Why The Fall Of The House Of Usher Will Be Mike Flanagan's Final Netflix Show
"No good thing lasts forever" feels like the sort of poignant theme you'd expect to pop up in a Mike Flanagan horror project. So it goes in real life, too, with Flanagan's latest series, the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired modern Gothic drama "The Fall of the House of Usher" (read /Film's review by Chris Evangelista here), slated to serve as his final Netflix offering.
Since his breakout success on the horror film "Oculus," Flanagan has become synonymous with the streamer's scarier output. In addition to directing Netflix's "Gerald's Game" (an all-timer among Stephen King film adaptations that features one of the gnarliest moments put to screen in recent memory), he created the company's acclaimed "Haunting" anthology series, as well as the polarizing but deeply fascinating religious horror drama show "Midnight Mass." So why is Flanagan done with Netflix? The short answer is that he and his producing partner, Trevor Macy, have locked down a shiny new deal with Amazon Studios, and are ready for another adventure. The longer answer? Flanagan's marriage with Netflix has evidently been on the rocks for a while.
Indeed, in what's perhaps a telling coincidence, Netflix canceled Flanagan and co-creator Leah Fong's young adult horror series "The Midnight Club" right around the time Flanagan's Amazon deal was made public. Then there's Flanagan's reasoning for why "House of Usher" isn't part of "The Haunting" despite sharing much of the same core cast and more than a few story elements — namely, the source material's lack of ghosts. Still, it's hard to resist putting on your tin foil hat and speculating that Netflix knew it could get away with ponying up less for a miniseries than a third season of "The Haunting."
Trouble in paradise
If his breakup with Netflix was a Taylor Swift playlist, Flanagan would appear to be on the "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" track. Not too long ago, he took to BluSky to vent about some of the more infuriating feedback he received from Netflix executives while developing "Midnight Mass," culminating with what he called "the stupidest scene I've ever filmed." Further proving there's not a lot of love lost between the two following their split, Flanagan also posted on Tumblr about the time Netflix apparently said it was going to make all of his series available on Blu-ray as a box set, only to backtrack on its promise with nary an explanation more specific than "Physical media just isn't a priority for the company."
Flanagan's departure is unquestionably a loss for Netflix. Virtually every project he's developed for the company has been a hit with critics. Even "The Midnight Club," which certain members of the /Film team found rather disappointing (this is where I'll also tell on myself and admit that, as much as I love Flanagan's oeuvre in general, I bailed on the show part-way through), amassed a fairly sizable fanbase of younger viewers. Or, at the very least, enough so for Flanagan to take to Tumblr to reveal what would've gone down in season 2 after it was axed.
Flanagan's internet-savvy and willingness to speak his mind freely on social media have similarly endeared him to viewers of the Gen Z or younger crowd as much as Millennials, Gen-Xers, and the like. There's nothing to prevent them from following Flanagan to Amazon for their horror fix going forward, rather than latching onto whatever replacement Netflix ultimately comes up with for the Flana-verse.
"The Fall of the House of Usher" is streaming on Netflix.