The Fall of the House of Usher Review: An excellent addition to Netflix's horror library
The Fall of the House of Usher
The CEO of a corrupt pharmaceutical company faces his questionable past when his children start dying in mysterious and brutal ways.
The Fall of the House of Usher is the latest Netflix horror series created by Mike Flanagan known for his work on shows like The Haunting series, Midnight Mass, and The Midnight Club.
The series focuses on Roderick Usher, CEO of a Pharmaceutical company, who recounts his past and rise to power to a former friend after the latter's children start dying under strange circumstances.
The series is based on the short story by Eggar Allen Poe, and each episode incorporates elements from the author's most famous works.
The series is a great addition to Netflix's ever-growing Horror library, as it stays true to the themes often explored by Edgar Allen Poe and incorporates elements of Lovecraftian horror topped with special commentary.
This is refreshing considering a lot of recent attempts at adapting Poe's works to live action have either fallen flat or been lackluster.
As for the Lovecraftian elements and social commentary, it never feels forced or out of place, in fact, it is interesting how the writing team of the show managed to blend these two elements together and do some solid world-building.
The show's excellent incorporation of the psychological toll of guilt and how people often accidentally engineer their own downfall with a dash of old-fashioned jump scares was entertaining.
The acting from the ensemble cast was great, but the stand out has two be Carla Gugino as the mysterious figure from Usher's past, T'Nia Miller as Usher's daughter, and Mary McDonnell as Usher's calculating sister.
Finally, Bruce Greenwood in the lead as Usher was a treat to watch, Greenwood has for the better part of his career been seen in supporting roles, and now that he is finally playing the lead, brings his A-game.
The actor is just amazing to watch, there is a scene in particular between him and T'Nia Miller in the fifth episode that is both tragic and disturbing to watch and is one of the highlights of the series.
The only issue that I had with the series was that sometimes because the show explores multiple subplots, a few of them did not have the intended impact.
But despite this, if you are a horror fan then The Fall of the House of Usher is a good watch this weekend.