‘The Haunting of Hill House’, ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’, ‘Midnight Mass’ and ‘Goosebumps at Midnight’: With his four series, ‘Doctor Sleep’ creator Mike Flanagan has significantly enriched Netflix’s horror portfolio in recent years. ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ and ‘Midnight Mass’ in particular are among the best to come out of the genre in particular and the series landscape in general in the recent past.
Like virtually no other current mainstream horror director, Flanagan cleverly combines deeply tragic character drama with chilling horror, and does so with virtually no gross-out shock effects. We weren’t the only ones who were all the more excited about Flanagan’s Netflix series number 5, which is finally in the starting blocks: As of today, October 12, 2023, all eight episodes of “The Fall of the House of Usher“ can be streamed exclusively on Netflix.
That’s what ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ is about
Pharmaceutical company boss Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood) must answer in court for numerous alleged violations – and not for the first time. The difference this time: the prosecutor’s office led by lead investigator C. Auguste Dupin (Carl Lumbly) apparently has an informant in the ranks of the Usher family who could ensure that the dynasty is actually overthrown.
This prompts Roderick to take a bold step: he puts a bounty on the person in question. Whoever of his descendants can track down the informant will receive 50 million dollars. But it doesn’t take long before his six children gradually die…
Netflix says goodbye to Mike Flanagan
“The Fall of the House of Usher” seems like a logical continuation of Mike Flanagan’s earlier work. This time Flanagan not only used the collected works of the gothic horror master Edgar Allan Poe as a template, which he weaves in the usual way into something entirely his own.
The many characters, each contributing a piece of the puzzle to the Usher mystery spanning an epic tale spanning decades, are brought to life by numerous longtime Flanagan companions familiar from the filmmaker and series creator’s previous works ( all here would certainly be out of scope). And to top it off, this Flanagan all-star cast is joined by Star Wars legend Mark Hamill.
In line with his big Netflix finale, Mike Flanagan appears to be saying goodbye to the streaming service with a bang. The director and author has now signed a new exclusive deal with Amazon and will no longer produce his upcoming series for Netflix, but for Amazon Prime Video.
This will soon include an adaptation of Stephen King’s critically acclaimed mammoth work “The Dark Tower.” For Flanagan, it would be the third King adaptation after “The Game” and “Awakening of Doctor Sleep.” Flanagan is also currently working on a film adaptation of King’s short story “Chuck’s Life,” which will star Marvel star Tom Hiddleston and Mark Hamill.