Yesterday, the miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher premiered on Netflix. It is a horror series that could be the perfect evening entertainment for Halloween. The premise surrounding the series sounds promising.
What is The Fall of the House of Usher about?
- The story is based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe
- The siblings Roderick Usher and Madeline Usher help a pharmaceutical company succeed through corrupt opioid trafficking
- Roderick is the father of six children with five different women
- One day, the family man is haunted by the mysterious shapeshifter Verna
- The heirs of the family dynasty, his children, suddenly start to die one by one
The series is available on Netflix since yesterday, making it perfect for an upcoming Halloween evening. However, you need to plan not just one evening, but rather an entire day for the series.
The miniseries consists of eight episodes, each about an hour long. The first episode introduces the plot and the last episode concludes the story. The other six episodes address the deaths of the heirs.
The series is created by Mike Flanagan, who has already proven with the Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House in 2018 that he has a knack for horror series. The Haunting of Hill House scores 93 out of 100 % on Rotten Tomatoes, while The Fall of the House of Usher currently has 90 % based on 72 reviews (as of: 13.10.2023, 12:51).
If you want to see for yourself how creepy the series is, you can check out the following trailer:
Mike Flanagan adhered to the works of Edgar Allan Poe
Other series that have been successful for Mike Flanagan include The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and Creepshow. In all his works, supernatural phenomena and figures like vampires, ghosts, and traumas are included.
In The Fall of the House of Usher, each death is based on a different work by Edgar Allan Poe. The series deals with modern themes such as artificial intelligence, narcotics, and medical animal testing.
Even outside the story, Flanagan took inspiration from Poe. During the first episode, the song ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ plays right at the start of the episode. The song alludes to the tale ‘The Cask of Amontillado’, in which a man is trapped by his rivals behind a stone wall in the cellar of his house.
Even Roderick’s children are all named after characters that appear in the stories and poems of the writer. There are many such examples that show how much attention to detail Flanagan has put into the series.
How the series is rated
What is praised, what is criticized? Flanagan has succeeded well in adapting Poe’s works into a series. The writing and the cast of actors are well executed. Strengths also include the atmosphere and the dark humor.
What some critics do not like is the pace of the story. The flashbacks to the story of the twins are said to be too drawn-out, and the ending would “lead to the failure of the horror drama” with its long lecture. The number of jump scares is also considered too high (via rottentomatoes.com).
If the series is too scary for you, these movies could be a good alternative: 5 horror movies for ages 6 and up that you can watch with the whole family on Halloween
