Kate makes short appearances in the trailer around 00:28 and 00:56

Netflix’s The Fall of the House of Usher announced 20 new cast members including Michael Trucco, T’Nia Miller, Paola Nuñez and Henry Thomas.

Also aboard for Mike Flanagan’s upcoming limited series based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe include Kyleigh Curran, Samantha Sloyan, Rahul Kohli, Kate Siegel, Sauriyan Sapkota, Zach Gilford, Katie Parker, Malcolm Goodwin, Crystal Balint, Aya Furukawa, Daniel Jun, Matt Biedel, Ruth Codd, Annabeth Gish, Igby Rigney and Robert Longstreet.

They join previously announced actors Frank Langella, Mark Hamill, Carla Gugino, Mary McDonnell, and Carl Lumbly.

The Fall of the House of Usher is a short story written by Poe. First published in 1839, it features themes of madness, family, isolation, and identity. The eight-episode series is described as an epic tale of greed, horror, and tragedy.

The series, which was created by Flanagan, is exec produced by the auteur along with Macy as well as Emmy Grinwis and Michael Fimognari. Intrepid Pictures’ Melinda Nishioka will co-executive produce the project. Flanagan and Michael Fimognari will each direct four episodes.

The Fall of the House of Usher marks the fifth series for Flanagan and Trevor Macy at Netflix under their Intrepid Pictures overall deal, including The Haunting of series – The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor; the recently launched and critically-lauded Midnight Mass, and the upcoming The Midnight Club.

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It can be frustrating being the partner of an artist. When Kate Siegel first read the script for Midnight Mass, the new Netflix series from her husband, horror auteur Mike Flanagan, she had a somewhat unusual, yet relatable reaction.

“I believe I threw the script across the room,” she tells Den of Geek and other outlets. “I was like, ‘What the…? Oh, you’re so smart. I hate you.’”

It’s easy to tell that Siegel is being facetious. After all, Flanagan has entrusted some of his most memorable characters to Siegel, and in return, she’s imbued a sense of strength, intelligence, and world-weariness in them.

Midnight Mass is the seventh overall collaboration between the husband and wife duo and the third Netflix horror series in a row. In The Haunting of Hill House, Siegel played middle Crain sibling and black sheep Theodora, a fan-favorite character with empathic sensitivity powers that cause her to be closed-off and guarded. Though her role in the sister series The Haunting of Bly Manor wasn’t as large, it was perhaps even more impactful. Siegel played Viola Willoughby-Lloyd, the original owner of Bly Manor who, in a standalone episode, becomes ill and watches as her sister steals her husband away from her. Viola eventually becomes the spirit known as The Lady of the Lake, the malevolent presence at Bly Manor that does the titular haunting.

With Midnight Mass, however, Flanagan reserves the best role for his wife for last (so far). In the horror series, Siegel plays Erin Greene, a resident of Crockett Island who returns home after running away as a teen. Pregnant and fleeing an abusive relationship, she takes over the role of schoolteacher from her deceased mother and reconnects with another returning resident, Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford).

As the series progresses, Erin’s role expands, and she becomes the de facto protagonist of Midnight Mass. She delivers a standout closing monologue that beautifully delivers the series’ central themes and appears as if it’s coming to Siegel in the moment and shocking even her. It’s the sort of smart writing that would make you throw a script across the room.

Whereas Theo and The Lady of the Lake were hardened by their experiences, Erin doesn’t let the past prevent her from being a warm person or living a full life. Erin’s faith allows her to keep from being weighed down by her baggage.

“A lot of the characters I’ve played before Erin were very sharp women,” Siegel says. “They tend to be prickly or tense in a certain way. And Erin is the opposite of that. Erin is open and light.”

While Erin has every right to be bitter — failed dreams of stardom, a less than ideal relationship with her mother, a history of abuse — she is a ray of light on the grey, fading island of Crockett. Unfortunately, Erin’s light is tested by the inexplicable events that coincide with the arrival of mysterious young priest Father Paul (Hamish Linklater). Well into her pregnancy before Paul’s arrival, Erin goes for a routine check-up after attending one of Paul’s masses and discovers that her baby has vanished from her body.

