Mike Flanagan’s final series for Netflix is a glorious victory lap of all things Edgar Allan Poe and is his best TV show since The Haunting of Hill House.

Flanagan has made a career for himself that primarily has swung (like Poe’s pendulum) between Stephen King and horror mini-series, swinging between excellent and the okay. This eight-part series takes a copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories and poems, borrowing plot lines and titles to populate this ‘Succession meets American Horror Story’.

The backbone to the series is Flanagan regular Bruce Greenwood as patriarch Roderick Usher (replacing the dismissed Frank Langella), destined to watch his children die one by one by sinister means. He’s ably supported by Battlestar Galactica’s Mary McDonnell as sister Madeline, Mark Hamill as ‘fixer’ Arthur Pym and Carla Cugino as the omnipresent avenging angel.

Everything revolves around an event that happened on New Year’s Eve 1979, the consequences of which will haunt the remainder of the Ushers’ lives. What’s great fun for anyone familiar with Poe’s work is spotting the references that drive the narrative – the raven, the pendulum, the masked ball, the black cat. Of equal fun is watching the awful family members die by horrific means – Henry Thomas, Kate Siegel and T’Nia Miller in particular – and there’s a lovely sense of gallows humour that carries the darker moments.

Verdict: A fine Halloween treat – binge it or savour it gradually. 9/10

Nick Joy