Mike Flanagan is undoubtedly one of the best gothic television series makers of the contemporary industry. Flanagan’s The Haunting series, The Midnight Club and Midnight Mass are the much praised examples of his style and work. Adding to his finest collection is his adaptation of Edgar Alan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”.
Divided into 8 episodes the series is a brilliant and modern tribute to Poe’s most celebrated short story. While Poe’s story of Usher remains the heart of the series, it is unified to the body by attaching different organs based on other works of Poe including The Masque of the Red Death, Murder in the Rue Morgue, The Black Cat, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, and many more. The nefarious Patriarch of the Usher family, Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood), whose legacy is maintained through his several wicked and selfish children , his equally ruthless twin sister Madeline (Mary McDonnell) who is loyal towards her brother and their opiate empire Fortunato and the investigator C. Auguste Dupin (Carl Lumbly), who serves as the recurring character in Poe’s stories , and the ever masquerading supernatural figure Verna (Carla Gugino) are the main characters of Flanagan’s series.
As Roderick narrates his story and the bizarre and terrifying fate of his children and his part in it to Dupin, Flanagan plays with guilt, obsession and vengeance with his favourite actors. Without much jump scares, the series presents the eerie and bloody deaths in the dysfunctional Usher family as a result of their own moral corruption and obsession which eventually results in the fall of the dynasty. The viewers get to feel the constant presence of death hovering over each episode that has come to take what’s due from a family that profited off the pain of others.
Just like Poe, Flanagan uses gothic to explain the psychological thinking of the characters who lack morality and human values. Flanagan’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is an excellent amalgamation of Poe’s works and its characteristics with a great ensemble and is indeed a treat to the fans of his other shows.
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