Netflix released all eight episodes of The Fall of the House of Usher on October 12, 2023. Mike Flanagan created the miniseries, and he or Michael Fimognari directed every episode. Fimognari also served as cinematographer across the whole run. It is a gothic horror drama, and it is very good at being one.
Trailer, via Netflix.
Roderick Usher Loses Six Children in Two Weeks
The setup is blunt. In November 2023, Roderick Usher, CEO of Fortunato Pharmaceuticals, buries all six of his children inside two weeks. The night after the last funeral, he brings C. Auguste Dupin to his childhood home. Dupin is an Assistant United States Attorney who has spent his career trying to expose Fortunato. Roderick tells him the real story of his family, and the series moves through that confession.
Two timelines run alongside the conversation. One covers 1953 to 1980, when Roderick and his twin sister Madeline are young and climbing toward power. The other covers the two weeks before Roderick sits down with Dupin, as each of his heirs dies. The show adapts unrelated Poe stories and characters into one nonlinear narrative set between 1953 and 2023. The title comes from Poe’s 1839 short story, and that story is the most prominent source, but the series pulls from across his work.
Carla Gugino Plays Verna, Who Plagues the Ushers
Carla Gugino is Verna, the mysterious figure who haunts the family. Bruce Greenwood plays the elderly Roderick, and Mary McDonnell plays Madeline, the company’s COO and its actual genius. The cast around them is deep: Henry Thomas as Frederick Usher, Kate Siegel as Camille L’Espanaye, Rahul Kohli as Napoleon Usher, Samantha Sloyan as Tamerlane Usher, T’Nia Miller as Victorine LaFourcade, Zach Gilford as young Roderick, Willa Fitzgerald as young Madeline, Michael Trucco as Rufus Griswold, and Katie Parker as Annabel Lee.
The names are the joke and the thesis at once. This is a family built out of Poe’s vocabulary, and the show knows exactly what it is doing with them.
The Fortune Is the Point
The official synopsis says two ruthless siblings build a family dynasty to secure their fortune and future, and that it starts to crumble when their heirs die one by one. That undersells the machinery. The fortune here is pharmaceutical money, and the corruption Dupin chases for decades is the spine of the thing. Roderick and Madeline do not inherit a curse. They build a company, and the company is what kills people.
The eight episodes move between the siblings’ youth and the two-week collapse of their children. Roderick narrates, which means the audience is always aware that someone is choosing the order of events. That structure is the show’s best decision. It lets the deaths land as consequence rather than ambush, and it keeps the Dupin conversation loaded with dread even when nothing on screen is moving.
What the Reviews Got Right
The miniseries drew more than 13 million views in its first two weeks. It was met with positive reviews. Critics praised the production values, the directing, and the performances, singling out Gugino, Greenwood, and Mark Hamill. They were divided on the narrative, especially in relation to the source material.
All eight episodes were released on Netflix on October 12, 2023, each directed by either Flanagan or Michael Fimognari, with the latter also acting as cinematographer for the entire series.
That split makes sense. The Fall of the House of Usher is not a faithful adaptation and does not pretend to be. It takes Poe’s stories apart and rebuilds them as one family saga. Viewers who want the 1839 story will not find it here. Viewers who want a long, mean, well-acted horror drama about a company that ruins people will find plenty.
The first two episodes premiered at Fantastic Fest in September 2023, ahead of the Netflix release the following month.
Release Schedule
| Episode | Release date |
|---|---|
| 1 | October 12, 2023 |
| 2 | October 12, 2023 |
| 3 | October 12, 2023 |
| 4 | October 12, 2023 |
| 5 | October 12, 2023 |
| 6 | October 12, 2023 |
| 7 | October 12, 2023 |
| 8 | October 12, 2023 |
Netflix dropped the whole season at once, which is the right call for a story that wants to be watched in a run.
The Ensemble Carries It
Gugino is the standout, and that is the consensus among the positive notices. Verna is the show’s engine, and Gugino plays her with a calm that makes the family’s panic worse. Greenwood and McDonnell are the other two pillars. Roderick and Madeline are twins who built something together and cannot separate themselves from it, and both actors sell the age and the arrogance.
The younger cast does the harder job. Gilford and Fitzgerald have to make the audience believe these two were always going to end up here. Kohli, Siegel, Sloyan, Miller, and Thomas each get a turn as an heir, and each death has to mean something on its own. That is a lot of weight for eight episodes, and the show mostly holds it.
Where It Stumbles
The narrative is where the reviews split, and the split is fair. Adapting unrelated Poe stories into one family means some threads fit better than others. The nonlinear structure is elegant, but it also means the show is constantly interrupting its own momentum to jump decades. When the 1953-to-1980 material is strong, the jumps feel earned. When it is not, they feel like a schedule.
The series is also more interested in its themes than its scares. That is not a flaw in itself, but anyone arriving for straightforward horror will find a slower, talkier show than the premise suggests. The horror here is corporate and familial, and it works best when it stays in the room with Roderick and Dupin.
Our Verdict
The Fall of the House of Usher is a confident, well-made miniseries with a great cast and a clear idea. The 13 million views in two weeks are not surprising. Neither is the critical praise for Gugino, Greenwood, and Hamill. What matters most is that Flanagan took a pile of Poe and made it cohere as one story about a company and a family that deserve each other. The divided reaction to the narrative is the honest one, because the show’s ambition is also its risk. It reaches for a lot and does not always land it, but when it does, it is the best thing Netflix put out that October.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.