Spoilers ahead for The Fall of the House of Usher.
So, The Fall of the House of Usher was something else, huh? Pretty freaking horrifying.
Anyone who knows me understands that I love horror movies and TV shows. I'll spend ages watching the best horror movies out there or even having a great A24 horror movie binge or something like that. I'll check out the best horror shows on Amazon Prime, Netflix, or any streaming service. But I will say that no other horror shows out there have been as good as the Mike Flanagan shows on Netflix.
I don't know what this famous director puts in his shows there, but every one of his projects has been hit after hit, earning plenty of praise and trending on Netflix for weeks. Now, his latest one, The Fall of the House of Usher, dropped about a week ago – and let me say that this is the series that beats them all.
It's the scariest out of every horror show Flanagan has done, and I will stand by that until the very end. Today, I'll be explaining my reasoning as to why.
First Off, The Deaths Are The Most Horrifying Of Any Mike Flanagan Series
Let me preface this by saying I don't get scared or weirded out easily.
I am a part of a generation of young adults who grew up with death, gore, and guts in most of my favorite TV shows. From the gory and heartbreaking The Walking Dead deaths to the unique ones of Game of Thrones, I've seen so many disgusting ways people can die.
The deaths in other Mike Flanagan series' never hit me as hard. I'm not entirely sure why – it could be because they were never gory or scary enough for me. The only one that genuinely stopped my heart was Nell's death in The Haunting of Hill House, which was so sad and a good twist.
Hear what critics are saying about The Fall of the House of Usher.
But the deaths in The Fall of the House of Usher? Dear God.
The first episode captured my interest. Even if it had a bit of a slow beginning for me, I truly trusted Mike Flanagan to produce a series that would knock my socks off, so I kept watching. And death after death after death was just brutal. Every single one of them. And what made it even more horrifying is that they just kept getting worse as time passed.
I didn't think that coming up with creative ways for people to get killed could be a full-time job, but Flanagan was on another level when he came up with the deaths for this series.
But Vic's Death Hit Me The Most Because Good God, It Was Awful
Victorine's death – otherwise known as Vic – will possibly haunt me for the rest of my life.
Again, I'm very hard to phase when it comes to deaths, so while most of these deaths in The Fall of the House of Usher were gruesome in many ways, I knew I would end up being over them in a few days.
It's been about a week, and I'm still thinking about Vic's death. Truthfully, it was the perfect way to end it. She was obsessed with making this product, and her obsession with it ultimately killed her partner and herself, driven to madness by Verna, i.e., Death Incarnate.
But I don't know what it was. Maybe it was the framing of the show or the way that her partner looked, but I can't get that image out of my head. I think these kinds of deaths that truly sit with you are worse than any Saw franchise traps or the gory Freddy Kreuger kills.
These Characters Were Also The Most Irredeemable, But Their Deaths Still Hit Home
What also made this series so good was that most of these characters were irredeemable, but I still felt terrible for them when they died. Let's be honest: Roderick's kids were all horrible people. They all did things to screw people over, and they weren't the friendliest folk out there.
But deep down, during each of their episodes, we would get to know them and see some human underneath and that they have severely flawed issues from their childhood. Most of them lacked a father figure growing up; many are illegitimate children treated like garbage by the ones that were Roderick's from his marriage – there are plenty of reasons why they acted out.
It doesn't make them the best as grown adults, clearly, but I still felt terrible for them because, deep down, they didn't ask for this life – Roderick did. Verna even said that they had different lives they could have lived, but because of his and Madeline's selfishness, they were set on this path.
And Also That Ending With The Granddaughter Depressed The Heck Out Of Me
I know that it makes sense. I do. But damn it, I started to cry.
Lenore was the best out of everyone. She wasn't one of Roderick's kids but rather a grandchild from his eldest son, and she was genuinely a good person. She did everything she could to figure out what was going on with her dad and to protect her mother from him. And then when she lost everything, she stood by her grandfather's side.
And then Verna showed up, and I got so sad because it made sense that she would die. She is obviously part of Roderick's bloodline. But I hoped she somehow got out of it. At least the way that she passed was at peace. She wasn't tortured or suffered. Verna even saw that and explained to the child that she was the start of something better for the company Roderick ran, Fortunato. But damn, it still hurt.
The Music Is So Chillingly Well Done, It Made Me Feel Uncomfortable
Something else that Mike Flanagan has always been fantastic at is the music in his series, and the theme for this show is the best.
I also love that there's no theme song like many of his other past shows. It fits the vibe of this family. They don't need flashy lights or anything else – we all know what we're getting into when we turn on this show. We are going to see people end up getting hurt or dying somehow.
From the chilling music that plays to how the title screen flashes on at the end of each episode, it freaks me out and makes me excited for the next part of the show.
The Idea That Death Was Just Always Waiting For Them As Time Went On Is Terrifying As Heck
This, right here, is what made this series so freaking scary – and one of our favorite horror shows because the idea of what these kids and Roderick and Madeline are trying to run from is authentic.
None of us are out here making deals with the devil regularly, but none of us will make it out of life alive. Death comes for us all, whether we want it to or not. We can't outrun it. We can't hide from it. We can't do anything to prevent it because even the healthiest individuals fall to its clutches when they are old and grey.
And that's what makes this series so fantastic and scary at the same time. Death was coming for them, and the Usher twins believed that what happened that night was not real and that this was just some ploy. But when the children started to get killed off, one by one, it sank in even deeper that this was very real, and Death was coming for them.
It's dark that no matter how hard they fought, death still came. And in the end, Death won, just like it always does. Verna came to collect her debts, and they were paid.
Was it worth it in the end? I don't think Roderick believed it to be so. But either way, it still terrified the ever-loving heck out of me, and I can't ask for more.
Unfortunately, Mike Flanagan's contract with Netflix concluded with The Fall of the House of Usher. Still, I hope he keeps making shows for other streaming platforms because he is unique in the horror community. Mike Flanagan's horror movies and shows are some of the best, but The Fall of the House of Usher was something different and a show I'll be thinking about for a long time.
