The 8-part mini-series “The Fall of the House of Usher” started on Netflix on October 12th. MeinMMO author Schuhmann recommends the series to all viewers who like hearty intrigue like in Game of Thrones and who are looking for a self-contained one crave action. Because although “The Fall of the House of Usher” tells a continuous plot, the individual episodes can stand on their own.
What is the series about? Roderick Usher runs a pharmaceutical company that has long since made him a billionaire thanks to a painkiller. But a health authority investigator wants to hold him responsible for the raging opioid epidemic in the USA and drags him to court.
Roderick has 6 children from 5 women, he was only married to one. The children all work in one way or another for their father and the Fortunato company:
Supposedly one of the patriarch’s children or his wife, who is far too young, is supposed to be assisting the investigators as an informant. Roderick puts a $50 million bounty on his head, but then a series of strange fatal accidents begin to decimate the House of Usher.
The trailer already anticipates some key scenes:
German Netflix trailer for “The Fall of the House of Usher”
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What world does The Fall of the House of Usher take place in? The mini-series has two timelines:
In the 70s we see the siblings Madeline and Roderick Usher. The two of them want to become something in a world that wasn’t waiting for them. The hyper-intelligent Madeline would like to immediately step into a leadership role to change the world. But she is only offered a secretary job and only if she offers “full service”, i.e. sleeps with her boss. Brother Roderick can barely keep his young family afloat.
In 2023 we see a family clan that no longer has anything worldly to fear. A feared lawyer gets every problem out of the way. The Ushers live in a world of confidentiality agreements and prenuptial agreements in the safety of luxury apartments. The men of the family indulge in debauchery and never seem to work. The women compete ultra-competently and ambitiously for their father’s recognition and millions.
Edgar Allan Poe meets Final Destination
What makes the series so appealing? “The Fall of the House of Usher” is by Mike Flanagan, an exciting director who has already made “Black Mass” and the nasty horror film Oculus. From Black Mass he has taken on two actresses for key roles in “The Fall of the House of Usher”: two selfish daughters of the family clan with huge complexes and problems.
Flanagan excels at building a world where things aren’t right. And the viewer notices from the first second that something is wrong with the characters.
Ultimately, almost every character in the Usher clan is corrupt at their core. The characters behave indecently towards their fellow human beings and themselves in a variety of ways – and this behavior lies at the heart of their downfall.
The series manages to indicate to the viewer early on what terrible things will happen, then the series clearly tells them what terrible things will happen, but it is only in a third act that the terrible thing is shown and yet it remains effective.
The inevitability of the downfall, which is already clear in the title, runs through the mini-series and yet the details are exciting.
The highlights of each episode are like the terrible accidents in the “Final Destination” series; a chain of events has been triggered that sooner or later has a tragic consequence.
The appeal of the series comes primarily from the strong actors and their roles:
Anyone who knows the gruesome works of Edgar Allan Poe can discover countless allusions as a bonus, as the individual episodes allude to the horror master’s stories.
You want to shout to the characters: If your name is Prospero, for God’s sake don’t throw a masquerade ball. The orgy that Prospero organizes shows so much naked skin that these scenes alone can explain the series’ “18+” rating.
What is pleasant about the mini-series is that the series comes to a conclusion in itself and the episodes are well rounded. But on the way to the finale, some of the most colorful characters are lost.
Only towards the end does “The Fall of the House of Usher” lose some of its lightness. By then, many tricks have been repeated, many secrets have been revealed and many motivations seem pretty flat. When one of the characters, in the face of doom, finally makes a political speech in which you can hear more the director than the character, and explains the problems of the world, you wonder where the next bizarre death trap is.
“The Fall of the House of Usher” impresses with strong actors, mysterious conflicts and brutal shock scenes. Plus, the series is just plain mean in a lot of ways.
Anyone who wants 8 hours of thrills will be served. It’s half horror, half family drama, with a touch of Edgar Allan Poe and a lot of Final Destination.
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