Another October, another Netflix original horror premiere. Its latest adaptation, The Fall of the House of Usher, takes its name from the classic tale by horror icon Edgar Allan Poe.
This year’s foray into the Poe abyss comes courtesy of perhaps a more modern horror icon, filmmaker Mike Flanagan, whose previous adaptations of The Haunting of Hill House (based on the novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson) and The Haunting of Bly Manor (based on Henry James’ Turn of the Screw) have made Flanagan a common name in the world of modern horror media.
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Couple this with a Netflix adaptation of Christopher Pike’s The Midnight Club and his theatrical release of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, and is it any wonder that hopes have been particularly high for him to tackle The Fall of the House of Usher? No, no wonder at all.
The Fall of the House of Usher: A Love Letter to Poe and the Written Word
With The Fall of the House of Usher, Mike Flanagan cements himself as a master of book-to-screen adaptations. It’s a feat to adapt any piece of literature, let alone combine several into one flowing story, but there’s a cohesiveness to the Usher family’s macabre tale that gives a fresh perspective to these classic tales of horror.
Whether a fan of classic literature, or horror, or you’re a fan of picking easter eggs out of the media you consume, The Fall of the House of Usher doesn’t disappoint. You’ll be more likely to continue to think about the series for days after it’s over.
Which Stories Are Depicted in The Fall of the House of Usher?
In spite of its title, The Fall of the House of Usher actually takes inspiration from several of Poe’s works.
In the original tale, an unnamed narrator travels to the dilapidated mansion of the usher family to meet an ailing Roderick Usher. Throughout the course of his stay, the two are increasingly haunted by the house itself as well as the death of Roderick’s twin Madeline, which appears to be causing enormous strain on the already ill family patriarch.
Usher is driven mad by his own past actions as well as his surroundings, and the narrator witnesses both the death of the Usher family as well as their home, which sinks into the ground along with the siblings and the legacy of the House of Usher.
The show tells a more modern story. The Fall of the House of Usher itself functions as the overarching story of the series, with each episode based on a different Poe story.
In order to create a compelling narrative for a modern audience, Mike Flanagan brings the series into the modern age, with the Ushers at the head of a morally corrupt pharmaceutical empire. Roderick’s 5 children (Frederick, Tamerlane, Victorine, Camille, Napoleon, and Prospero), as well as the ruthless CEO and his sister, must pay the price for a deal made decades earlier with a mysterious figure named Verna (hint: her name is an anagram).
The series consists of 8 episodes, named after and minorly adapting the following Poe works:
- A Midnight Dreary (a reference to “The Raven”, arguably Poe’s most famous piece)
- The Masque of the Red Death (Prospero)
- Murder in the Rue Morgue (Camille)
- The Black Cat (Napoleon ‘Leo’)
- The Tell-Tale Heart (Victorine)
- Goldbug (Tamerlane)
- The Pit and the Pendulum (Frederick)
- The Raven (The remaining Usher family)
As well as the names of the characters, each sibling (and Roderick and Madeline themselves) has episodes that revolve around the story chosen for their arc and eventual demise.
Naive and cocksure Prospero throws a forbidden party with dire consequences, overconfident Victorine is willing to go to any lengths to get her medical device up and running, and an always angry Camille will stop at nothing to dig up dirt on whoever she sets her sights on.
One after another, Roderick sees his foretold prophecy come to pass, and loses those he cares about, unable to put a stop to the madness that he himself created 40-odd years ago.
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Who is Verna?
Played to perfection by Flanagan regular Carla Gugino, Verna appears to each member of the Usher family shortly before their demise. Oftentimes, she acts as a sort of harbinger, offering an alternative course of action to each person before exacting her promised retribution upon them.
As both the first and final episodes of the series make reference to Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Raven’, it stands to reason that Verna herself would be a reference to this same poem. In fact, Verna is a personification of the raven seen throughout the course of the series.
Even her name is an anagram for Raven.
In the eponymous poem, the raven itself is a metaphor for death and loneliness, as the unnamed narrator mourns the loss of his beloved, Lenore. This also makes it quite fitting that Roderick’s true love – his granddaughter Lenore – is taken away from him as well, and he’s left to mourn the loss in solitude.
Thank you to spooky season, all things dark and scary, and most of all thank you to the morbid master himself, Edgar Allan Poe.
