‘The House of Usher’: Late Stage Capitalism Dressed In Black
The Usher Family Is Greed Incarnate
This essay contains spoilers for the Netflix miniseries ‘The Fall of the House of Usher.’
‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ may be my favorite Mike Flanagan project to date, right up there with ‘Midnight Mass.’ Poe’s works against a modern backdrop, rampant excess doused in supernatural terror — it makes my little goth heart sing.
Where Midnight Mass deconstructs the horrors of a stereotypical small-town mindset and the toxicity of fake faith, ‘Usher’ aims at American capitalism and greed. And while some of it I found a tiny bit heavy-handed — I would’ve been fine without the Trump reference in the final episode; fuck that guy but keep him out of my escapism, please — a lot of it hits.
This is particularly well-illustrated at the beginning of episode 6, right after Victorine dies. A bloodied Roderick Usher stands in his office holding two enormous sapphires, monologuing to the ghosts of his children. “I reached through time and ripped the eyes out…
