Mike Flanagan's The Fall Of The House Of Usher First Look Serves Knives Out Horror

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By Max MillerUpdated: Aug. 10, 2023 9:08 pm EST

Prolific horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan has terrified audiences with his Shirley Jackson adaptation "The Haunting of Hill House," then followed it up with a stay at "The Haunting of Bly Manor." But this October, he returns to Netflix with "The Fall of the House of Usher," an amalgamated adaptation of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Netflix has released first-look photos for the series, and the streamer promises neo-Gothic horror with a dazzlingly colorful aesthetic.

"The Fall of the House of Usher" borrows a mishmash of characters and settings from Poe's work. Elements of the short story from which the miniseries borrows its title will be found in the characters of Roderick and Madeline Usher (Bruce Greenwood and Mary McDonnell, respectively), here reimagined as the "ruthless" owners of Fortunato Pharmaceuticals — the company's name borrowing that of a character from "The Cask of Amontillado." According to Netflix's official synopsis, the Ushers have built their company "into an empire of wealth, privilege, and power. But past secrets come to light when the heirs to the Usher dynasty start dying at the hands of a mysterious woman from their youth."

Comparisons to "Knives Out" have been invoked due to the old-money familial drama of the proceedings, though we suspect "The Fall of the House of Usher" may involve significantly more instances of people being buried alive — Poe's preferred method of death in his stories.

Mike Flanagan's Edgar Allan Poe adaptation is a modern update to Gothic horror

Auguste Dupin, Judge John Neal and Arthur Pym talking

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Bruce Greenwood and Mary McDonnell play the heads of family in Mike Flanagan's "The Fall of the House of Usher" alongside talent including "Star Wars" icon Mark Hamill, Paola Nuñez, Willa Fitzgerald, Malcolm Goodwin, Daniel Jun, Igby Rigney, and Carla Gugino, among many others. That cast will almost certainly shrink over the course of the series as the character deaths begin to mount. But the first-look photos released by Netflix show them all in action.

The first look photos for "The Fall of the House of Usher" show off Flanagan's distinctive visual flairs. Shots that aren't framed with uncanny, Andersonian symmetry are bathed in singular colors. The settings look distinctly present-day, confirming that this will be an update on Edgar Allan Poe's classic horror stories rather than a direct adaptation. "[Flanagan is] combining a whole lot of stories by the same author into one collective narrative," Rigney told Entertainment Weekly.

"The Fall of the House of Usher" bows October 12 on Netflix. Four of its eight episodes were directed by Flanagan himself, while the other four were directed by Michael Fimognari, the cinematographer Flanagan has relied on for much of his previous work. Flanagan's next project is an adaptation of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" on Amazon Prime Video.

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