For Towson commencement, filmmaker and alum Mike Flanagan will share message of persistence and hope

Filmmaker Mike Flanagan is best known for the way he haunts the screen. But if the 46-year-old writer and director could tell his younger self that his success would come from horror movies, it would be frightening news.

“As a kid, I was actually terrified of horror. I avoided it,” said Flanagan, who will speak at commencement for his alma mater Towson University on Wednesday. “If my friends were watching a scary movie, I would pretend to be sick so I could go home from their house.”

Flanagan turned to books...