Table Of Content
The Usher family has become so identified with its estate that the peasantry confuses the inhabitants with their home. Based on the Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name, the horror series follows sibling duo Roderick (Bruce Greenwood) and Madeline Usher (Mary McDonnell), who are at the front of their Fortunato Pharmaceuticals empire. Together, the Usher’s have established an empire of wealth, privilege and power — but at a cost.
How Did Madeline Usher Come Back To Life?
The Sacklers, horror, and 'The Fall of the House of Usher' - STAT - STAT
The Sacklers, horror, and 'The Fall of the House of Usher' - STAT.
Posted: Tue, 31 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The eldest of the Usher “bastards,” Victorine has made helping people her life’s work, but like her siblings, the true source of her ambition is her desire for her father’s approval and affection. After Roderick shows interest in Victorine’s revolutionary new heart technology — still in its testing phase — Victorine bends the rules of clinical trials to start testing on human subjects. As the eldest, Frederick Usher is the natural heir to his father’s company, but out of all of his siblings, he’s the least equipped to do so. While his neuroses make him an easy target for his siblings, Freddie’s fiery jealousy and compounding insecurity force him down a path that even those closest to Freddie are shocked to see. Verna is a shape-shifter whose origins can be traced back to a — let’s just say — very famous Poe character.
They’ve built a family together
Annabel Lee reveals that she’d tell people “he’s rich” when they’d ask how he stole her kids away. But now she only sees poverty in Roderick, as he starved their children of love. After she turns her back on him, we learn that she died by suicide. With credit, of course, to Edgar Allan Poe and his many incredible poems and short stories. When you go into Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix, you expect it to be an adaptation of a single short story.
In other media
In the Roger Corman film from 1960, released in the United States as House of Usher, Vincent Price starred as Roderick Usher, Myrna Fahey as Madeline and Mark Damon as Philip Winthrop, Madeline's fiancé. The film was Corman's first in a series of eight films inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe. La Chute de la maison Usher is a 1928 silent French horror film directed by Jean Epstein starring Marguerite Gance, Jean Debucourt, and Charles Lamy. The narrator is impressed with Roderick's paintings and attempts to cheer him by reading with him and listening to his improvised musical compositions on the guitar.
The Fall of the House of Usher Cast & Characters in Mike Flanagan Series - Netflix Tudum
Once you learn that Roderick and Madeline made a deal with her, it’s not a far leap to assume that Verna’s simply a demon. But, all of the hints we’re given throughout the series seem to point more closely to Death itself. But beyond that, in what is perhaps the strongest form of reverence for Poe’s work, Flanagan and his team wove in plenty of intricacies that remain up for interpretation throughout the story.
The Fall of the House of Usher Episode Four Recap - www.autostraddle.com
The Fall of the House of Usher Episode Four Recap.
Posted: Sun, 15 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Episodes
Roderick Usher is the patriarch of the Usher family and CEO of Fortunato Pharmaceuticals. After acquiring Fortunato with the help of his twin sister, Madeline, the Usher family has found success and wealth at the cost of the greater good. An ambitious and driven man, Roderick expects the most out of his six children, giving them access to every resource imaginable — except his fatherly affection. As Roderick finishes his story, an eyeless and bloodied Madeline suddenly bursts out of the basement and attacks Roderick as the house begins to crumble around them. In a final burst of strength, Madeline strangles Roderick to death as Auggie flees collapsing home—a sequence that mirrors the ending of Poe's "House of Usher." Whether the reader is trapped by the house or by its inhabitants is unclear.
Inspired by the work of Edgar Allan Poe, House of Usher traces the downfall of the uber-wealthy Usher family and their corrupt drug company, Fortunato Pharmaceuticals. The story centers on Usher family patriarch and Fortunato CEO Roderick (Bruce Greenwood), who, as the show begins, calls up his longtime rival, assistant U.S. attorney C. The property also offers spectacular living space outside, added by the outdoor kitchen and dining. The heated swimming pool includes a spa perfect for relaxing while there’s a dance studio as well, perfect for the R&B artist like Usher.
