Warning: The following article on how the creator of The Fall of the House of Usher confirmed a key plot point around Verna contains spoilers for the Netflix show.
Mike Flanagan, the creator of Netflix’s The Fall of the House of Usher, confirmed everyone really should have just listened to Verna.
On Tumblr, a fan asked Flanagan to elaborate on an aspect of Carla Gugino’s Verna and the form in which she appeared to each of Roderick Usher’s offspring. Verna, an embodiment of Edgar Allan Poe’s Raven, seemingly offered each Usher a way out of their gruesome fate, and the Tumblr user wondered whether that option would have circumvented their deaths or simply made them more peaceful. Flanagan confirmed that Roderick’s deal could not be reneged on and that heeding Verna’s warning would’ve earned the children a more peaceful outcome, akin to Lenore’s death at the end of the series.
Related: The Fall of the House of Usher Is a Phenomenal Accomplishment of Generational Horror
The second portion of the Tumblr user’s question revolved specifically around Victorine’s death, denoting that, while Verna played a role in her ultimate downfall, Gugino herself was absent from that scene. The question asker posited that perhaps Verna was speaking through Victorine when she told Roderick Usher he should have followed through with an earlier attempt on his own life. While Flanagan addressed the first half of the question, he left that element of Victorine’s death up for speculation.
Aside from adapting Edgar Allan Poe’s extensive bibliography in The Fall of the House of Usher, Flanagan made a name for himself at Netflix by taking a similarly holistic approach to horror adaption with series, such as The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and The Midnight Club. In addition to his distinct spin on horror classics, Flanagan has proven adept at crafting his own wholly original tales of terror with series such as Midnight Mass. Though the creator’s relationship with Netflix has come to an end, Flanagan will continue to weave his storytelling thread at his new streaming home, Prime Video.
Flanagan’s tenure with Netflix ended shortly after the cancelation of The Midnight Club, a disappointment for the creator that he’s also expanded upon on Tumblr.
The Fall of the House of Usher is available to stream now on Netflix.
