t released any of its exclusive shows on physical media, forcing fans to remain subscribers to its service if they want to watch them.

Recently, Disney has finally started releasing its original wave of Marvel TV shows – WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter SoldierIt is Loki – on DVD and Blu-Ray. With the titles originally releasing in 2021, it took a few years for Disney to give many fans what they were asking for, but it remains to be seen whether Netflix will follow suit. Flanagan certainly doesn’t have much hope of seeing his shows released in these formats anytime soon, but if any of them disappear from the platform, we can expect to hear a lot about it from fans on social media.