While Midnight Mass offers horrors of a more supernatural kind, the unexpected loss of a child during pregnancy is real life terror that is painfully relatable for many. In portraying the devastating loss, Siegel focused on the more fantastical elements of the story rather than dwelling on the agonizing realities of a miscarriage.

“For me, there was a specific difference, which is that Erin knew she hadn’t had a miscarriage. She knew that,” says Siegel. “I went to Mike and I said, ‘I’ve decided that Erin has had a miscarriage before.’ So she knows what it looks like and she knows what it feels like. The thing I actually tapped into was a very familiar feeling…of people not believing you when you’re telling them the truth.”

With all of the intrigue in Crockett and personal turmoil for Erin, her faith never wavers. While by no means a fanatic like pious character Bev Keane (Samantha Sloyan), Erin finds safety and compassion in the Church. Her spirituality is not so contingent on scripture, but on the feeling that everyone and everything are connected, and that connection is what we call God. It’s a lovely sentiment and view of religion, but not one necessarily shared by Siegel.

“I was raised Jewish and the tenet of Judaism that always stuck with me was ‘ask more questions.’ Then I ended up at an Episcopalian high school for the last two years of my schooling and they did not like that approach. I developed quite a judgment of religion. So when Erin came my way, I had some judgments on her. Then through the course of it, I learned not to judge people like that. I hope that’s the best part of religion. Ask questions. Do unto others.”

Love, loss, religion, mystery; it’s all there in Midnight Mass and no character better embodies the themes than Kate Siegel as Erin Greene.

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SPOILERS BEWARE

As though poor Erin (Kate Siegel) hadn’t been put through enough leading up to the events of Midnight Mass and all throughout the series, she gets one of the most brutal death scenes of the bunch.

After being inspired to take action when she realizes what’s happening in St. Patrick’s in Episode 6, Erin teams with Sarah (Annabeth Gish) and Sheriff Hassan (Rahul Kohli) to put a stop to Pruitt-turned-Bev’s plan and to ensure those who have turned never get off Crockett Island. Just before she’s able to burn down the rec center, Erin’s carried off by the “angel” who proceeds to eat her alive. However, even while on the brink of death, Erin recognizes an opportunity and uses her final moments to puncture the angel’s wings so it’s unable to fly to the mainland.

While on Collider Ladies Night, Siegel took some time to break down exactly what was required of her to bring this moment to screen. She began:

“That was shot on a few different days, so when the angel takes me and drops me in the graveyard, that was shot on location. I swear to god, I had a whole plan. I had the best plan. I was gonna do these things, I had worked out physicality and then Quinton [Boisclair] shows up in that suit and he’s terrifying to look at because that was real, and he had the wings on at that time and he’s covered in blood, I had the wound on my neck, and the second that man started to hold me down I freaked out. Nothing I had planned came true because all I could think of was, ‘Get off me, get off me, get off me, get off me,’ and it was really scary and triggering light.”

In my question, I had mentioned the sensual nature of the angel attack on Erin and Siegel elaborated on that point:

“I’m glad you picked it up because it is sort of sensual, because the whole thing felt like a violation. And I’m kind of talking around the word rape, but the whole thing felt like a violation and at a certain point, Erin relaxes. You see it, and she realizes the opportunity she has and I thought a lot about the Talmudic character Lilith who is pre-Eve and she wouldn’t lie on her back for a man and so God kicked her out of the freakin’ garden and she became a nightwalker. Trust me, the bible is just vampires. It’s vampires all the way down. [Laughs] But I thought about that and in that moment, her pulling him in, her receiving of him, and her taking charge of her trauma I thought was extremely important.”

Siegel also noted that Erin pulling the angel in was a scripted beat, and discussed where she drew inspiration from to find Erin’s strength in that moment:

“I was like, I don’t know how anybody who’s being eaten alive has the wherewithal or the strength to do that. And the only thing I could think of is that the women I know who have been assaulted are the strongest women I know, and they are the ones with the deepest reservoirs of strength because they’ve been to hell and they’ve come back, and I think about Erin in that way, as being someone who, even though I couldn’t imagine having that amount of strength, she has it.”

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