Mike Flanagan’s next limited series for Netflix is The Fall Of The House Of Usher
A new adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's classic short story is coming soon
Aux News Mike Flanagan
Mike Flanagan’s latest Netflix limited series Midnight Mass premiered at the end of September, and he already has a new show in the works. Netflix announced that Flanagan’s next limited series will be The Fall Of The House Of Usher, based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story of the same name.
Not much has been revealed about it yet. But what we do know is that the series will be 8 episodes long. Netflix also shared that Michael Fimognari, who worked with Flanagan as a cinematographer on Midnight Mass and Hill House, and directed both of the To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before sequels, will be directing half of the episodes. Flanagan will be directing the rest of the series.
Though Netflix hasn’t confirmed it yet, fans can likely expect Kate Seigel (who’s appeared in every Netflix Flanagan project) to star in this one, too.
Roger Corman’s 1960 adaptation of The Fall Of The House Of Usher (with the shortened title House Of Usher) starring Vincent Price is one of the biggest horror classics, but having Flanagan give the story a modern-day spin is certainly intriguing.
There’s no logline for the Netflix series yet. However, the original story is about a man who enters the House Of Usher, a spooky mansion owned by his childhood friend Roderick Usher. Usher invites the narrator over after falling ill with “acute bodily illness,” a mental disorder that makes him hypersensitive to all senses. No spoilers on what happens next (though the story’s been out for centuries), but let’s just say it fits within Flanagan’s The Haunting theme.
And speaking of The Haunting, Flanagan told Entertainment Weekly in 2020 that there are no currently plans for a third installment of the anthology series, as he focuses on other projects that are part of his overall deal with Netflix.
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Oh wow! I called that one since it was the most next obvious “House” for him to do. I quite liked Midnight Mass. He managed to capture the personality of religious communities really well before turning it on its head so gothically.
“I called that one since it was the most next obvious “House” for him to do.”
What do you mean “next obvious House”? He’s only done one.
I have to disagree on Midnight Mass. It felt like he took a fairly bland character drama about grief and loss and just threw a vampire (sorry, an angel) in to give it broader appeal.It’s almost like a Linklater film – something like Waking Life – where characters just sit around talking at each other in extended philosophical monologues but he knew netflix would never fund that so he slapped a southern gothic veneer on it and sold it as horror.
Was it about “grief and loss”? Because to me it was about “sin” and how we deal with being wronged and wronging others. It’s also about specifically how humans react in the face of their own mortality. Grief and loss was a minor element. Like, it’s a story where a bunch of Christians are so desperate not to die that they’ll fall down and worship a demon.
This could work pretty well. The original story is very atmospheric but not sure how they show could keep that up for 8 episodes. The story is like two pages at most.
By making it a drawn-out family drama in which the original story is treated as a jumping-off point rather than a thing to be adapted wholesale.
I expect multiple episodes showing the family’s back stories.
Let me preface this by saying I’ve liked more Flanagan projects than I’ve disliked. Most recently, I liked Midnight Mass quite a bit. It wasn’t perfect, but overall it was quite enjoyable.
That being said, get ready for what you’ve always thought Poe stories have been sorely missing: Long, overwrought speeches and many saccharine metaphors for struggle, relationships, life and death and such.Very good director, so-so writer. I am reluctantly looking forward to it, I guess.
Midnight Mass was pretty decent right up until the last episode, where Flanagan laid it on way too thick with a bunch of extremely off-putting overly sentimental bullshit about life and death. The star of the whole show was definitely the priest, thanks to excellent acting from Hamish Linklater (whom I wasn’t previously familiar with) and just a generally well-written character.
Flanagan clearly worships the ground Stephen King walks on, and I suppose fumbling the ball right at the end is just one more thing he took from his idol.
He fumbled hard on Hill House. I liked the ending of Bly Manor but endings aren’t his strong suit.
That character was great, although I also noticed that Linklater really elevated the material with his performance. So did Samantha Sloyan. All the other actors couldn’t quite breathe life into their meandering monologues.But I think many things about the writing were quite commendable, otherwise. I noticed the writing was much, much better in scenes where the word count was lower and the characters actually spoke with each other instead of at each other.Flanagan need not quit writing altogether, but he could really use an editor who is absolutely ruthless. And I guess we’re gonna see how this Poe thing works out, but generally I think he should stay away from classic literature. The likes of Stephen King are definitely more up his alley than, say, Shirley Jackson.
