Thursday, May 2, 2024

The Fall of the House of Usher: Limited Series

fall off the house of usher

Outside, he looks back just in time to see the house split in two and collapse. One of the most interesting and perplexing threads of the finale comes with the way Arthur Pym's story wraps up. While Roderick clearly felt lots of remorse for the collateral damage that his successes had caused through the years—Verna explicitly showed him the deaths he was responsible for—Madeline felt absolutely none. She instead blamed "the consumers," the people whose lives are made worse by taking in the products that they (and others) make available. Not when he drugged Madeline's drink, just as she drugged Griswold's all those years earlier, and not when he cut her eyes out, mummifying her with the sapphires she so valued in her time on this earth.

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But the themes remain the same—guilt, obsession, vengeance, and a supernatural sense of justice. Roderick Usher’s children are getting what they deserve, not merely because they are the fruit of a very poisoned tree but because they have made horrific decisions to stay in the shelter of wealth and privilege. 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." In November 2023, Roderick Usher, the CEO of pharmaceutical company Fortunato Pharmaceuticals, loses all six of his children within two weeks. Auguste Dupin, an Assistant United States Attorney who dedicated his career to exposing Fortunato's corruption, to his childhood home, where he tells the true story of his family and unveils the Ushers' darkest secrets.

What deal did Verna make with Roderick and Madeline, and why did it result in the entire Usher family dying?

Poe’s contemporaries favoured a more realistic approach to writing. Accordingly, commentaries on social injustice, morality, and utilitarianism proliferated in the mid-19th century. Poe conceived of his writing as a response to the literary conventions of this period. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” he deliberately subverts convention by rejecting the typical practices of preaching or moralizing and instead focusing on affect and unity of atmosphere.

What deal did the Ushers make with Verna?

They’ll get the whole world — running Fortunato Pharmaceuticals, making more money than they could ever imagine, literally getting away with murder — all sans consequences. “When you’re done, at the end of it all… just before you would have died anyway, your bloodline dies with you,” Verna offers them. The two scrappy Ushers, who came into the world together, would leave the world together, atop a hill of riches, excess… and bodies.

'Fall of the House of Usher' Finale Ending Explained - Who Is Verna? - ELLE

'Fall of the House of Usher' Finale Ending Explained - Who Is Verna?.

Posted: Sun, 15 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

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fall off the house of usher

And as Roderick Usher got sicker and sicker in real life—his rare form of vascular dementia gave him horrific hallucinations, including Griswold's Jester costume and his various children's dead bodies—his bill came due, and all of his children died in front of him. Roderick and Madeline’s trauma begins when their devout mother, Eliza (Annabeth Gish), dies at home, and the twins bury her in a homemade coffin in the backyard. Eliza claws her way out and exacts vengeance on William Longfellow (Robert Longstreet) — her married boss, CEO of Fortunato Pharmaceuticals, and Madeline and Roderick’s neglectful father. From the start of the first episode of The Fall of the House of Usher, we know that all of Roderick Usher's children are dead. It's the how and the why of their deaths that plays out over the course of Mike Flanagan's new horror anthology series, now streaming on Netflix. She appears near the narrator, but never acknowledges his presence.

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Verna is the shape-shifting demon after the Usher family throughout the series. By doing this, Roderick was briefly arrested for perjury, but earned goodwill with both Griswold and the larger Fortunato community; he was willing to take one for the team. While eventually Roderick could have used this to simply move his way up, he and Madeline had other plans. The twin siblings showed up to Fortunato's New Year's Eve 1979 party, greeted by a grateful Griswold, dressed as a court jester. After much schmoozing, Griswold eventually started hitting on Madeline, before the two retreated down to a soundproof basement.

fall off the house of usher

Only, as evidenced by the noises coming from the basement, Madeline wasn't quite dead. Once Roderick and Madeline were the only ones left in the bar after a long night of drinking, Verna revealed to the twins that she knew what they had done. But, if they agreed to her terms, she could guarantee that they would not only get away with Rufus' murder but also rise to control Fortunato's billion-dollar painkiller empire and never be convicted of a single crime. By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Most of the flashbacks to a young Usher and Dupin are thin, especially compared to the wicked fun on display in the fates of the Usher children. It feels like padding to get episodes to a full hour when Flanagan and company could have leaned even more into the episodic structure that highlights a single Poe per chapter. English majors will likely know where some of the stories are going just by seeing the episode names. When the young and trendy Prospero Usher (Sauriyan Sapkota) decides to host an exclusive sex-and-drugs party at one of dad’s old factories in an abbey, readers of The Masque of the Red Death will know it’s going to be a gruesome scene. However, Flanagan is smart enough to shift the Poe narratives ever so slightly for a modern audience. His version of The Tell-Tale Heart is a modern gem, and “The Gold-Bug” is reimagined as a new brand for the Usher company.

Instead of bringing comfort or release, Roderick uses artistic endeavors to wallow in his anxiety. Roderick Usher is the patriarch of the Usher family and the CEO of Fortunato Pharmaceuticals, which his twin sister, Madeline, helped to acquire. While he has plenty to offer his six children, generally, his fatherly affection isn’t included. The series is a modernized take on the stories of Poe, centering around corrupt CEO Roderick Usher (Greenwood), who, along with his scheming twin sister Madeline (McDonnell), built a global pharmaceutical empire.

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies, and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands. The first two episodes of The Fall of the House of Usher premiered at Fantastic Fest in September 2023 before the Netflix release the following month, being viewed more than 13 million times in its first two weeks. It was met with positive reviews, with critics praising its production values, directing, and performances (in particular from Gugino, Greenwood and Mark Hamill), although they were divided on its narrative, notably in relation to the source materials.

Despite this admission, Usher remains in the mansion and composes art containing the Usher mansion or similar haunted mansions. His mental health deteriorates faster as he begins to hear Madeline's attempts to escape the underground vault she was buried in, and he eventually meets his death out of fear in a manner similar to the House of Usher's cracking and sinking. It is revealed that Roderick's sister, Madeline, is also ill and falls into cataleptic, deathlike trances.

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