Mike Flanagan, the horror king of the decade, is back, and it seems there’s a real life Netflix horror in the making!
The writer of The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, both of which you can check out on Netflix, has picked up his pen again. Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, author of The Raven and The Cask of Amontillado, he’s writing an 8-part series titled The Fall of the House of Usher, which is named after another one of the late poet’s short stories. It features the end of the House of Usher (as you could probably tell by the title) after one of the remaining members buries his twin alive. We all love some family drama as long as we’re not involved.
Mike Flanagan has shown horror aficionados that it’s not all about jump scares and blood. The Haunting series really managed to give us the creeps without showcasing an excessive amount of violence, instead using differing perspectives and complicated relationships to show us a definition of fear that I personally haven’t seen before. He also didn’t shy away from putting in truly sweet scenes and healthy relationships, particularly in the second series, which only managed to make the show more well-rounded and palatable.
The fear we all have of never knowing how much time we have left and constantly being aware that it’s getting shorter was brought to the forefront wonderfully by The Haunting of Bly Manor, and its lighter moments left us with the desire to make the best of it instead of being paralyzed by the fear of the unknown.
By virtue of being a short story writer rather than a TV writer, Edgar Allan Poe is someone who has managed to evoke emotions in readers so far from him in time. He’s created the blueprint of emotional horror, tales where our own guilt, anger, and love lead us to commit actions that are incomprehensible to someone looking from the outside but so relatable to readers that, for a moment, we are scared of our own capabilities.
After all, who needs a ghost with a grudge when living people with grudges are already available? And, if you ask Mike Flanagan, who needs someone with a grudge when the pathway to hell is paved with good intentions? Your opponents are also fighting for a reason, and someone who thinks they’re the hero of the story is always more determined to finish the job compared to someone who just wants the world to burn.
FEATURED IMAGES VIA NETFLIX LIFE AND THE HASHTAG SHOW