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Warning! This article contains spoilers for The Fall of the House of Usher episode 1.
Before Mike Flanagan collaborated with Netflix on The Haunting of Hill House, Bly Manor, and the rest of the 'Flanaverse Collection', he wrote and directed genre faves such as Hush, Gerald's Game, and Before I Wake. He helmed horror prequel Ouija: Origin of Evil, too, which is the basis of a pretty cool Easter egg in his latest small-screen outing The Fall of the House of Usher.
Now, before anyone says anything, no, Lulu Wilson isn't the reference, though she did work with Flanagan on Ouija 2 and plays a young Madeline Usher in the new show. We're actually talking about a blink-and-you'll-miss-it glimpse of the recognizable spirit board during a dark scene in episode 1...
After a harrowing evening burying their "deceased" mother in the backyard of their home, teen twins Madeline (Wilson) and Roderick (Tommy Nelson) fall asleep together in one of their beds. As the camera roves around the shadowy corridors of the house and, finally, into the room in which they're snoozing, you can just about make out the board propped up against a unit next to them. It's hard to see in the dark, but there's no mistaking its design – and it's arguably not the only recycled prop hidden in plain sight, either.
Back in February 2022, the filmmaker took to the platform to share a selfie of himself and Wilson while on set of The Fall of the House of Usher in Burnaby, British Columbia. In the snap, the youngster is holding up Ouija: Origin of Evil's ouija board and a planchette, too. "Quite the reunion on the USHER set today," he wrote alongside the photo.
Also starring Flanagan's frequent collaborators Kate Siegel, Rahul Kohli, Samantha Sloyan, Henry Thomas, Bruce Greenwood, and Carla Gugino, The Fall of the House of Usher centers on Roderick, the head of the titular crime family, who finds himself forced to reconcile with the sins of his past when his six children all start dying in weird, violent ways.
All eight episodes are streaming now. If horror's not your bag, check out our list of the best Netflix shows for some viewing inspiration.
