Copyright Screen Rant
One of Mike Flanagan's best horror shows on Netflix is interestingly based on the book that inspired an incredible Stephen King novel. Traces of Stephen King's influence can be found all over pop culture and even in several Mike Flanagan shows and movies. However, this one seems particularly special in more ways than one. Before Mike Flanagan returned to directing horror movies, he had a long streak of TV successes on Netflix. The filmmaker gave audiences one hit show after another, with almost each series drawing from popular literary works. Even his last horror show on Netflix was based on a renowned horror short story that previously influenced many great writers, including Stephen King. Stephen King’s The Shining Was Heavily Influenced By Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall Of The House Of Usher Stephen King has often cited Edgar Allan Poe as one of the most influential horror writers and has hinted at how he, too, has drawn from his work. Owing to this, Poe's horror tropes and storytelling devices can be found in many Stephen King stories. However, a closer look at The Shining makes it evident that it is one of Stephen King's books that heavily draws from Poe's Fall of the House of Usher. Like the Edgar Allan Poe story, The Shining merges its characters with the overarching setting in such a descriptive way that the setting itself becomes a twisted entity in itself. The main characters in both stories, Roderick Usher and Jack Torrance, also isolate themselves in a location with their families as their own inner demons and the setting's supernatural forces gradually consume them. In both, the main characters are doomed by their own inner corruption and moral decay, and the hauntings they experience are partly influenced by the guilt, loneliness, and grief that eats them inside out. Owing to this, as they collapse, even their haunted settings crumble. With so many overlaps between the two stories, it is hard not to see The Shining as a brilliant retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher. Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep Has A Direct Reference To Edgar Allan Poe The epigraph in Stephen King's The Shining features an excerpt from Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of the Red Death, which serves as the perfect entry point for readers into the dark Overlook Hotel. Similarly, in Doctor Sleep, Stephen King specially mentions Edgar Allan Poe in one quote: “The poet Edgar Allan Poe described the false awakening phenomenon long before Carl Jung was born. He wrote, ‘All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.’ Have I answered your question?” The quote in the Stephen King book calls attention to Edgar Allan Poe's poem A Dream Within A Dream, which can be seen as the perfect representation of how Danny's "the shining" blurs the lines between the tangible world and the supernatural. These references make it evident that Stephen King's The Shining and its sequel not only drew from The Fall of the House of Usher but many Edgar Allan Poe creations. Mike Flanagan’s The Call Of The House Of Usher Is A Brilliant Take On The Edgar Allan Poe Story Interestingly, even though Mike Flanagan's Netflix show, The Fall of the House of Usher, gets its name from only one Edgar Allan Poe story, it draws from several stories and poems written by the author. Every main character's death in the series is brilliantly intertwined with the thematic and narrative devices from some of Edgar Allan Poe's best works. The Mike Flanagan series also subtly draws references to some of Edgar Allan Poe's lesser-known works, like Silence — A Fable, The Premature Burial, The Gold-Bug, and Dream-Land. This makes The Fall of the House of Usher an ultimate love letter to Edgar Allan Poe and his ability to merge human vulnerability with terror.
