Stephen King has given Mike Flanagan’s Netflix horror work some of the strongest praise a genre filmmaker could receive. Flanagan’s catalogue includes nearly a dozen horror projects, from The Haunting of Hill House (2018) to adaptations of King’s Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep and The Life of Chuck. His version of Carrie is also scheduled to premiere on Prime Video in October.
Flanagan’s approach to adapting established horror has earned particular respect. In a 2024 interview with Dread Central, King praised the director for respecting the source material without becoming overly self-conscious or “cute” with it.
King later turned his attention to Flanagan’s Netflix miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher. In August 2025, he described Flanagan on X as the “Quentin Tarantino of horror”, adding to the series’ already considerable reputation.
Why The Fall of the House of Usher stands out
The Fall of the House of Usher centres on twins Roderick and Madeline Usher, whose pharmaceutical company, Fortunato Pharmaceuticals, builds its fortune by selling an alleged miracle drug. The product is a highly addictive opioid, and the family’s success is tied to a pact with a mysterious supernatural force.
As the company’s power begins to collapse, a trail of death and destruction pushes the twins towards madness. The narrative is deliberately non-linear, shifting between an older, reclusive Roderick, played by Bruce Greenwood, and his younger, ruthless self, played by Zach Gilford. Madeline’s younger years are portrayed by Willa Fitzgerald, while two-time Academy Award nominee Mary McDonnell plays her as an older adult.
The series turns the Usher family’s rise and collapse into a supernatural tragedy shaped by ambition, guilt and consequence.
A modern take on Edgar Allan Poe
The miniseries is loosely adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s 1839 short story of the same name. Flanagan expands the premise with creative changes and references to a broader selection of Poe’s writing, while moving the story from its original early-19th-century setting into the modern era.
That update gives the series room to explore corporate greed and the opioid crisis. Even with those contemporary concerns, Poe’s influence remains clear throughout the production, with literary references woven into each episode.
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The Fall of the House of Usher is available to stream in full on Netflix. At the time covered here, it held a Rotten Tomatoes score above 90% and appeared among the service’s Top 20 Horror TV Shows to Watch for September 2026.
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