Spoilers ahead for The Fall of the House of Usher.
The horror genre has been experiencing a renaissance for years, and there are a few filmmakers who have been putting out consistently great work. The great Mike Flanagan is definitely on that list, partly thanks to his acclaimed shows on Netflix. The latest of these is The Fall of the House of Usher, which is an original take on Edgar Allen Poe’s work. As a Flanagan fan (a Fan-agan?), I loved Fall of the House of Usher, but I have one complaint with its scares. Namely that I always knew when they were coming.
The Fall of the House of Usher’s format is consistent throughout its run on Netflix. In each episode protagonist Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood) reveals how one of his kids died. And because of that each episode’s scares play out in about the same way. One big jumpscare usually happened in the first act in the dilapidated Usher house. And the biggest, most terrifying sequence would happen in each episode’s moments. While the kills were gnarly and chilling, after a few episodes I stopped being surprised when they happened.
As previously mentioned, I absolutely love Fall of the House of Usher. I found the story compelling, and love seeing Flanagan’s regular cast of actors back together in new roles. But part of what made his previous works like The Haunting of Hill House so compelling was that he could jump scare you at any point. You never knew when the bent neck lady was going to pop up, and that made for a truly unsettling viewing experience.
To be clear, there were moments in Fall of the House of Usher that were utterly terrifying. The deadly party and other gross moments occurred throughout its eight episode season, it was only the surprise factor that was missing for me. And like Flanagan’s other Netflix shows like Midnight Mass, I couldn’t help but binge watch the entire series in less than a week. Hey, at least I’m getting good use out of my Netflix subscription.
Despite my nitpicking about the scares, Fall of the House of Usher was still thoroughly enjoyable. The Usher family’s death scenes were all uniquely brutal, and the show expertly plays out throughout its runtime. All of Flanagan’s TV content ends up really coming together narratively, with the events all leading up to the finale. And in the final House of Usher episode there was one major scare that really got me, especially Madeline’s ending.
With the release of Fall of the House of Usher, Mike Flanagan has officially completed his contract with Netflix. And as such, it’s unclear when he’ll return to the small screen. In addition to shows, he also produced movies which were released on the streaming service: Gerald’s Game and Hush. Unfortunately, the latter project was mysteriously removed from Netflix.
The Fall of the House of Usher is streaming in its entirety now. Be sure to check out the TV premiere list to plan your next movie experience.
