31 Days of Halloween: The Fall of the House of Usher

2023, Netflix

It wouldn't be Halloween without something by Mike Flanagan. We have seen pretty much everything he has done. And in watching the first few episodes, I once again caught myself just loving the way he builds a shot. Gone are the days where this was apparent for every movie for me, and since we are in the days of cinematic TV making, I do so enjoy when something stands out so much, that I notice it. 

What 100: The House of Usher (Fortunato) is a pharmaceutical corporation responsible for the greatest opioid epidemic in history, from which they have made billions, but killed thousands. Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood, Star Trek) runs the corporation supported by his sister Madeline (Mary McDonnell, Battlestar Galactica), while indulging his adult children all from different marriages. We begin the show at the final funeral for his children, as in the past two weeks all have died under horrible circumstances. Now we find out how all these terrible terrible people died. Each episode draws inspiration from a Edgar Allen Poe story, and all are tied together by a dark figure (Carla Gugino, Sucker Punch). Is she Death or just Karma?  

1 - Great: E02, "The Masque of the Red Death". Each episode takes its name and theme from a story or poem by Poe. Here we have youngest son Prospero or Perry (Sauriyan Sapkota, The Midnight Club), a decadent, hedonistic young man obsessed with making his own way in his father's world. Roderick would like him to take an interest in the primary business, or at least present something adjacent, but Perry wants to become famous in his own world, by starting a line of ultra-elite clubs. When his father rejects the idea, he finds one of his father's buildings slated for demolition and very quickly sets up a pop-up club night. The night of drugs, sex and music will culminate in a rain from the sprinkler system, drawn from the water tanks on the roof. 

This episode establishes the otherly world the Ushers live in. There are no consequences, nothing is beyond their reach, money is a tool to make their dreams come true. They want for nothing, they merely need to ask for something to happen, and it happens. Even Perry, the lowest on their totem pole can setup a high end club, almost overnight.

This episode also establishes the horror by which all Roderick's children will die, and the person/entity who guides their destruction. Let's call her The Raven. She is very tangible, but also supernatural, able to come and go as she wishes, and providing influence to those not in the path of her ... rage? We don't yet know why she is doing what she is doing. But she, just before the climactic rain is about to happen, has the wait staff leave, locking the doors behind them. They are not the subject of her actions, but all the decadent, wealthy elite within are. 

Fuck. The horror of what happens. I was expecting a flammable liquid, ignited by the DJ equipment, but it was ... worse. And sort of expected, once we realize what is happening. Fortunato is hiding toxic, highly corrosive by-products in the water tanks, that will disappear during the demolition. And once released onto the crowd below, you cannot imagine how horrible it is. The dancing, writhing crowd becomes a screaming, twitching mass, almost one massive flesh. And The Raven walks in and places her masque upon the dying Perry, telling him what she has started.

Of note, a byproduct of Perry's hedonism, and the hatred each and every child has for their other half-siblings, is that Perry convinces his brother's wife to join him. She does. And she is caught in the rain, but she doesn't die, the lone, horribly burned survivor.

2 - The Good: Their lawyer and ever-present fixer, Arthur Gordon Pym (Mark Hamill, Knightfall), is another by-product of the wealth and power that Fortunato and the Ushers wield. He is called the Pym Reaper by his not-friends, as he is an ever present black-wearing, gravelly voice talking image of doom and death, where the Ushers are concerned. Hamill, who for most, will never be anyone other than Luke Skywalker, completely embodies the character, someone who we know is an iceberg, both in chilly disposition, and in what lies beneath the surface. 

Also, Bruce Greenwood as the Usher patriarch is wonderful, a reserved, almost likeable man who is evil through and through, yet as we come to know exactly how dark the man was, still likeable. This Charming Man is probably the right term.

3 - The Bad: With me, is there any Bad to consider in a Mike Flanagan series? If anything, for me, it was the disparate directing nature of the not-Flanagan episodes. Like I said above, I found myself just watching his scenes and setup during his episodes. And while the others were entirely enjoyable, they were just good TV. His were... art.