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Oct 14, 2024

‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ is a chilling, masterful love letter to Poe | News, Sports, Jobs - The Express

Sep 19, 2024 PHOTO PROVIDEDCarl Lumbly stars as C. Auguste Dupin, at left, and Bruce Greenwood is Roderick Usher in 2023’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” created by Mike Flanagan. Although we’re

Sep 19, 2024

PHOTO PROVIDEDCarl Lumbly stars as C. Auguste Dupin, at left, and Bruce Greenwood is Roderick Usher in 2023’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” created by Mike Flanagan.

Although we’re still seeing 70-plus degree weather, it’s September which means it’s the time of year I love the most — spooky season.

Halloween may be weeks away but I’m already getting myself into the festive spirit. Between prepping my costume for the Clinton County United Way and The Express’s upcoming Masquerade benefit (this is a shameless plug and you all should consider getting a ticket for this fun event) or digging decorations out of my garage — one thing that always stays constant is my need to put together reviews of horror movies and TV shows.

And when you think of something spooky, scary and a bit unsettling — Mike Flanagan’s limited series on Netflix are exactly what the doctor ordered.

Calling this review of “The Fall of the House of Usher” a true throwback would absolutely be a stretch — it was released in September 2023 — so I won’t pretend that’s what this is.

“The Fall of the House of Usher” was Flanagan’s last limited series that he created under the Netflix umbrella and is, in my opinion, a love letter to Edgar Allen Poe and his works.

The story — although overarchingly based on Poe’s work of the same name — is riddled with callbacks to much of his work. I won’t get into them too much, but a few of my favorites are episodes that feature inspiration from “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Pit and the Pendulum”

Flanagan’s story centers around the Usher family in modern day — particularly twins Roderick and Madeline Usher — and takes place between two timelines while Roderick (played in present day by Bruce Greenwood) is explaining just how his family become the powerhouse control of a pharmaceutical company to his long-time legal rival Assistant US Attorney C. Auguste Dupin (Carl Lumbly) following the death of his children.

Dupin assumes Roderick’s six children died of freak accidents within a short timeline. However, Roderick insists there are more sinister things at play.

We slowly unravel this truth over eight episodes as we watch how Roderick and Madeline got to where they did — including a bit of a murderous backstory — and how ultimately his children paid the price.

Following the introductory episode — where we see just how dysfunctional and out of touch the Usher family is in 2023, along with some backstory for a young Madeline and Roderick — each episode shines a spotlight on Roderick’s children and how they meet their demise.

Starting from his youngest child Prospero (Sauriyan Sapkota) and all the way to his first-born son Frederick (Henry Thomas) we witness in slow motion the figurative fall of this once great family. All while Roderick is plagued by visions of a mysterious woman (played artfully by Carla Gugino).

The reason behind this fall? Not nearly as simple as one might think.

We learn just what a young Frederick (Zach Gilford) and Madeline (Willa Fitzgerald) did to go from nameless children of a religious fanatic mother to the most powerful duo in the world.

Each episode, like I first mentioned, is inspired by one of Poe’s works, with some more obvious than others.

The entire series is dark, gritty and a bit heart wrenching to watch. Ultimately, as can often be the case in the real world, the Usher siblings are paying the price for their elders’ decisions.

For some, you feel bad. For others, you may just be rooting for their end a bit more.

Ultimately though, for me, I felt bad. Roderick’s children didn’t stand a chance against the environment they were brought up in, where their father and aunt taught them that power and money were the ultimate achievements.

Not only is “The Fall of the House of Usher” a love letter to Poe’s works, it could also be considered a cautionary tale against greed, lust and the dangers of seeking to climb to the top while not caring who is destroyed in the process.

Roderick and Madeline make a deal with the devil, so to speak, and get to enjoy the fruits of their labors for some time — but soon enough it all comes crashing down around them.

The dynamics between the Ushers — particularly Roderick and Madeline — are deeply interesting.