I would love to see some new Poe adaptations, but I think Guillermo del Toro would be able to handle that material a lot better. I already think of him as a kind of contemporary Roger Corman, specifically with respect to the Poe cycle movies with Vincent Price. Of course, I will give Flanagan a chance with his take.Flanagan’s first movie, Absentia, is still my favorite, and sometimes I think he’d do well to have his budget severely restricted again, perhaps in addition to the ruthless editor that you suggested.
Yeah, Absentia was pretty neat. I first saw it two years ago and I still have nightmares about it. My personal favorite was “Oculus”, which had a higher budget, but still far from Netflix money, I suppose.Del Toro would be a good choice, yeah. I would also give 90s Tim Burton a chance, if he still exists.
I read about the tete a tete in the second episode and how it was originally a 12 minute exchange between the two characters in the rec room, but it got cut down to 8 minutes by the final episode and I didn’t realize it was that long. In Hill House I particularly dug two of the long monologues (the woman picturing her husband in the first episode and the far longer very gradual zoom in on a caretaker’s face somewhere buried in the middle) and if anything I thought that some of the Midnight Mass exchanges (or mostly between the teens) seemed a little off. I’m about two and a half episodes in however and maybe there is pay off?
Linklater was very good in FX’s Legion.
I kind of love the mix of horror and soapy melodrama. Lots of American horror these days is some mix of police procedural and action movie, so I kind of love something committed to the tone of dreariness and haunted people experiencing the supernatural.
And about 6-7 episodes too many…
“and he already has a new show in the works.”
Beyond the already-shot Midnight Club, you mean.
I didn’t realize that Hill House & Bly Manor were considered part of an anthology series. What makes those two part of the anthology, but not Midnight Mass (or House of Usher)? Midnight Mass had 2 1/2 of the same cast members too. Is it just because Flanagan decided it to be this way?
I think the two house series shared a mythology about ghosts and ghosts only. Midnight mass got more into the demon stuff
Hill House and Bly Manor have two common themes: 1) stories influenced by Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, and 2) a haunted house.
The Turn of the Screw was written prior to The Haunting of Hill House.
Forgot about the Turn of the Screw aspect, but yes that’s right.
And not just Turn of the Screw. It used a couple other of James’ stories as well. The bit about the gown in the chest for example.
“Kate Seigel (who’s appeared in every Flanagan project since 2016’s Hush)“I don’t think she was in Doctor Sleep.
I bet he won’t let that happen again.Almost seems like she’s his muse.
I believe they’re married.
They are. I was being a tad generous with the ‘muse’ part.
Its kind like Mila Jovovich and the Resident Evil movie director thing. Except Flannigan and Seigel are talented.
Thank god Kate Seigel is actually good as we’re going to see her in basically everything this dude does.Midnight Mass was his only dud (personal opinion of course, but god did I hate it, so so much) so I’m excited for him to get back to Scary Mansion Time.
Wouldn’t this be part of his anthology, though? Just not called The Haunting of Blah? It’s basically the same thing, adapting a short spooky story into a mini-series.
Really over how he puts his wife in every single project of his. She’s not THAT good an actress, bruv. And he’s becoming way too prolific, he’s going to Ryan Murphy himself into a catalog full of 80% junk. NO ONE has that much to say as a creator without either repeating themselves ad nauseum or going completely off the rails.
I’m definitely over him putting Kate in everything he does, it’s so obnoxious. And he needs to slow down on the rate at which he’s putting material out already, he’s going to Ryan Murphy himself into having a catalog of 75% junk. NO ONE has that much to say creatively unless they are repeating themselves endlessly or going completely off the rails.
Is it true the new twist is if you enter the house of usher you get herpes?
Short stories are a good length for adapting into movies, whereas novels often are too long and thus better fit for miniseries. However, The Haunting of Hill House was a better movie than a TV series (which was forced by the constraints of the family drama genre to botch the ending), as was Turn of the Screw/The Innocents vs Bly Manor. This sounds like an even worse idea.Poe stories in particular don’t seem well suited to straightforward adaptations, with plenty of liberties being taken with most (“The Black Cat” really has nothing in common with the Ulmer film). I recall the Vincent Price take on Usher did at least motivate the narrator continuing to hang around for a reason other than to serve as a surviving witness to tell the story.
one of my favorite school assignments, reading this. very excited.
So this show won’t feature the R&B singer?