When The Fall of the House of Usher’s Carla Gugino described the new series as “bats**t crazy,” she wasn’t kidding. 

Last Friday, horror fans were treated to a screening of Mike Flanagan’s upcoming show at Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the country hosted in Austin, Texas — and they really agreed with Gugino’s sentiment. 

“If I’m walking around with a shock on my face, it’s just the aftermath of Episode 2,” tweeted a viewer. 

“The first two episodes of The Fall of the House of Usher are fantastic,” wrote another. “The show remixes a bunch of Edgar All[a]n Poe to create something that has tinges of a horror anthology. Gruesome, funny, impeccably designed. Can’t wait to see more.”

Adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s 1839 short story of the same name, with references to his other classic tales, the horror drama follows Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood), the CEO of a corrupt pharmaceutical company, who must face his shady past when each of his children begin to die in mysterious and brutal fashion. Roderick and his sister, Madeline Usher (Mary McDonnell), are the epitome of rags to riches — but their empire will eventually lead their family to self-dug graves. The series is more than just blood and gore, according to Gugino. “It has quite a lot of very dark humor, but also really touches the soul,” she told Netflix during production.

Fantastic Fest attendees also couldn’t stop raving about the ensemble, which includes familiar faces from Flanagan’s other titles. “The cast is sprawling and great,” said one viewer. 

“If you’re into horror and you’re into the dark stuff, absolutely give it a watch,” another attendee said.

Willa Fitzgerald, Carl Lumbly, Mark Hamill, Henry Thomas, Crystal Balint, Kyliegh Curran, Samantha Sloyan, Matt Biedel, Kate Siegel, Rahul Kohli, Daniel Jun, T’Nia Miller, Paola Núñez, Sauriyan Sapkota, and Ruth Codd also star in the series.

Prepare for death to come knocking at your door when The Fall of the House of Usher premieres Oct. 12 on Netflix. 

Spine-Tingling Mike Flanagan Series and Films to StreamWatch if you dare.