Luxury is terrible – Style

The series “The Fall of the House of Usher”, based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe, was released. Kommersant Style finds out the details.

The mini-series on the Netflix streaming platform began broadcasting on October 12 – this is a new work by director Mike Flanagan, known for similar thematic series “The Haunting of Hill House” and “The Haunting of Bly Manor.” The format is clear to anyone who is familiar with the original work or has heard about the specifics of the universe of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories: this is a gothic, horror-filled drama. Briefly about the plot: Roderick Usher (played by Canadian actor Bruce Greenwood), the patriarch of a large and wealthy family that made most of its fortune by trading opiate pharmaceuticals, remembers his life. His children, and there are five of them from different wives, die unexpectedly – this is also what the whole story is based on. The sense of inevitability of something terrible makes for exciting viewing, but there’s no point in getting too attached to the characters since (surprise) everyone is destined for a terrible fate. To some extent, “The Fall of the House of Usher” can be compared with the series “Heirs”: the same big family, money, influence, but darkness and depravity, decay and damnation, everything is gradually falling into decay, and the question arises: why is this happening?

From the series you would logically expect an immersion in the 19th century, but the action takes place in the present day. Like Mike Flanagan’s other adaptations, The Fall of the House of Usher is only loosely based on the source material. The story itself focuses on twins Roderick and Madeline battling illness, but the series also introduces new characters – children from other Poe stories, from “The Spectacle” and “The Masque of the Red Death”. Carl Lumbly plays C. Auguste Dupin, an amateur detective who appears in several of Poe’s stories, including “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter,” while Katie Parker plays the title role in the poem “Annabel Lee.” The cast in The Fall was absolutely stellar: in addition to the listed actors, Mark Hamill, Carla Gugino, Mary McDonnell and Henry Thomas starred in it.

In an interview, Flanagan noted that The Fall is the closest work he has made to the Italian subgenre of giallo horror, which typically includes erotica, violence and psychological terror. Obviously, all viewers are in for a creepy, gruesome, luxurious gothic treat while watching all eight episodes of this series.

Irina Kiriyenko