Based on Rotten Tomatoes critics, Mike Flanagan’s latest project for Netflix could be his best yet.
Flanagan has turned his attention to Edgar Allan Poe after adapting horror classics such as “The Haunting of Hill House” and “The Turn of the Screw” (the latter of which became “The Haunting of Bly House” for the streamer) and “The Fall of the House of Usher” hits Netflix in mid-October… right on time for spooky season. With regular cast members Carla Gugino, Kate Siegel, Zach Gilford, and T’Nia Miller returning, this adaptation brings Poe’s story into the modern era by basing the fictional Usher family on the very real Sackler clan, who were exposed for profiting from opioid use and causing a health crisis in the United States.
With a “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the show is doing well and critics like Keith Phipps of TVGuide are praising it: “Even if it takes on a slasher-like predictability by pushing characters toward inventive kills, one by one, ‘Usher’ also grows darker and more somber as it progresses and reckons with the real-world offenses mirrored in the Usher story.” Liz Shannon Miller at Consequence agreed, writing, “While Mike Flanagan’s now-annual run of limited series have received their fair share of acclaim, ‘What would Edgar Allen Poe have thought of the Sackler family?’ proves to be a meaty pitch, elevated by a cast that has never been better.”
Overall, it’s evident that Mike Flanagan has hit gold with this horror adaptation yet again. Linda Codega io9 was a fan and described it as “a darkly mesmerizing, erotic horror-thriller, a supernatural gothic Succession, queering the work and writing an obsessive, ritualistic performance.”