Mike Flanagan invites us round to knock on his supporting beams and say “Yeah that’s solid work.”
Your breath mists in the morning sun, the leaves crunch underfoot etched with frosted brilliance, and the still night air of Maryhill is jubilant with the fizz and bang of youths setting fireworks off in the Lidl car park.
Autumn is here again.
What better way to spend the cosy nights in than with a sagging pumpkin spitting gently on the windowsill while Mike Flanagan spins a fireside tale of pharmaceutical malpractice and familial Machiavellianism?
The House of Usher and The House of Usher.
Flan-again.
Mike Flanagan is responsible for, in my opinion, Netflix’s best horror offerings of the last five years. The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Midnight Club and perhaps one of my top ten series of all time: Midnight Mass.
The Fall of the House of Usher has quietly slipped onto Netflix with little fanfare due to the restrictions on industry professionals promoting work amidst the SAG-AFRA strikes. We (I) here at Silver Ink support the strikes wholeheartedly and have little doubt that this will be another blockbuster for Flanagan and Co. through word of mouth alone.
Flanagan has an expert knack for taking a text (a novel, short stories, and even the holy word of God on Earth) and adapting it in intelligent and fresh new ways for a modern audience. Stay with me here through the review cliches; Mike Flanagan really does excel at this. If you haven’t seen Midnight Mass yet I won’t spoil anything, but his interpretation of the bible passages about angels and the holy blood are utterly inspired.
This time, Flanagan takes inspiration from the works of Edgar Allan Poe. I’ll be upfront and say that like every teenager into theatre and in a rock band, I have always loved the work of Poe. James Earl Jones’ reading of The Raven (The Simpsons S2 E3, Treehouse of Horror – Yes the Original Treehouse of Horror) is still one of my all-time favourite TV segments and the poem is one of my GOATs.
Carl Lumbly as C. Auguste Dupin and Bruce Greenwood as Roderick Usher.
Drugs not hugs.
The main throughline follows the titular Usher family dynasty and their titular fall. The Ushers in this outing are an untouchable business empire with fingers in all sorts of rancid pies but their main source of wealth is Ligadone – a “non-addictive” opioid painkiller. Our hero is Auguste “Auggie” Dupin, a DA with an axe to grind who has seemingly spent his life trying to nail the patriarch – Roderick Usher – and the whole rotten lot of them for their closeted skeletons which would make Burke and Hare look like beachcombers.
Now of course, nobody in the real world would be so utterly morally bankrupt as to release a dangerous pharmaceutical product under false pretences for monetary gain, so you’ll have to Sackler off your suspension of disbelief to give this pantomime villain his Purdue.
He’s got a moustache but he never actually twirls it. Shame.
The Verdict.
Speaking of smug eyebrow-waggling, I think my linchpin praise for The Fall of the House of Usher is that it takes the stories of the monarch of melodrama from 200 years ago and makes them relevant to contemporary societal evils . The references are gratuitous and the dialogue is hammy in places but it works. It is a masterclass in balancing good old-fashioned horror stories against the means and motives of modern-day monsters. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and yet I was on board the whole time. There are funny moments, almost literal winks to camera about contemporary political and business colossi, and a hilarious pendulum sequence but there are also moments of real terror, discomfort, and emotional investment.
Mark Hamill lends his gravelly tones to the “Pym Reaper.”
Overall Flanagan’s latest project is pulpy, self-aware, intelligently adapted, uncomfortable, and explores what kind of monsters we face in our modern lives. Most importantly – it is just good Halloween fun.
With seven days left until the big night there is no better time to settle in and watch one per night with the finale on Halloween.
Trick or treat yourself.
