“Said the raven: Nevermore” is probably the most famous quote associated with Edgar Allan Poe’s literary work – and The Simpsons certainly played its part. Another famous work by the horror poet is now the basis of a new Netflix masterpiece: Downfall of the House of Usher.
Behind the Netflix horror is Mike Flanagan, who has established himself as one of the most impressive voices in modern horror in recent years. With his series The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, he created two of the best Netflix horror series ever. Guaranteed since October 12th another horror gem Nightmares.
This is what awaits you in the Netflix horror series The Fall of the House of Usher
At the beginning of the plot of The Fall of the House of Usher, the lawyer Auguste Dupin (Carl Lumbly) pays a visit to the mentally ill pharmaceutical mogul Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood) in his crumbling parental home. Usher wants to confess and tells the story of the rise and fall of his family dynasty.
Watch the trailer for the Netflix horror The Fall of the House of Usher here:
The Fall of the House of Usher – S01 Trailer (German) HD
Roderick and his sister Madeline (Mary McDonnell) took over the company Fortunato Pharmaceuticals many years ago. They created an empire with the painkiller Ligadone caused the opioid crisis and hated by many.
Just as hateful are Usher’s six adult children, who make their way through Hedonism, greed, envy, hubris, jealousy and various sexual kinks distinguish. One day they begin to die one after the other in bloodthirsty and brutal ways. And the mysterious creature Verna (Carla Gugino) is to blame.
The Fall of the House of Usher is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s better known works. But the adaptation is only a fraction of the series. The template is used as a framework for a completely original story, which is inspired by countless stories by Edgar Allan Poe – such as The Raven, The Treacherous Heart, The Black Cat, The Mask of the Red Death and The Pit and the Pendulum.
The Netflix series is a horror masterpiece
In the course of five series and seven feature films Mike Flanagan has refined his horror craft and developed a clear signature. For his new Netflix series, he doesn’t rely on established formulas. This time, for once, you can expect no melancholic and highly emotional horror from him, but rather Highly polished Grand Guignol gothic horror.
Netflix
Roderick tells the horror story of the fall of the House of Usher
The Fall of the House of Usher is sexy, disgusting, bitterly evil, nightmarishly disturbing and sometimes surprisingly funny. Horror fans will get their money’s worth over the course of the eight episodes. Not only the well-placed and clever jump scares make you jump up from the sofa several times.
Ghosts lurking in the shadows send a cold shiver down your spine as you… noticeably painful types of death and one or two explicit gore scenes will shake you to your core. With these macabre shocks, The Fall of the House of Usher achieves something that very few horror series achieve so impressively: a horror experience that gets under your skin.
Aside from murderous cats, deadly acid showers and drastic pendulum swings, the biggest highlight of the loud horror fireworks is the excellent and huge cast. They are wonderfully caustic, but also tortured characters – a mix of the real Sackler clan and the Roy family from Succession are brought to life here.
The Fall of the House of Usher suffers from a vexing problem
There is a problem right from the start spoils the series experience. Right at the beginning of the first episode, The Fall of the House of Usher reveals that all six of the patriarch’s children have died and we know who will survive until the finale. This robs the Netflix series of much of its excitement.
Netflux
At the beginning, Roderick Usher buries his children
We can never root for a character to escape their grisly fate in the end. This inevitability and hopelessness can also be seen as a strength of the horror tragedy. The knowledge of the impending disaster develops into a fatalistic joy in puzzling over the extreme circumstances under which the next Usher offspring will die.
Despite the predictable dramaturgy, The Fall of the House of Usher is ultimately a masterful horror experience gives you goosebumps in more ways than one. And at the latest when Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven is quoted, the series will rip your heart out. In just one word: nevermore.
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