The Fall of the House of Usher," the Edgar Allan Poe tale that served as the muse for a chilling new horror film on Netflix
The Fall of the House of Usher, Mike Flanagan's much awaited new horror series, is now available on Netflix.
The eight-episode drama centers on Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood), the CEO of a dishonest pharmaceutical business, who is forced to confront his dark history once his children start passing away inexplicably and brutally.
Verna, portrayed by Carla Gugino, is a shape-shifting demon who can recreate "ghosts" from other people's pasts.
The American director Flanagan, best known for horror films including The Haunting of Hill House (2018), Midnight Mass (2021), and the 2019 big-screen Stephen King adaption Doctor Sleep (with Ewan McGregor), is not the author of this series.
Edgar Allan Poe's 1839 short story of the same name served as the inspiration for The Fall of the House of Usher.Poe, who is regarded as the founder of Gothic literature, rose to national prominence in his day when The Raven, his most well-known poem, was published in 1845.
What's the story behind "The Fall of the House of Usher"?Poe's tale The Fall of the House of Usher centers on an unidentified narrator who receives a call to his sick friend Roderick Usher's country mansion.
It is discovered that Madeline, Roderick's sister, has a fatal illness and experiences cataleptic seizures. Tragic events occur when Madeline passes away, and Roderick demands that, before being interred permanently, she be entombed for two weeks in the family tomb inside the home.
Over the course of the following few weeks, the narrator and Roderick grow more and more angry, up to a massive storm that sends Roderick into a state of lunacy.As she tries to comfort Roderick in his bedroom, Madeline's bloody body—who, it turns out, had been buried alive—is shown when the door is broken apart. She assaults her brother, killing him with fear as she passes away.
After breaking out of the house, the narrator turns around to witness it rupturing in two and collapsing into the nearby lake.In what ways is Poe's short story different from the new Netflix series?
By placing his version in the present, Flanagan has given the tale a contemporary spin. In addition, he added a plethora of new characters to the story, many of whom were influenced by Poe's earlier writings.
For example, admirers have noted that Verna, a character played by Gugino, is an anagram of Raven.
In the show, Roderick tells his friend about his family's terrible deaths; each episode describes how a different member passed away and is inspired by a different Poe short story.
For instance, Poe's 1842 story The Masque of the Red Death, which centers on a party attended by affluent socialites as a plague ravages the masses outside, served as inspiration for the second episode. But the plot has been modified to take place in an underground rave for the Netflix series.
"The Raven," the show's last episode, is a contemporary retelling of the old tale about a man who is haunted by a raven.
Madeline is portrayed by Mary McDonnell; Camille L'Espanaye, the family's crisis public relations agent, is portrayed by Flanagan favorite Kate Siegel; Frederick Usher, the presumed successor, is portrayed by Henry Thomas, another Flanagan favorite; Tamerlane Usher is portrayed by Samantha Sloyan; and Napoleon "Leo" Usher is portrayed by Rahul Kohli.
Other actors who appear include Carl Lumbly, Mark Hamill, Michael Trucco, T'Nia Miller, Paola Nuñez, Kyleigh Curran, Sauriyan Sapkota, Zach Gilford, Willa Fitzgerald, Katie Parker, Malcolm Goodwin, Crystal Balint, Aya Furukawa, Daniel Jun, Matt Biedel, Ruth Codd, Annabeth Gish, Igby Rigney, and Robert Longstreet.It's insane, but in the greatest kind of way. In a statement penned during production prior to SAG-AFTRA's walkout, Gugino observed, "It touches the soul and has a lot of very dark humor." "The story has a magical, fantastical aspect, and Verna is the embodiment of that." She could be referred to be the executor of karma or fate.
Netflix has released "The Fall of the House of Usher" right now.