When Mike Flanagan was charting out his newest Netflix limited series, I imagine that he looked back at last year’s The Midnight Club and said, “I spent so much of my time on mystery that I forgot about all the gore and kink.” And thus, to repent for his narrative sins, he created The Fall of the House of Usher, based on the Edgar Allen Poe work of the same name, as well as other stories from the prolific author.
The series is perfect escapism, smartly weaving a narrative about a grotesquely wealthy family whose fortune was made on the backs of addictive painkillers. The six heirs to the throne are masters of hedonism, focused on sex and fame and sex and wealth, and also, sex. It’s a horny show, ok? But the reason that I gather you all here today is not to discuss the merits of the narrative (which is great) or the performances (T’Nia Miller Emmy nomination when?), but rather to discuss the deaths.
Flanagan has packed two, maybe three, seasons worth of gore and trauma into this eight-episode outing, creating demises as visceral as the vices that motivate the main characters. In the words of Oprah Winfrey, “Hello! Let’s celebrate that!”
The way we will be ranking these episodes is with a bit of Murder Math, which is not too different from girl math. To break it down, we’ll use the DIE scale: the categories of Disgust, Impact, and Extravagance will guide the final score. First off, how incredibly gory was it? How much did the death have an effect on the overall story, and of course, how inventive was it? For instance, we love a classic stabbing, but how original is that?
Obviously, if you read any further, there will be major spoilers.
6. Camille L'Espanaye
Putting Camille’s death in the last slot feels wrong for so many reasons. Throughout a good portion of the series, Camille is a bulldog for the family who feels like the core member, aside from her father, Roderick. But to put it bluntly, being mauled by a chimpanzee simply doesn’t do it for me. When it comes to the gore, I can respect that the woman had her face mostly ripped off by a primate. I will award four points because the bloodiness was pronounced, if not a bit haphazard. But by the time she’s mauled by one of Victorine’s chimps, the sibling relationship damage is essentially done. There is a lack of major gravitas behind the death. Two points. And though I can’t recall specific examples, I’m uninspired by a chimp eating a woman’s face off. I think I’ve seen this film before. Two more points.
DIE score: 9/15
5. Victorine LaFourcade
We really do not shine a bright enough light on the effects of being driven absolutely fucking crazy by ambient noise. Surgeon Victorine is so success-driven that she becomes consumed with a new prototype she and her girlfriend are working on (I wish I could give bonus points for other deaths characters are involved with because Victorine bopping her girlfriend in the head with a statuette from 10 yards away and then watching her blow an eye out as she dies? Chef’s kiss). But Victorine falls apart after an ideal surgical patient plagues her office with ambient noise that drives Victorine mad. Because madness is a tricky beast, we’ll include all details: the disgust score is a solid 4, due to the fact that (1) girlfriend stabs herself, and (2) she goes mad and takes her girlfriend’s corpse and installs a fake heart into it. The impact? Still not entirely dire. This is death four of six-ish. It has neither set the tone, nor are we at the end of the list of heirs. Two points. Driving someone insane to the point of installing a fake heart in your lover before killing yourself? Kind of brilliant. Four points.
DIE score: 10/15
4. Napoleon Usher
Cats are such assholes, so I love the inspiration here. The family gamer is taken out after his boyfriend’s cat drives him crazy. Technically, this is a replacement cat, since Napoleon kills the first one. Not terribly different from Victorine, but the nuance is what puts Napoleon’s death over the finish line just ahead of his sister’s. On the disgust side, Napoleon’s torture is a slow burn that starts with a scratch to the wrist, then to the cornea (they could have stopped there, frankly), then a slash to the throat before Napoleon’s demise, which comes after chasing the (ghost?) cat off his balcony. Napoleon hits the ground and dies from blunt trauma. Four out of five points. Shockingly, it seems like no one is really affected by it? One out of five. But the execution of a cat driving you crazy by, essentially, just being a cat? Too relatable, and yet, inspired. Five out of five.
Tie breaker: Cat scratch to the cornea literally makes me twitch.
DIE score: 10.5/15
3. Frederick Usher
This one is almost too good to be true. Frederick is the eldest boy, which makes him particularly punchable. After having his wife crisped up because of the acid rain from a sex party (IYKYK), he’s already hateable for how seemingly ambivalent he is. But when he’s tortured to the point that he chooses to overdose on his own family’s medication? A medication that has spelled the demise for so many people who have lined his family’s pocket? Oh, that’s rich. No, I wouldn’t call it gory, so unfortunately, that’s a one out of five. How does this death contribute to the plot though? Five out of five. Perfectly relevant, in a way that almost none of the other deaths are. And the extravagance is another perfect score because, like three siblings prior to this death, he’s driven mad. It’s a deserved death, even though he’s spared mid-overdose. We’ll still count it because you can almost watch that character’s soul leave his body.
DIE score: 11/15
2. Tamerlane Usher
Tammy, Tammy, Tammy. Tamerlane is a whole puzzle of a woman from the jump. She regularly forces her himbo husband to have discussions with a doppelganger over dinner while she touches herself from afar. She has a house full of mirrors—that’s big narcissist energy. So it comes as an appropriate resolution when Tammy is impaled by the mirrors in her headboard and above her bed. The thing that fed her also killed her. For anyone who has ever accidentally laid on a Lego, you know what that pain is. Now imagine it’s glass from both ends. Disgust points: four of five. Impact to the plot? Substantial enough. With only two children remaining, Tammy’s death is a pretty big deal, so we’ll award three of five points. The extravagance? We love to see mirrors used so abundantly (and from all angles, no less). Five of five.
DIE score: 12/15
1. Prospero Usher
I mean, come on. Not only did The Fall of the House of Usher kick off its killing spree with the family’s resident hottie, it also primed its viewers with its most gruesome death first. This one is the blueprint. Prospero “Perry” Usher defied the family, threw a no-holds-barred sex party in an old property, and brought in his sister-in-law to join the fun. And how does the show repay him? With an acid shower that peels the skin off of everyone there. The gore factor is off the charts here, so, five out of five. The impact is huge because not only does it kick off the events of the series, but Camille (Frederick’s wife) is the only survivor, so we’re constantly reminded that Perry was killed off via an acid bath. Five out of five. And the extravagance is just silly. They murdered a whole building of people with acid rain! No notes.
DIE score: 15/15
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