Mike Flanagan’s latest horror series for Netflix draws from the prolific, spooky works of Edgar Allan Poe.
This article contains spoilers forThe Fall of the House of Usher.
To say theres a lot going on inThe Fall of the House of Usheris to put it lightly.
A deeply angry allegory about the human wreckage wrought from the opioid crisis.
An adaption of Edgar Allan Poes short story The Fall of the House of Usher.
An Easter egg and reference bonanza of the rest of the Gothic literature titans classic works.
While all of those elements are of equal importance, its the Poe aspects that really shine through.
Some adaptations are close to 1:1 comparison while others a little more abstract.
But all of them have real love for the Raven writer.
Since each episode ofUsherfollows a different Poe work, weve broken things up into episodic entries below.
The Fall of the House of Usher Character Names
Surprise!
Were actually not going to start with episode 1.
Prince Prospero comes directly fromThe Masque of the Red Death.C.
The opening line of Poes most iconic poem The Raven, begins Once upon a midnight dreary.
Other Poe Easter eggs from this episode include…
The Usher siblings accidental live burial of their mother is a distinctly Poe trope.
This episode concludes with the adult Roderick being haunted by a vision of The Raven and a spooky jester.
You already know where the Raven comes from but what about the spooky jester?
Fortunato Pharmaceuticals is named after the character of Fortunato in PoesThe Cask of Amontillado.
This show is going to make you remember what you forgot from your freshman English class or die trying.
As you might imagine, this tale became particularly popular again in recent years.
Young Roderick recites much of the actual Annabel Lee poem to his wife Annabel Lee.
Apparently its something he just made up on his own.
Poe, for all his Gothic darkness, does indeed have a sense of humor albeit a macabre one.
Nowhere is that more apparent than in the 1841 short storyThe Murders in the Rue Morgue.
Vernas name tag at Rue Morgue reads Le Bon.
Adolphe Le Bon is the man wrongly accused of the murders in The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
Episode 4: The Black Cat
The narrators in Poes stories are real sickos.
Case in point is the unnamed narrator inThe Black Catwho loves his kitties so much he justhasto abuse them.
His favorite is a black cat whose eyeball he plucks out and then hangs from a tree.
His house then burns down, leaving only a burned outline of a cat in a noose behind.
More pet violence follows.
Obviously,The Fall of the House of Usherborrows this bit for the episode.
We didnt find much else of note in this aside from the stuffed raven visible in Vernas bar.
Poes 1843 short storyThe Gold-Bugfollows William Legrand, who becomes fixated on a scarab-like golden bug.
Her Goop-esque lifestyle brand Goldbug will surely fix everything though.
Roderick makes mention of having dinner with a board member named Richard Parker to secure his vote.
Yes,that really happened!
Roderick recites part of the poemA Dream Within a Dreamto Lenore.
Poe uses the phrase in his poem Dream-Land.
The image was captured at arguably the lowest point of Poes life.
The titular William Wilson is also surprised by his own reflection in a looking glass in Poes William Wilson.
In the center of his cell is a bottomless pit.
Above him is a blade on a pendulum, swinging back and forth and descending ever closer.
There is some fun foreshadowing in this one for those who know what pit and the pendulum refers to.
Verna reveals here that Roderick was destined to be a poet before setting down the path of selfishness.
This epic poem is the perfect spooky season companion.
Then a raven turns up to mock his human frailty and confirm that hell see his love nevermore.
The enormity of his deal with Verna has finally hit him.
The House of Usher is soon to be wiped out.
Even Lenore is gone.
All thats left is to pay Madeline a visit at their childhood home.
While in the vault, Montresor imprisons Fortunato and leaves him in the catacombs to rot.
Roderick and Madeline do pretty much the same thing to their enemy Rufus, right down to the amontillado.
Roderick becomes obsessed with preserving his sister like an Egyptian queen … so like a mummy.
The poem that Verna recites to end the series isSpirits of the Dead.
All eight episodes ofThe Fall of the House of Usherare available to stream on Netflix now.
