For horror fans, fall is better known as spooky season, but we might also want to start calling it Mike Flanagan season. The filmmaker has been delivering annual frights around this time of year since 2016 – with his outstanding filmography including Ouija: Origin Of Evil, Gerald's Game, The Haunting Of Hill House, Doctor Sleep, The Haunting Of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and The Midnight Club. We learned a few weeks ago that the pattern would not be breaking in 2023, with Netflix set to release The Fall Of The House Of Usher in October, but only now do we have the first trailer for the limited series, and our anticipation is hitting peak levels.
Flanagan has a strong reputation when it comes to adaptations, having previously worked magic with the works of Stephen King, Christopher Pike, Shirley Jackson and Henry James, and this time around the inspiration is the short story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe (though, like the case with the Hauntings and Midnight Club, the source material is expanded on and modernized). First announced back in October 2021, The Fall Of The House Of Usher stars Bruce Greenwood and Mary McDonnell and Roderick and Madeline Usher: a pair of siblings who are the founders of a powerful pharmaceutical conglomerate. They seem like an untouchable duo... until their heirs start to get killed off and dark secrets from their past start coming to light.
The show marks the first time that Mary McDonnell has starred in a Mike Flanagan production, but this is Bruce Greenwood's fourth (after Gerald's Game, The Haunting Of Hill House and Doctor Sleep), and the actors are surrounded by an ensemble of Flanagan regulars – including Carla Gugino, Kate Siegel, Zach Gilford, Rahul Kohli, Annabeth Gish, Samantha Sloyan, Matt Biedel, Michael Trucco and Henry Thomas. Sauriyan Sapkota (The Midnight Club), T'Nia Miller (Bly Manor), Carl Lumbly (Doctor Sleep), Lulu Wilson (Ouija: Origin Of Evil), and Kyleigh Curran (Doctor Sleep) are all working with the writer/director for a second time, and now becoming part of the troupe is Star Wars legend Mark Hamill (who is also already signed up for Flanagan's developing adaptation of Stephen King's The Life Of Chuck).
And it's already clear that somethign fans will likely be talking about after the show debuts is Hamill choice to go with a rough and gritty voice, slightly reminiscent of his time as The Joker in various animated DC projects, though not quite as maniacal. The other characters, however, are sure to bring the mania in House of Usher.
And to be expected from just about any Mike Flanagan project, Carla Gugino is all over this show, and it looks like she'll once again take on the role of a spooky antagonist figure with an A+ mask game. I'm hoping this show is big enough to spark Spirit Halloween costumes and merch by next October.
The Fall Of The House Of Usher is an eight episode run (so it's longer than Midnight Mass, but shorter than Hill House, Bly Manor, and The Midnight Club), and the entire thing will be available to stream with a Netflix subscription on October 12. You can see what else will be added to the service's library in the coming months with our feature about everything coming to Netflix, and scope out all of the new material that will be fueling spooky season 2023 with our Upcoming Horror Movies guide.
