Something Is Killing the Children: Mike Flanagan developing Netflix series

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Following The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and the upcoming shows Midnight Mass and The Midnight Club, the next series genre filmmaker Mike Flanagan is developing for the Netflix streaming service is Something Is Killing the Children, an adaptation of a Boom! Studios comic book.

Flanagan and his producing partner Trevor Macy are writing the pilot script for a Something Is Killing the Children series together, and will be executive producing the show through their company Intrepid Pictures. Boom!’s Stephen Christy, Ross Richie, and Mark Ambrose will also be executive producing, while Intrepid’s Adam Fasullo serves as co-executive producer alongside the comic book’s writer James Tynion IV and artist Werther Dell’Edera. If Netflix orders Something Is Killing the Children to series, Macy will be the showrunner.

The comic book has been a massive success for Boom! since it started reaching stores just under two years ago. The first issue has sold 175,000 copies over multiple printings, the series has sold 1.2 million copies to date, the first TPB has had four printings, and the book – which has been translated into ten languages – has won several awards. The first story arc tells of

a town plagued by monsters that feast on children, with one teen survivor telling tales that no adult believes. Into this scenario enters a mysterious young woman named Erica Slaughter. The woman, who occasionally converses with her stuffed animal, isn’t there to mince words but rather to mince monsters.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Tynion’s writing incorporates flashes of gripping horror against drama infused by grief, alienation, family dynamics and LGBTQ themes, while the art is somber.” They also point out that Erica Slaughter has proven to be quite popular, and has even inspired cosplayers.

I had never heard of Something Is Killing the Children before this announcement, but it sounds interesting, and anything Flanagan is involved with always has my attention. We’ll keep you updated on this project as it moves forward.