Netflix’s The Fall of the House of Usher: Weaving Edgar Allen’s Poeverse

NOVEMBER 24, 2023

The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix recently released from Mike Flanagan in his final series with Netflix (Midnight Mass, Haunting of Hill House, the Midnight Club, and Haunting of Bly Manor) decided to tap the Edgar Allen Poe library for a creative 8 episode miniseries. The “Poeverse” was never intentionally meant to be linked, but guess what this mad creative genius named Mike did? He found a way to link it together like some Feige-esque Marvel storyline to perfectly capture the original American King of horror (and poetry) short stories. Let’s do some Spoiling!

THE STANDOUTS

The Cask of Amontillado, the Murders in the Rue Morgue, and the Masque of the Red Death truly stood out to THINKNEWSNOW. The gist of the stories in order are a fool being buried alive, a murderous gorilla and a bacchanalia gone wrong just kicked my butt! For years now, my first and only reading of the Cask of Amontillado drove a fear in me of being buried alive! It was absolutely shocking and terrifying to 8-year-old me to be exposed to that level of revenge exacted upon the buried alive Fortunato. But Flannagan used that story to weave how the younger Ushers Roderick and Madeline tricked the CEO of Fortunato into the basement of the old headquarters to bury him alive in a wall with his New Years costume on, that of an Italian Renaissance Clown with bells on his hat that would periodically ring throughout the series. It was this act by the twins that would seal the then corrupt CEO’s fate, but also their own as the next person to enter their lives that very night of their atrocious act, happened to be their main tormentor throughout the series.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue was a grimy tale in the Flannagan series, that also followed very closely to the book. However missing was the character of Auguste Dupin (but was obviously reimagined as the prosecuting attorney who bear witness to Roderick Usher’s story and ultimately his demise.) But there was the presence of a violent primate that shredded Kate Sigel’s character of Camille (also found in the original Poe short story) as she investigated the RUE morgue or Roderick Usher Experimental laboratory (so-called the morgue due to the high volume of dead chimpanzees they produced.) What’s great about this version is the commentary that Flannagan etched into the storyline about the cruel and absurd amount of animal testing that goes on in the real world.

Finally, we come to the Masque of the Red Death which sort of kicks off the series of deaths to follow. Flannagan’s version brings us the young Prospero Usher wanting to prove his business acumen by throwing a profitable and overly decadent, influencer ladened rave in an abandoned warehouse owned by the Fortunato Corporation. Unbeknownst to him the family’s tormentor in the form a sexy tormentress dressed in a skull and red masque attends the event and releases death upon the gathered revelers. Again, another Poe story brilliantly disguised as a modern tale of excess comeuppance that sticks very closely to the original and presents you with a very horrific ending. Some of the themes i always loved about the MOTRD was the illusion of escape, which in Poe’s version was the escape from the Plague. Not to dissimilar to a recent pandemic/plague we all tried to escape from in our home’s. Additionally, the social commentary of the MOTRD where the wealthy friends of Prince Prospero were invited to celebrate and enjoy a hedonistic event reeked of social inequality and the turning of the blind eye to the suffering going on in the real world. The Flannagan company of Fortunato was inflicting massive damage through their fictional drug Ligidone which spelled out to be a version of Fentanyl, and while this played out in the real world, Prince Prospero enjoyed his rave until the moment that the death fell from the sky to wipe out 99% of the people in attendance. Save for the poor Berenice wife of Fraudrick who found herself in attendance, but also warned not to be there.

THE REST OF THE POE CATALOG

The beauty of this miniseries is the many references found peppered throughout. The names are your biggest giveaways, and we did the research to find the full list of stories and references below. Needless to say, you should investigate and enjoy all these stories on your own, but if you really want to see the culmination of these stories you need to access your Netflix account and watch the Fall of the House of Usher immediately! Happy viewing Poe-holics!

“The Gold-Bug”
“The Tell-Tale Heart”
“Spirits of the Dead”
“The Raven”
“The City in the Sea”
“Morella”
“The Man That Was Used Up”
“The Black Cat”
“Annabel Lee”
“The Pit and the Pendulum”
“The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket”
“Landor’s Cottage”
“Metzengerstein: A Tale in Imitation of the German”
“Never Bet the Devil Your Head”
“Some Words With a Mummy”
“William T. Wilson”
“Ligeia”
“The Premature Burial”