Mike Flanagan's The Fall Of The House Of Usher Gets Release Date And First Look
"Stranger Things" might be Netflix's flagship show, but it turns out that Mike Flanagan's "The Haunting of Hill House" is another crown jewel for the streamer. As you may already know, streamers don't release numbers as a general rule, but "Hill House" was known to be a big hit for Netflix upon release. Both critic and viewer ratings were through the roof and independent polling from Parrot Analytics in 2018 found the limited series was keeping pace with massive, long-running network horror shows like "The Walking Dead" and "American Horror Story."
But you just need to look at where Netflix put their money to tell you how big that show was for them. They went right into a spiritual sequel, "The Haunting of Bly Manor" and then greenlit "The Fall of the House of Usher" from the same Flanaverse team right after that. These are all tied together in a kind of unofficially official way (Flanagan's "Midnight Mass" and "The Midnight Club" being the outsiders for the big streamer) where there are many crossover actors and similar tones, but no continuing storylines.
We know Netflix does not flinch about cutting a show short if they don't believe it brings value, much to the chagrin of their viewers. So the fact that they kept going all in on Flanagan's "Haunting" series is all you need to know about how successful they are for the streamer. Recently, Flanagan and his producing partner Trevor Macy left Netflix for a new home at Amazon, but not before they finished out their unofficial third entry in their "Haunting" series, this one using Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" as the jumping off point.
Well, we finally have some big info and a bunch of new images to share.
'I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.'
Netflix will celebrate spooky season in style as they release "The Fall of the House of Usher" on October 12, 2023. The story follows siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher, the heads of a powerful pharmaceutical dynasty as their family starts dying one by one at the hands of a mysterious woman from their youth.
Flanagan has said that if "The Haunting of Hill House" is classical music, "The Fall of the House of Usher" is more rock and roll. In fact, he told Tudum as part of the show's official release that the series is "bats*** crazy, in the best possible way."
"The Fall of the House of Usher" brings together an eclectic cast with a lot of familiar Flanagan faces in the mix. We have Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood (who replaced a very problematic Frank Langella), Mark Hamill, Carl Lumbly, Michael Trucco, Mary McDonnell, Henry Thomas, Samantha Sloyan, Kate Siegel, Rahul Kohli, Zach Gilford, Katie Parker, Willa Fitzgerald, Kyleigh Curran, T'Nia Miller, Malcolm Goodwin, Aya Furukawa, Daniel Jun, Annabeth Gish, and, of course, Robert Longstreet.
The series will run for eight episodes, four directed by Flanagan, four directed by Michael Fimognari, and use not just "The Fall of the House of Usher" but many different Poe stories in their updated reimagining of his work.
Netflix released this info along with a fancy new poster, which you can see below: