Review of The Fall of the House of Usher

 

I started reading Edgar Allen Poe in 7th grade. Always loved his stories, not all horror. He invented the deductive detective story, Dupin was the prototype for Sherlock Holmes. Like his poems too.

In college I was assigned to write a term paper on "The Gothicism in Edgar Allen Poe's writings."  I reread all of his stories from years earlier and found deeper meaning in them. The one story I never read was Fall of the House of Usher.  Not sure why, saved it for last before writing the paper and finding someone to type it up for me.

Picture this. It's a midnight on a Saturday. Cross-Country was over and I had a free weekend. Roommate went home for the weekend. I'm all alone in my room, it's raining and windy outside, occasional lighting and thunder loud enough to rattles windows and make the dorm shudder. usual for late November in Plainview, TX. I'm in bed and start reading the story. Thirty minutes later I get dressed and run like hell to the SUB to watch TV. It was even scarier than having to watch and listen to Porter Wagner.

Jump an eon and Netflix comes out with a mini-series with the same title. Naturally I'm curious and with lots of time on my hands and with wife and daughter out of the house most of the week I'm finally able to watch what I want to watch on TV. 

Preface here: Berthold Gambrel posted on his blog the 2001 movie The Others. A movie I watched at the time and liked. I don't like mad slasher and blood and gore gross out movies. Horror is a genre I avoid as there is more to life and being scared.  Berthold mentioned that this was a ghost movie with suspense without the nasty stuff. 

This series is in the same mold. There are a number of quick shock moments, shots showing the damage done to the dead without watching it actually happen. From time to time, they haunt Roderick, reminded me of An American Werewolf in London.

 Nothing more gruesome than a CSI or NCIS.

To the plot. A federal prosecutor, C. Auguste Dupin (from the story Murders in the Rue Morgue played by Carl Lumly) goes to a decrepit house ready to implode. He meets Roderick Usher to hear his confession. Roderick is played by Bruce Greenwood. (JFK in 13 Days.) Gothicism permeates the meeting, there are creaking sounds, it's dark and gloomy all the light is on the two men. In the previous two weeks Roderick has buried all six of his children. There are none left. He starts his confession which leads to the telling of the story of his rise and now fall.

The first episode introduces all the family. They are on trial, and the key witness is dead. The prosecutor informs the judge that he has a key witness that he will not name for fear of his life, but that he is inside the Usher family and will come forward.

This causes all the family to get together and start blaming each other as the informant. We're now introduced to the family.

There's a flashback to Roderick as a young man with wife, Anabel (Anabel Lee), as he's working at Fortunato Phamaceutical, for his legitimate half-brother and being cheated by him for an idea he brought to him for the miracle pain killer that doesn't cause addiction.

You see him and his twin at a bar meeting the woman, Verna (anagram of raven) who tells them she can give them their hearts desire. Verna appears in all episodes either in human form or raven.  

Back to the confession Roderick starts talking about his mother (Anabeth Gish) and the life he and his twin sister (Mary McDonell) lived growing up. It's inferred that they are the children of her boss that lives not far from them where she is his secretary.

The mother gets sick, and they run to her boss for help, and they are refused. She dies and they bury her. She rises from the makeshift casket on a dark and stormy night and goes to her boss and kills him with a kiss. The title of the first episode is "On a Midnight Dreary," the first line of the poem The Raven.

Each episode is about the death of the six children all titled after a Poe short story playing out their demise. In order are the 2. Mask of the Red Death 3. Murder in the Rue Morgue 4. The Black Cat 5. The Tell Tale Heart 6. Gold Bug 7. The Pit and the Pendulum. 8. The Raven.

The series starts with the beginning of the poem and ends with the poem.

It's not until the last episode you see the flashback with Verna and the twins as they're told they can have their hearts desire, but the price is they will bury their children.

Enough of the plot. 

The acting is superb. Top notch for everyone. Cinematography is spot on. Pacing is perfect. Musical score sets the tone and mood that gives you goosebumps, without feeling like you need to puke.

When the house crashes and buries the House of Usher it is the ultimate climax.

There is a nice twist at the end.

I started teaching middle school English in 1981. I found the textbooks no longer had any Poe stories in them. I got a classroom set of Poe stories trying to interest the boys, girls were willing readers, boys were reluctant mostly because the stories weren't written for them. 

I had to explain every other word. In the fifteen years since I was their age the vocabulary of 7th grade dropped like a stone down a very dark well.