The Fall of the House of Usher Review: Very Human Horror

September 23, 2023

The Pitch: On the finish of an extended and not-exactly-noble life, the time has come for rich businessman Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood) to admit his crimes. Not simply his personal, because the figurehead of an organization whose success comes from an allegedly non-addictive opioid, however the crimes of his six kids, who initially of the collection have all handed away from unnatural causes.

So Roderick tells their tales, in addition to the occasions that formed the Ushers right into a twisted parody of a cheerful household, to C. Auguste Dupin (Carl Lumbly), the federal government prosecutor who has been making an attempt to show the Usher household’s malfeasance for many years. And in case you at any level in your life studied American literature, and had been doing a shot each time The Fall of the Home of Usher dropped a reference to Edgar Allen Poe as you watched this… please go to the hospital now, and get your abdomen pumped.

As soon as Upon a Midnight Dreary: Author/director Mike Flanagan has developed a pleasant area of interest for himself on Netflix, and The Fall of the Home of Usher is likely to be his finest effort but. Whereas his now-annual run of restricted collection have obtained their fair proportion of acclaim, “What would Edgar Allen Poe have considered the Sackler family?” proves to be a meaty pitch, elevated by a solid that in some circumstances has by no means been higher.

Whereas previous Flanagan collection impressed by well-known authors have by no means hidden their inspiration, Home of Usher places the writing of Poe entrance and middle, with a deliberate emphasis on the writer’s precise phrases, particularly his poetry. These acquainted strains are blended into the present’s precise dialogue at occasions, and used for emphasis in voice-over at others: Greenwood wasn’t essentially solid for his wealthy talking voice, however listening to him recite acquainted passages from poems like “The Raven” is a deeply-felt pleasure.

In reality, the whole solid all will get an opportunity to intone a few of Poe’s most well-known verses. That is no poetry recital, although, as every episode explains how every brick of the Home of Usher got here to crumble, in ugly style. Flanagan has quite a lot of enjoyable adapting Poe’s most annoying fictions for at the moment in each anticipated and sudden methods — from the episode titles, you would possibly count on to understand how “The Masque of the Pink Dying” and “The Pit and the Pendulum” would possibly play out… however you additionally is likely to be mistaken.

These Who Dream by Day: Flanagan, like many creators, has developed a robust in-house ensemble of actors he retains bringing again for tasks, and regulars like T’Nia Miller, Rahul Kohli, Kate Siegel, and Zach Gilford all flip in strong work. However Usher‘s shining star is Carla Gugino, as a mysterious lady deeply concerned within the Usher household’s destiny. Gugino has at all times been a pleasure to witness as an actress, however right here Flanagan offers her a lot to play, her character’s frequent darting between identities a real showcase for the total vary of her abilities. It’s an amazing efficiency, worthy of no matter awards you might throw at it — its scope is difficult to sum up in phrases (spoiler-free ones, anyway).