Emmy Predictions:Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or TV Movie
He took on Shirley Jackson in The Haunting of Hill House (which was fabulous), Henry James in The Haunting of Bly Manor (spooky but saccharine) and Christopher Pike in The Midnight Club (meh). Thankfully, Flanagan and Poe’s sensibilities prove a winning pairing, staying on the edge of terror without cascading into jump scares and sentimentality. Guilt permeates every frame of Flanagan’s Poe universe, and buys into not so much the horror as the terror. The feeling that something awful is imminent makes for an engaging watch. Described by Frederick as “Gucci Caligula,” Perry is the youngest of the Usher children. Having only recently been thrust into the life of the ultra-rich, Perry’s goal is to make life one big party, and he’s hoping to use his family’s money to achieve just that.
But she keeps enough to start a nonprofit, setting up chapters all over the world. She calls it the Lenore Foundation after her daughter, and in a decade alone, she saves millions of lives. After Leo (Rahul Kohli) wakes up from a bender with bloodstained hands to find his boyfriend Julius’ (Daniel Jun) cat stabbed to death in their living room, he knows he’s in trouble. But then he starts experiencing disturbing and violent visions — attacks from the cat, dead animals — to the point where he uses Thor’s hammer (a gift from Chris Hemsworth, naturally) to tear his apartment apart looking for the cat. Thinking he sees the feline out on his balcony, he chases after it in a rage… and falls off the ledge to his death on the street below. In its most literal definition, the AI Madeline created of Lenore texting Roderick “nevermore” in varying versions is exceptionally cruel.
Loosely based on various works by 19th-century author Edgar Allan Poe (most prominently the eponymous 1840 short story), the series adapts otherwise unrelated stories and characters by Poe into a single nonlinear narrative set from 1953 to 2023. It recounts both the rise to power of Roderick Usher, the powerful CEO of a corrupt pharmaceutical company and his sister Madeline Usher, the firm's genius COO, and the events leading to the deaths of all six of Roderick’s children. It stars an ensemble cast led by Carla Gugino as a mysterious woman plaguing the Ushers, Bruce Greenwood as an elderly Roderick and Mary McDonnell as an elderly Madeline. “The Fall of the House of Usher” updates the work of Edgar Allan Poe for the era of Big Pharma, turning his most famous tales into a sprawling story of the decline of a wealthy American family. It’s “Succession” meets The Tell-Tale Heart, a story of vengeance, power, betrayal, and bloody parts. The crossing of borders pertains vitally to the Gothic horror of the tale.
All of these nightmarish visions are attached to the family drama that Usher offers up for Dupin, giving the season a clever episodic structure in that each chapter intertwines a different Poe source into the overall saga of the Ushers. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the setting, diction, and imagery combine to create an overall atmosphere of gloom. The story opens on a “dull, dark, and soundless day” in a “singularly dreary tract of country.” As the narrator notes, it is autumn, the time of year when life begins to give way to old age and death. Poe draws heavily on Gothic conventions, using omens and portents, heavy storms, hidden passageways, and shadows to set the reader on edge.
Beyond that, demons typically relish cashing in on their deals, regardless of what’s in the hearts of those that they’re dragging with them to hell. There are moments when Verna absolutely relishes what she gets to do to the Usher children — particularly Frederick (Henry Thomas) — but there is no joy in the death she brings to Lenore, who she sends off quickly and with no pain. During a heated argument with Roderick, Madeline suddenly falls into catalepsy, a condition in which its sufferers appear dead. Roderick knows that she is still alive, but convinces Winthrop that she is dead and rushes to have her entombed in the family crypt beneath the house. As Philip is preparing to leave following the entombment, the butler, Bristol (Harry Ellerbe), lets slip that Madeline suffered from catalepsy. An unnamed narrator approaches the house of Usher on a “dull, dark, and soundless day.” This house—the estate of his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher—is gloomy and mysterious.
But, when you look at it from a metaphysical perspective, a couple of other options present themselves. First, Verna decided it wasn’t time for Madeline to die yet either and brought her back just long enough for her to finish off Roderick and she allowed them to die together. The second takes the very afterlife that the two worshipped into account. Perhaps she stayed dead and Roderick already had one foot in the afterlife, making it possible for her to end him. Juno Usher’s (Ruth Codd) story is a bit more complex, but still ultimately a happy one. Had Roderick lived to divorce her, she would have been penniless and trapped in withdrawals for three years.
Extremely cunning and biting, Camille L’Espanaye runs the PR for the family. She’s made her life’s work not only about spinning bad behavior into good press, but also collecting files filled with every dirty secret of those closest to her. Incredibly intelligent, driven, and calculating, Madeline has always been the brains behind Fortunato.
No comments:
Post a Comment