Horror auteur Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher is a bloody tale of 21st century greed, malevolent punishment and venal extravagance.
There’s a long lineage in popular culture of established artists, whatever the medium, making a decisive left turn creatively. The usual journey is from mainstream success to personal vindication – the “this one’s for me” project. But the more intriguing, though far less common, variant is when a dedicated artist opens the throttle on their aesthetic and veers squarely into the mainstream.
Adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s 1839 short story, and referencing numerous other works by the ground-breaking horror author,, has gone from deeply held explorations of trauma to operatic excess and skin-flaying retribution. To put it more succinctly, the slow pan has been supplanted by the jump scare.
The framework is fatalistic: it begins with billionaire CEO Roderick Usher attending the last of six funerals for his adult children, who have all perished in the space of two weeks. The overseer of an OxyContin-like opioid that has ravaged America, Roderick is surprisingly sanguine, even inviting the prosecutor who has long pursued him, Auguste Dupin , to a boarded-up house during a storm for a nightcap and a confession. The whys come with the dread of inevitability, not the fizz of mystery.
Flashbacks reach back to Roderick’s upbringing and early career, but the core of the eight episodes is dedicated to each child and the events that culminated in their death. From failsons and Eurotrash to viperous competitors and ambitious frauds, the Usher offspring are entitled, corrupt and mostly depraved.
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