On 12th October, The Fall of the House of Usher, which is the latest Horror from a series of Mike Flanagan’s work, hit the giant streaming house—Netflix.
This spooky anthropology from the renowned author is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s 19th-century writings. The show revolves around the downfall of an opioid empire—and it comes with a gothic twist.
In the series, the story focuses on the Usher family and their drug company. The casting crew includes inspiration from the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma who are the owners of Fortunato Pharmaceutical and OxyContin manufacturers respectively.
The show is filled with mysterious murders, gratuitous violence, gore of slashers, hilarious scenes, and scary twists.
Poe’s Plot
Originally, The Fall of House Usher was a short story developed by Allan Poe in 1839. To complement the writer’s other work, including The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Cask of Amontillado, Flanagan has created a great TV show The Fall of the House of Usher.
But what happens in Poe’s House of Usher? The plot revolves around an unnamed narrator who visits the decaying mansion of his childhood friend, Roderick Usher. He decides to stay in the mansion, but as time passes, he starts developing a sense of dread.
He discovers his friend Roderick has begun exhibiting signs of madness and his obsession with death starts to worry him. A few days later, Roderick’s sister Madeline passes on and he decides to lay her to rest in the tombs below the mansion.
His sister’s death elevates his paranoia even further. Roderick bursts into the narrator’s room one night, postulating that he might have buried his sister alive. As a matter of fact, it turned out his sister had been suffering from a peculiar mental illness for a while.
Strangely, the narrator’s bedroom flies open, Madeline appears, and she kills her brother, but the narrator manages to escape.
The Plot of the Flanagan’s Show
On the other hand, Flanagan’s TV series story revolves around Roderick Usher, who’s played by Bruce Greenwood and is Fortunato’s CEO. The character invites Assistant US Attorney C. Auguste Dupin, who’s played by Carl Lumbly, to confess his long list of crimes. This follows after the gruesome deaths of his six children, which occurred within a week.
Roderick blames himself for their deaths thinking his past crimes had something to do with it. All this time, he had locked his sister, Madeline Usher, Fortunato’s COO whom he had tried to kill earlier, in the basement to stop her from interfering with his confession.
Roderick explains how they mistakenly buried their mother (Annabeth Gish) alive only for her to burst out of her premature grave and exact revenge by brutally murdering their father, former Fortunato CEO William Longfellow, played by Robert Longstreet.
Throughout the confession, he was tormented by scary visions of his dead kids. The last episode concludes with the basement door flying open, Madeline emerges and strangles her brother, while Auggie escapes from the collapsing mansion.
Final Takeaways
The 8-episode show borrows greatly from Poe’s iconic work. Ranging from the episode’s titles to the flashbacks, Flanagan conducted in-depth research from the legendary writer’s work to create one of the best horror series of the 21st century.
However, even though the show is mostly based on Poe’s work, it’s received several positive reviews for its standalone merits.
