Summary
-
What Moves The Dead perfectly blends elements of the Fall of the House of Usher and the Haunting of Hill House into a graphic and haunting story.
-
Similar to Flanagan’s work, the book features doomed characters in denial of encroaching horrors, with nods to famous horror literature.
-
A potential adaptation of What Moves the Dead by Mike Flanagan could be a valuable addition to the “Flanaverse,” with its cosmic horror elements.
A two-year-old story provides the perfect unofficial Mike Flanagan Crossover that Netflix Never given to his audience. Every Mike Flanagan show and movie on Netflix has its own distinct voice and standalone narrative. However, despite this, some narrative overlaps and cross-references can be observed in almost every creation of Mike Flanagan. For example, Flanagan’s Netflix show MNight masses Shares its title with a book written by the main character in Quiet.
Similarly, the horror director’s most recent Netflix show, The Fall of the House of UsherDrops a subtle nod to Play Gerald’s gameWhich is a Mike Flanagan movie based on Stephen King’s novel. Due to these cross-references, Mike Flanagan’s body of work is often referred to as “Flanaverse.” However, while many other subtle intersections exist between Flanagan’s shows and movies, the director has never featured a direct crossover of characters or storylines across different projects. Perhaps accidentally, a 2022 novel ends up doing just that.
Related
What Moves the Dead combines the haunting of Hill House and the fall of the House of Usher
It features the ushers and the bent-neck lady
Netflix never released a Mike Flanagan crossover show, but Ursula Vernon’s What moves the dead Perfectly combines the story and character beats of two horror shows created by the director. Loosely inspired by Edgar Allan Poe The Fall of the House of UsherThe book features several members of the fictional Usher family as its main characters. It focuses on a retired soldier, Alex Easton, who rushes to the Usher family’s home when he learns that his friend Madeline Usher is on the verge of dying.
Like the bent-necked lady of the Haunting of Hill House, the undead Madeline also comes with a warning for the remaining characters.
When Madeline finally dies, and Easton visits her grave, he notices that she broke her neck before she died. When he later enters Roderick’s room, he finds Madeline sitting on the bed, with her head hanging down her neck. Mention one of The Haunting of Hill HouseS bent-neck lady. Like the bent-necked lady of The Haunting of Hill HouseThe Undead Madeline also comes with a warning for the remaining characters. with this, What moves the dead Perfectly combines elements of two Mike Flanagan shows: The Fall of the House of Usher And The Haunting of Hill House.
Here is an excerpt from What moves the dead Which gives a graphic description of Madeline Usher’s bent neck:
“Her head was bent at a terrible angle, neck terribly scary. She had to turn her whole body towards the door while her head flopped sideways. She hunched one shoulder to keep it partially straight and something about that little gesture was So terrible that it stopped me in my tracks.”
A Walking Dead adaptation would be a perfect addition to Mike Flanagan’s Flanaverse
It has all the ingredients that make the perfect Mike Flanagan show
Like most Mike Flanagan stories, What moves the dead Features doomed characters who remain in denial of their danger and the encroaching horrors around them before it’s too late. Similar to Mike Flanagan’s creations, the book also seems to combine elements from several famous pieces of horror literature, including Jeff VanderMeer’s DestructionVictor LaValle’s The Ballad of Black Tomand Henry James The turn of the screwTo create the most nerve-racking visuals in a reader’s head.
It also uses its fantastic horror elements as solid allegories for the tainted and strained relationships in a family. Although not all readers may appreciate how it adds a layer of cosmic horror to Edgar Allan Poe’s character-driven The Fall of the House of UsherThe book could work incredibly well as a TV series, especially if Mike Flanagan is its showrunner. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that Mike Flanagan Will ever adopt it for Netflix Since he officially parted ways with the streamer.