Since 2018, writer director Mike Flanagan has created 5 horror miniseries for Netflix – The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, and now his latest, The Fall of the House of Usher. Flanagan is one of my favorite directors, and he’s definitely my favorite horror director, so I have checked all of them out and think they’re all worth your time. This latest one, though, is really something a bit different in a way that really impressed me. Where Hill House and Bly Manor were classic examples of dread and terror in storytelling, Midnight Mass was something of a psychological horror masterpiece and The Midnight Club was a spooky YA series that reminded me of Goosebumps. But The Fall of the House of Usher is more what I would describe as black humor by way of horror. There is some gruesome, show-stopping horror set pieces, but the show as a whole is actually a satire.
The basic premise of The Fall of the House of Usher is that Flanagan and his co-writers and co-director Michael Fimognari took the various stories of Edgar Allen Poe and used them as a blueprint for the takedown of a wealthy pharmaceutical family who is being sued for their role in the opioid crisis. However, as the court case gets rolling, the members of the family begin dying one by one. The deaths and much of the story comes from Poe’s writing, so those familiar with his works will see scenes reminiscent of classics like The Tell Tale Heart, The Raven, The Pit and the Pendulum, and so many more. As has become tradition, Flanagan brings along many of the actors from his past projects, and this series also adds Mark Hamil to the mix. Hamil, along with Flanagan mainstays Kate Siegel, Rahul Kohli, Cara Gugino, and Bruce Greenwood all give incredible performances, bolstering the series with star turn after star turn.
Like so many Flanagan series and movies, I came for the atmospheric horror and the adaptation of a classic work of literature, but I stayed for the phenomenal acting and the deepling empathic and emotional writing. After five of these Netflix horror miniseries, I’m still all the way sucked in to Flanagan’s brand of horror storytelling, and would absolutely stick around for five more if he so chooses to make them.
All five of Flanagan’s miniseries, including The Fall of the House of Usher, are now streaming on Netflix.
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