The upcoming fifth instalment of Mike Flanangan’s Netflix horror mini-series will take its inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Fall of The House of Usher.
Mike Flanagan’s first two loose adaptions also took inspiration from classic horror stories, with The Haunting of Hill House echoing Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel of the same name, and The Haunting of Bly Manor drawing from Henry James’ novella The Turn of the Screw.
Flanagan also created supernatural horror Midnight Mass and mystery thriller The Midnight Club for Netflix.
The official trailer shows the “Usher crime family” dropping like flies, as their father, and CEO of a corrupt pharmaceutical company, Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood, Gerald’s Game), begins to question his past. As if a shapeshifting demon bent on killing his children wasn’t enough, Roderick will also have an attorney threatening to expose his corruption and topple the empire.
Flanagan is known to frequently collaborate with the same actors, and The Fall of The House of Usher cast is populated with familiar faces. Actors returning from Hill House and Bly Manor include Samantha Sloyan as Tamerlane Usher, Henry Thomas as Fredrick Usher, and Carla Gugino as antagonist and shapeshifter Verna.
Roderick’s illegitimate children, and returning actors, will include Henry Thomas as Frederick, T’Nia Miller as Victorine, Rahul Kohli as Napoleon, and Kate Siegal as Camille who also acts as the pharmaceutical companies PR manager.
Mary McDonnell (Donnie Darko) will join the cast as Madeline Usher, twin sister to Roderick and co-owner to the pharmaceutical empire.
The Fall of The House of Usher will premiere on Netflix on 12 October 2023.
