Edgar Allen Poe played a major part in my interest in media. Take a little seventh grade me and put some twisted poetry in front of me and you get whatever you want to call me today. Although my media diet is a majority visual, this does not change how impactful Poe has been on me. Netflix’s newest limited series The Fall of The House of Usher, is an adaptation of several Poe works wrapped into one.
The series is created by one of modern horror’s most dependable names- Mike Flanagan. With other notable and acclaimed series under his belt I was sure this would be a smash from start to finish. Factor in my own appreciation for Poe and nothing could go wrong. Unfortunately, none of this came to pass.
Spoilers are this whole review, so if you care, now is your chance to give the series a watch and then come back here. Since there are eight episodes and it is a bit tricky to lump them all together I will be doing a review of each episode in a few short thoughts.
Episode 1: A Midnight Dreary
This pilot was interesting. From the beginning you can tell that everything within this series will be ramping up to something. I mean, yeah, all shows should be building towards something, but since this series is limited to a few episodes, there is a storm coming our way.
All of the seeds are planted for what is to come, but that is pretty much all this episode is. Truthfully I think this episode can be skipped all together. Maybe the only thing you need to know is all of Roderick Usher’s children are dead, and his sister, Madelyn Usher, is his bestie. Roddy’s momma was in a bad way, and now he is confessing the deaths of all of his children to the opposing counsel, Auguste Dupin. We also get a quick scene where we see all of the kids alive and in the same place for the last time. It is a nice moment, but that about does it for the pilot.
There was not a whole lot that grabbed my attention off the bat. So far the acting is meh, Bruce Greenwood has a nice voice, I like Carl Lumbley, and the unraveling of each death is interesting to stick around for. Seed planting is as plain as can be, which is okay, but nothing terribly interesting happens here. Next episode.
Episode 2: The Masque of the Red Death
Alright, now we are talking! After the seeds were sown and we got a little hint of who is who, things started to pick up. Episode 2 centers on the youngest brother, Perry Usher, hosting a brothel in one of Usher corporation’s condemned buildings. Perry is angry with the family, so all of this is an act of spite especially towards the oldest son Frederick since he invites Frederick’s wife.
The majority of this episode is okay. It is fine. The pacing is good, the acting is still just okay, and the tone is good. What really seals this episode for me are the final five-ish minutes. The final moments of this episode are my favorite of the entire series, for better or worse. Perry’s big commencement to get the sex going is rain from the sprinklers to get everyone excited, but acid rains down and melts everyone. It is grizzly, sickening, awesome, scary, brutal, and so cool!
While everyone is melting and screaming Closer by Nine Inch Nails is raging on. Everyone melts, screams, and becomes a zombie and it is glorious. Finally, someone is capturing the sadistic brutality of what Edgar Allen Poe is in my brain. Episode 2 started off mediocre, but ended in a cool and acidic blaze that unfortunately is the peak for me.
Episode 3: Murder in the Rue Morgue
The series should only continue upwards from here, but it sort of just plateaus for me. Murder in the Rue Morgue sees the death of Camille Usher, the PR manager of the family. In this episode she tries to get everyone into a good space to respond to Perry’s death, then she investigates her sister Victorine’s shady medical practices, and then dies at the hand of a monkey. This is the most disappointing death.
To be fair, I think I would have felt that any death after Perry’s would be disappointing. That said, I still think they could have gone harder into Camille’s death. At no point do I think they need to change the story. You simply do not change Edgar Allan Poe. Keep the story, but increase the grizzly-ness. The off-camera death with audio included was such a bummer.
The rest of the Murder was subpar. On top of Roderick’s current confessions and the retelling of each child’s death we see how Madelyn and Roderick Usher came to prominence. At no point, ever, throughout this entire series did I care at all about these scenes. They kill the momentum of every episode and are interesting for a total of ten minutes in the finale. More on that later. Overall episode 3 was a step backwards.
Episode 4: The Black Cat
Alright, cool! We are slowly getting back to the excitement from episode 2. The Black Cat leads up to the death of Leo, the second oldest son. I enjoyed this one and thought this was what actually should have come after Perry. Leo’s death is simple but effective and the story is twisted fun.
I was sad to see Leo go because any time up to this point whenever Rahul Kohli was on screen, I enjoyed him the most. Despite his departure, his performance was still pretty good. His quick jump to obsession and violence was cool. Leo’s death is the only one I actively wanted to prevent. Pacing in The Black Cat is fine. Everything going on with the Usher bloodline is cool and worth sticking around for. Everything in the past is absolutely not. I still absolutely do not care about what happened in the past.
You simply can not make me, because I assure you I tried paying attention. Hopping back on track to wrap The Black Cat up, I thought this one was the most uncomfortable. Maybe this was because I enjoyed Leo the most, or a descent into obsession always gets me going, but this was brutal. Aside from the OG Usher’s backstory, I thought this one was pretty good. Momentum is slowly coming back to me and I am ready to move on.
Episode 5: The Tell Tale Heart
Reading this story in eighth grade changed my interest in stories. My heart pounded as loud in my own ears as the one below the floorboards. After reading the episode titles, I could not wait to get to this one. The Tell Tale Heart disappointed me. I liked Victorine, so when it came to be her time, this was unfortunate news. Seeing that her death would coincide with the story of Poe’s Heart, this was exciting news. Where did it all go wrong?
