The Key Way Midnight Mass Creator's New Edgar Allen Poe Series Will Be Different From His Other Netflix Horror Shows

Kate Siegel as Erin Greene screams in Midnight Mass
(Image credit: Netflix)

Mike Flanagan’s stock at Netflix continues to climb, as Midnight Mass maintains its spot in the streaming service’s Top 10, undoubtedly pulling in fans from Flanagan’s previous series, The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor. Similarly, the newest project from Netflix’s master of horror is sure to draw in viewers, not just for the chilling storytelling we’ve come to expect from Flanagan, but also for how wildly different the Edgar Allen Poe project will be from his previous series.

The Fall of the House of Usher is an eight-episode series that — like Midnight Mass — is not a part of the Haunting series. In fact it sounds like this Edgar Allen Poe-inspired story will have an overall different feel from all three of Mike Flanagan’s previous Netflix projects, as Flanagan told Bloody Disgusting’s The Boo Crew Podcast that his newest series will be as over the top as anything he’s ever done.

A lot of the stuff I do is a slow burn. The Fall of the House of Usher is a brush fire. It is an explosion. It is as aggressive and rock ‘n roll and over the top and just violent and insane and horrific as anything I have ever done… by a lot. We’re gonna pull all the all stars from the Intrepid group of actors and some great new faces and we’re just gonna fucking jam.

Okay, so count me in. While overall reaction to Midnight Mass has been glowing, more than one critic took issue with the series’ pacing, specifically the space and time given to the myriad time-consuming (but nonetheless captivating) monologues. It does not sound like Mike Flanagan runs the risk of getting the same feedback for The Fall of the House of Usher.

And do you want blood? There will be blood, Mike Flanagan says. Maybe after he was done working out his Catholic guilt on Midnight Mass, Flanagan needed to go to the extreme, because he is bursting with excitement over having the entire Edgar Allen Poe catalog to pull from, saying he’s been craving this kind of horror.

We want just buckets of blood pouring out of the ceiling on page two. And we’re just gonna go ballistic. And we’re gonna do it all to the music of one of the most intensely effective gothic horror writers. This is what we’ve been craving. A chance to just go ballistic on something.

There aren’t too many details regarding The Fall of the House of Usher yet, but fans of Mike Flanagan’s three previous series are accustomed to seeing some familiar faces among the cast, including Flanagan’s wife Kate Siegel, Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas and Annabeth Gish to name a few. Flanagan will direct four episodes, with Michael Fimognari, who’s done cinematography on some of Flanagan’s previous works, directing the other four. 

Mike Flanagan is also working on another series — The Midnight Club, which is an adaptation of bestselling YA horror novelist Christopher Pike's book of the same name. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more on these upcoming projects, and check out other 2021 Netflix premieres, as well as our 2021 Fall TV Schedule.

Heidi Venable
Content Producer

Heidi Venable is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend, a mom of two and a hard-core '90s kid. She started freelancing for CinemaBlend in 2020 and officially came on board in 2021. Her job entails writing news stories and TV reactions from some of her favorite prime-time shows like Grey's Anatomy and The Bachelor. She graduated from Louisiana Tech University with a degree in Journalism and worked in the newspaper industry for almost two decades in multiple roles including Sports Editor, Page Designer and Online Editor. Unprovoked, will quote Friends in any situation. Thrives on New Orleans Saints football, The West Wing and taco trucks.