We can tell immediately that these siblings — twins even — are bonded by not only blood but the shared trauma of their difficult lives. Their traumas, which include the loss of their mother as teens, shapes them in different ways.

When we see the young adult Ushers, that trauma has carved them into different people. Roderick is married to the kind hearted Annabelle Lee and has two children — Frederick and Tamerlane. He’s a smart man, but much more soft-hearted and loves poetry.

His sister, however, is a very cold and calculated woman played perfectly by Fitzgerald. Madeline suffers the pain of being a smart woman in the 1970s, always demeaned and underestimated. This is something she uses to her benefit at times, but ultimately we can see the resentment and anger she feels. But, given her intellect, she knows her brother is the key to finding the success they both dream for deep down.

Though Madeline doesn’t change much in the present day — still whip smart and a little scary with just how easily she wields her power — Roderick has seen the biggest change.

Going from a soft hearted, poetry loving father of two. He’s now a brash man who has settled into his power. He’s fathered multiple children with different women and is married to a woman much younger than him that he treats more as a science experiment for his controversial drug.

This isn’t to say Roderick didn’t have these traits to begin with. But it was intriguing to watch what brought them out.

Roderick’s children — Frederick (Thomas), Tamerlane (Samantha Sloyan), Victorine (T’Nia Miller), Leo (Rahul Kohli), Camille (Kate Siegal) and Prospero (Sapkota) — are all interesting, individually and together. You can see how their father’s intense greed and need for power shaped each of them, making them mistrust each other.

Frederick and Tamerlane, for example, see the others as hindrances to their inheritance, seeing as they’re the only ones not born out of wedlock.

The others, who also have taken on their father’s need for more, showcase it in different ways. Victorine is using her girlfriend’s skills as a doctor to try and create a new heart monitor but often wants to ignore protocols to simply get it to human trials.

Leo is a glutton for all things euphoric, from drugs to cheating on his boyfriend and often tries to boast he’s never fallen into the traps Roderick has laid out.

Camille is a glutton for information. A cold and calculating head of her father’s PR and with a strange dynamic through her assistants. She doesn’t care what needs to be done to find dirt on those who could harm her or her family.

Prospero, much like Leo, can also often be a glutton for drugs, sex and more. But, given he’d only just learned he was an Usher a few years prior at just 16, he’s much more egotistical and brash. Often feeling like he knows better than the rest of his family.

Overall, it’s interesting to see how power, money and influence can ultimately be a downfall for individuals and families.

And when you throw in the supernatural elements behind all of this, it really makes for a very intriguing premise.

That supernatural element being portrayed by the ever-amazing Carla Gugino.

Genuinely, she acted her butt off for these series — having starred in a few of Flanagan’s other projects. Her character in this series is ever changing, a chameleon that’s flitted herself into the lives of all the Ushers, and she does it with grace and skill. I can’t say enough about how blown away I was at how she could put on a new mask each episode while still maintaining a certain aura that told you her character held an old, and terrifying, power.

It isn’t shocking to me that Flanagan was able to weave real-world issues — like corporate greed and its effects on society — into his horror series. He’s always had the ability to pair real horrors into more imagined ones.

“The Fall of the House of Usher” has quickly made its way into my top three favorite mini-series he’s created. I would almost hesitate to say that at this point it may have beaten out my original favorites — “The Haunting of Hill House” and “The Haunting of Bly Manor” to take the number one spot.

There’s just something so enthralling about how he was able to so artfully bring together various horror elements underneath Poe’s umbrella in such a seamless way.

And when you throw in an amazing cast that truly embodied their characters and the intricate dynamics between them, and a fantastic soundtrack, you really have yourself the perfect series to watch this Halloween season.

So, if you’re in the mood for a dark, gothic horror that’s eight episodes long this fall, look no further than “The Fall of the House of Usher.” It’s got gore, it’s got jump scares, it’s got a lot of heart too and it’s just amazing. The perfect swan song for Flanagan’s mini-series at Netflix.

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Laura Jameson is Managing Editor of The Express.