This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn't exist.As much as Mike Flanagan has become synonymous with horror, his TV shows also heavily play on themes commonly found in classic Gothic literature. For some, horror and the Gothic are interchangeable, but Flanagan carefully weaves the latter into everything from The Haunting of Hill House to The Midnight Club. Gloomy settings, haunted locations, dreams and nightmares, an emotional and mental burden, a shroud of mystery, and a dark and stormy night turn a typical horror story into one that is Gothic. Gothic horror, an off-shoot of the larger umbrella of Romanticism, came about in the 1760s, but Edgar Allan Poe later became a figurehead of Gothic fiction in America. It only makes sense that Flanagan, who has breathed new life into the works of Shirley Jackson and Henry James, would take on one of the modern forefathers of the genre for his next adaptation.
'The Fall of the House of Usher' Review: Mike Flanagan Successfully Merges Edgar Allan Poe and 'Succession'
Flanagan's most conventional horror series yet hinges on strong, complex emotions that do more than just get your heart pounding.