Summary
- With a lack of new fall horror content, Netflix is saving Halloween season with the highly anticipated gothic horror series “The Fall of the House of Usher” from Mike Flanagan.
- The director’s previous work has been praised for weaving horror with themes of grief, loss, religion, and alienation.
- A stellar cast and Flanagan’s cerebral brand of horror make “The Fall of the House of Usher” the shining high point of the lackluster fall horror landscape.
With the release of the upcoming gothic horror series The Fall of the House of Usher, Netflix may have saved the Halloween season. Showrunner and director Mike Flanagan has become a Netflix stalwart thanks to his work on Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Hill House, and The Haunting of Bly Manor. His adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s work is one of the most anticipated of the year.
The Fall of the House of Usher is one of Poe’s most-loved works and the perfect pairing for Flanagan’s gothic, slow-burn tendencies. The short story follows an unnamed narrator who goes to visit his childhood friend, Roderick Usher, and Roderick’s sister, Madeline, in their ancestral mansion. They are the last of the Usher bloodline and both are sick and ailing, both in mind and body. The narrator’s visit soon turns into a nightmarish scenario in which he watches his friend and his friend’s sister decline and the house fall. It immediately becomes a great series for October.
Mike Flanagan’s Fall of the House of Usher Is Now The Most Exciting Release For The Halloween Season
While Netflix tends to keep a lid on release dates until much closer to release, the excitement for Mike Flanagan’s next series spurred the streamer to announce it earlier than usual. Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher has gotten an official release date of October 12 on Netflix. With that news, it officially becomes the most anticipated release of the Halloween season. While most of that is due to the exciting nature of the show itself, it’s also because the rest of the Halloween TV and movie season is rather lackluster.
Aside from The Exorcist: Believer, which is hitting theaters the same weekend, there’s not much in the way of new horror content hitting big or small screens this year. The new season of American Horror Story premieres in mid-September, but the long-running series has lacked a real scare factor for a while. Upcoming new horror shows Welcome to Derry and Crystal Lake don’t appear to be releasing any time soon, and have not yet gotten release dates. Chucky season 3 may be hitting the small screen this fall, but there’s no confirmation yet. At the moment, The Fall of the House of Usher is the only new horror offering on tap for October.
Why Expectations For Fall of the House of Usher Are So High
Netflix struck gold when it signed Mike Flanagan to his first Netflix Original series. Every single one of his Netflix series has been praised by critics and audiences alike, generating weeks of discussion among viewers and accolades for the deft way he weaves horror together with themes of grief, loss, religion, and alienation. Flanagan has shown himself to be adept and thoughtful when it comes to translating horror literature to the screen, previously the work of Shirley Jackson, Christopher Pike, and Stephen King, and now Edgar Allan Poe.
What makes it better is that Flanagan is bringing back a number of actors from his previously acclaimed Netflix shows; audiences know that the combination of these actors and this writer and director have made magic before and almost certainly will again. Whether they’re returning Flanagan veterans or not, The Fall of the House of Usher‘s stellar cast includes Rahul Kohli, Malcolm Goodwin, Mark Hamill, Kate Siegel, Carla Gugino, Carl Lumbly, and other talented names. Flanagan’s cerebral brand of horror may not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s always quality. With the fall horror landscape looking rather bleak, The Fall of the House of Usher is guaranteed to be the shining high point of the Halloween season.