American horror drama television miniseries
The Fall of the House of Usher is an American gothic horror drama television miniseries created by Mike Flanagan. All eight episodes were released on Netflix on October 12, 2023, each directed by either Flanagan or Michael Fimognari, with the latter also acting as cinematographer for the entire series.
Loosely based on various works by 19th-century author Edgar Allan Poe (most prominently the eponymous 1840 short story), the series adapts otherwise unrelated stories and characters by Poe into a single nonlinear narrative set from 1953 to 2023. It recounts both the rise to power of Roderick Usher, the powerful CEO of a corrupt pharmaceutical company and his sister Madeline Usher, the firm's genius COO, and the events leading to the deaths of all six of Roderick’s children. It stars an ensemble cast led by Carla Gugino as a mysterious woman plaguing the Ushers, Bruce Greenwood as an elderly Roderick and Mary McDonnell as an elderly Madeline.
The first two episodes of The Fall of the House of Usher premiered at Fantastic Fest in September 2023 before the Netflix release the following month, being viewed more than 13 million times in its first two weeks. It was met with positive reviews, with critics praising its production values, directing, and performances (in particular from Gugino, Greenwood and Mark Hamill), although they were divided on its narrative, notably in relation to the source materials.
Synopsis
In November 2023, Roderick Usher, the CEO of pharmaceutical company Fortunato Pharmaceuticals, loses all six of his children within two weeks. The evening after the final funeral, Roderick invites C. Auguste Dupin, an Assistant United States Attorney who dedicated his career to exposing Fortunato's corruption, to his childhood home, where he tells the true story of his family and unveils the Ushers' darkest secrets.
The series follows two timelines in addition to the conversation between Roderick and Dupin, depicted onscreen when told by Roderick: the first, taking place from 1953 to 1980, recounts Roderick and his twin sister Madeline's youth and subsequent rise to power, while the second follows all of the Ushers during the two weeks leading up to the discussion, revealing the truth behind the deaths of Roderick's children.
Episodes
While the first episode's title consists of a phrase from the first line of Poe's poem "The Raven", the last episode bears the poem's title. The other episodes have the same titles as the following short stories by Poe: "The Masque of the Red Death", "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "The Black Cat", "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Gold-Bug", and "The Pit and the Pendulum".
Production
In October 2021, Netflix announced that Mike Flanagan was developing a new miniseries based on "The Fall of the House of Usher" and other works by Edgar Allan Poe.[6] On December 9, 2021, Frank Langella, Carla Gugino, Mary McDonnell, Carl Lumbly, and Mark Hamill were cast.[3] Samantha Sloyan, Rahul Kohli, Henry Thomas, T'Nia Miller, Kate Siegel, Sauriyan Sapkota, Zach Gilford, Katie Parker, Michael Trucco, Malcolm Goodwin, Crystal Balint, Kyleigh Curran, Paola Nuñez, Aya Furukawa, Matt Biedel, Daniel Jun, Ruth Codd, Robert Longstreet, Annabeth Gish, and Igby Rigney were cast the next day.[7][8]
In April 2022, Langella was fired from the series after a misconduct investigation, with his role set to be recast.[9] By the end of the month, Bruce Greenwood was cast to replace Langella.[10]
Filming began on January 31, 2022, in Vancouver, Canada, and wrapped on July 9, 2022.[11][12][13]
Release
The first two episodes debuted at Fantastic Fest in September 2023,[14][15] as well as a pre-screening at Flanagan's alma mater, Towson University. The series was released on Netflix on October 12, 2023.[16]
Reception
Viewership
The Fall of the House of Usher was viewed 6 million times on its debut week, making it the most-watched English-language fiction program on Netflix that week, and third most-watched overall after the French-language series Lupin and the documentary series Beckham.[17] The next week, it was the second most-watched series on Netflix, with 7.9 million views.[18]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 105 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "Presenting vintage Poe stories filtered through Mike Flanagan's deliciously dark lens, The Fall of the House of Usher will get a rise out of horror fans."[19] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the show a score of 73 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[20] Its cast, production values, directing and editing were singled out, with the performances of Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, and Mark Hamill being singled out by a number of critics.[21][1][22][23]
Ben Travers of IndieWire gave the series a B− and wrote, "As the absurdly wealthy destroy our only planet, our innocent pleasures, and our very lives, even a blunt, overextended allegory can deliver visceral satisfactions. Arguing billionaires should not exist has rarely felt so Biblical."[24] Reviewing the series for San Francisco Chronicle, G. Allen Johnson gave a rating of 3/4 and said, "The tonal difference between the books and the series? The makers of The Fall of the House of Usher are having way more fun."[25]
Olly Dyche of MovieWeb stated: "The series oozes with [Flanagan]'s usual style of creepy imagery, effective jump scares, ample tension, and complex emotions. But perhaps what The Fall of the House of Usher does better than most horror series is its focus on character drama, and the deeply engaging mystery that will constantly ask more questions than it answers until the very end. The performances, as with Flanagan's usual projects, are all flawless, with Carla Gugino stealing the show."[23] Perri Nemiroff of Collider stated that The Fall of the House of Usher was "Another masterful series from Mike Flanagan", "A true dream for fans of Edgar Allan Poe's work" and "an expertly crafted combination of Poe-penned stories brought to screen via a slew of deliciously diabolical performances."[26] Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com stated that the series "can sometimes feel simultaneously overcrowded in its cramming in of various sources and narratively thin at the same time, but Mike Flanagan's craft and his assemblage of returning performers keep this pendulum swinging through eight grisly episodes."[22]
While other aspects were widely praised, the narrative received some criticism: Aja Romano of Vox found it to be unable to blend its various source materials smoothly, and to lack "the most central element of all Poe’s works: Passion. The characters of Usher may be dying like they're in a gothic horror, but they're not living like it [...] There’s nothing of Poe's lingering mysteries, the giant unresolved questions of internal motivations and dreamlike logic that hang over his stories and their subjects".[1] Ed Power of The Telegraph called it "an over-stuffed and under-cooked horror bore", stating that "the characters are too bluntly drawn to elicit any of the sympathy we felt for the tragically awful Roys. The opiate plot feels tacked on, if not opportunistic. Nor does it help that the story is gory rather than frightening."[21]
Accolades
