The only known picture of Poe

Netflix ‘s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is brilliant.   Creator Mike Flanagan takes on a Poe compendium –  six short stories (while touching on others) and one very famous poem.  Not only is the program great viewing, but it inspired me reread Poe. I haven’t read the Virginian since Uni and it’s interesting to get a “grown-up”  (haha nice try) interpretation many years and beers later.

Poe had a huge fear of being buried alive. In the TV version we have many burials. In one episode a nasty corporate bastard (Rufus Griswold – Poe’s real life nemesis and biggest critic) is tied up, buried behind a wall and left to die – “The Cask of Amontillado.” We also have Arthur Gordon Pym (buried in a dark ship hold), as the Usher’s nasty lawyer henchman, played brilliantly by Luke Skywalker. Bruce Greenwood another sci-fi marvel ( Capitan Christopher Pike) is also excellent.

The Masque of the Red Death is another Poe story brought to light. The vacant and run-down house where Perry (Prince Prospero in Poe’s story) holds a massive party is almost identical to the Prince’s palace – a black walled room with scarlet windows and a brasier fire. The original guy holds a masquerade ball inside the secure palace walls due to a devastating pestilence outside (oooh how pandemic). Carla Gugino – crafty, clever and very sexy in her Red Masque of Death brings about a nasty death inside secure walls just like the story.

The Black Cat episode is very closely related to the story. In Poe’s version a very malicious cat follows the narrator home after he hangs his pet cat in a drunken rage – just like the screen version . We do have a body buried behind a wall in both tales, but in the TV version buddy doesn’t bury an axe in his wife’s head and then bury her behind the fireplace.

The Tell Tale Heart has a nasty bleeding heart controlling the characters (as in Poe). However the modern heart is artificial but continually pumps terror, causing a bloody catastrophe. We do have a bathroom murder in both versions. In Poe’s version he chops up a body in a bathtub and then hides the body under the floorboards. No hidden body in this one. But in both versions the heart gives the murderer away.

The Gold-Bug episode is quite a distance from Poe’s story. In the small screen version we only see the shiny insect symbol representing a company. The original is all about logic and deductive reasoning leading to a buried pirate treasure. A method used by Poe’s detectives that  influenced Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Without Poe, Sherlock Holmes might never been born.

The entire series has Murder in the Rue Morgue’s detective C. Auguste Dupin listening to Roderick Usher tell about The Fall of the House of Usher. The end where all is revealed is a very clever twist that brings all the stories together. Poe was a master horror writer and the first detective fiction scriber. So many have followed in his foot steps.  Please Mike, can we have another series? I’d die if it was “Nevermore.”