Truthfully I am not sure. The seeds were planted from the beginning that Victorine was working on a synthetic heart. This was what Camille was investigating before her death via test monkey. It is not like this story, this plot, and this death came out of nowhere. Everything made sense, but none of it connected with me emotionally.
I think I should feel bad when one of my other favorite characters dies. Alas, no, I did not. However, it did startle/ shock/ intrigue me when Victorine snapped at her partner, Alessandra, killing her by accident. Victorine’s growth into chaos was another story that was developed over some time so none of this was a complete shock. Despite this, it still feels like things could have been way more intense.
Maybe I am setting myself up for disappointment, but I think I am justified when it comes to expecting something grim from a Poe adaptation. The things happening on screen are upsetting and gruesome, yes, but none of it is impactful. Without a tense build, most of this series feels very flat up to this point. Luckily we can now move on to another gruesome death.
Episode 6: Goldbug
Tamerlane Usher was the least interesting character before Goldbug. Not for any lack of trying, there was never enough attention put onto her arc. Tamerlane watches her husband sleep with escorts and in turn he helps build their brand with exercise instructionals. One night she gets Carla Gugino as the escort and soon Carla starts appearing everywhere leading Tamerlane to grow paranoid.
I think this may be my favorite episode of the series. Disregarding The Adventures of Roddy and Maddy, again, this episode is very good. Tamerlane’s fears growing stronger by the minute as her paranoia grew bigger by the second, felt very real. By the end, the unsettling tone is deserved. I would say this is the only episode I truly feared Carla Gugino.
Her words about burrowing in the back of Tamerlane’s brain are as creepy as they can be and it rocks. Performances in this one were good. Tamerlane’s death was wicked. The pace was good. Goldbug was a strong episode. Alright, let us keep this momentum going!
Episode 7: The Pit and the Pendulum
Luckily, the momentum actually continues into The Pit and the Pendulum. We come to the final death of the Usher children: Frederick. Because, running through every single detail of this series is exhausting, I skipped a bunch. The story is too long to explain to this point, but all I can say is this was the most satisfying death.
Over the series Freddie Usehr went from being an intolerable little runt to a terror on everyone. The build up to Freddie’s death was a long one, but a good one. Despite my complete lack of interest in the past, Freddie was a part of that time and so with this death you can feel the weight of this on Roderick. That comes into the next episode, but for now we say goodbye to Freddie.
Frederick’s death is slow and tense. A blade swings from the ceiling of the building he lays paralyzed in. The blade slowly slices his stomach open, killing him, before the rest of the ceiling collapses on top of him. The symbolism is fantastically laid out here, as well as the speed of the building collapse. The Pit and the Pendulum is a well-paced episode and has some of the most satisfying build-up/ payoff of any of the character’s fates. Finale time!
Episode 8: The Raven
Everyone knows The Raven. Seeing The Raven as the title of the finale was a nice direction, but what I truly enjoyed was the tie-in to The Casque of Amontillado. I should have seen it coming, but I did not and it was a welcome surprise. This was also one of the few times the past was an interesting part of the story.
Now that there are no more children to recollect the murders of, Roderick can focus on his confessions to Auggie. This gives the episode a chance to breathe for a bit. Stories are tied together, secrets are revealed and words are spoken- the whole deal. In the end of everything, nothing felt as cathartic or explosive as I had hoped it would be.
I liked a good majority of the story in this episode, but not enough to really say it justified anything unlikable from the rest of the series. In the end, the house that Roderick and Auggie are in collapses and all of the Usher’s are dead. Carla visits everyone’s graves and places an emblem on each gravestone. The funniest one was Camille’s, as she places a whole iPhone 15 on her grave. That is the show.
Final Quick Thoughts
I talked a lot already, but there are a few things I want to address quickly. Firstly, Mark Hamill portrayed the family’s own PI- Arthur Pym. He was great and I liked whenever Hamill had a scene. The atmosphere in every episode was consistent and good enough for me. When the death’s connected- they totally connected and were so cool. Bruce Greenwood has a very nice voice and I liked hearing him narrate.
Generally I never have problems with layer amounts in storytelling, but there were way too many in this series. Did eight episodes need three different-ish time periods? Absolutely not. Nothing from the 1980’s past was even remotely interesting until the end. The inclusion of the pharmaceutical company that Roderick and Madelyn run was utterly pointless.
Carl Lumbly and Rahul Kohli were pretty much the only performances I liked in this entire series. The jumpscares were a little cheap, but I will admit they worked on me a few times. Inclusion of modern technology and current business speak was either a huge miss or just sensible enough to ignore.
The last thing I need to comment on is the longevity of Verna. In one scene, Pym finds pictures of Carla Gugino with famous historical figures. One of the photos is with Mark Zuckerberg. There is not an inch of me that thinks this was a tongue-in-cheek joke. It gave me a huge laugh.
The Fall of the House of Usher
This was exhausting. This review would have been out earlier if The Fall of the House of Usher was more interesting. Hopefully, despite my ramblings and negativity this will not totally dissuade you from watching this if you are still interested. Give it a shot, come back here and let me know what you think. The fall of the House of Usher is a 5/10 and you can stream it all on Netflix now.
