As with his TV adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House, Mike Flanagan uses the source material as a springboard to tell his own story in The Fall of the House of Usher. Flanagan’s show creates a death sandwich using eight episodes to kill off Roderick’s six children. Although the effects and sets are suitably spooky, it’s impossible to care about any of the characters. Couple this with the slow emergence of the ghosts or visions haunting Roderick as he recounts his tale, and it’s simply not frightening.
What I appreciate most about this work is that each episode stands alone as a homage to Poe’s storytelling. This and the beautiful cinematography, creates a Gothic feast of comeuppance. A family as morally bankrupt as it is wealthy deserves to fall, and I have enjoyed witnessing their demise. I have only watched the first five episodes so far, and the enjoyment I receive, watching each of the spoilt kids die, might disturb me if I wasn’t a horror writer by trade.
As a book, it wouldn’t work, but as a visual banquet, its glorious decadence is delicious.
Carmilla has a First-Class Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and Linguistics. Her work includes stories in horror anthologies published by Crystal Lake Publishing, Clash Books and Mocha Memoirs; a co-authored Southern Gothic Horror novel; two self-published graphic novels, and the award-winning, dark fantasy/horror Starblood trilogy.
Graham Masterton described the second book in her Starblood trilogy as a “compelling story in a hypnotic, distinctive voice that brings her eerie world vividly to life”. Carmilla is also a freelance editor and mentor who enjoys making language sing.
Comments