“The Fall of the House of Usher” (2023) is goddam terrific.  I have never thanked a college buddy as enthusiastically for inviting me to watch his Netflix with him.

It’s unflinching and unfailingly loving of its Edgar Allan Poe source material.  (The eight-episode miniseries actually draws from a number of Poe’s works — not just the eponymous 1839 short story.)  The acting is top-notch — particularly from leads Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood and
Mary McDonnell.  The dialogue is priceless.  And it is genuinely scary!  (Yes, a lot of us really love Poe, but you must admit that it is challenging to make his works fresh and truly frightening to a modern audience.)

I almost said that I loved it more than “The Haunting of Hill House” (2018), another superb horror miniseries by director Mike Flanagan that employs much of the same cast.  “The Fall of the House of Usher” can be considered an unofficial sequel to both the 2018 miniseries and 2020’s “The Haunting of Bly Manor.”

My heart still belongs to Hill House, though — although “The Fall of the House of Usher” is Flanagan’s best, in some ways, I think “Hill House” tells more a human story, with redeeming, realistic characters that we genuinely worry over.

“The Fall of the House of Usher” is a close second, though.