Like Wednesday, Netflix's The Fall of the House of Usher is brimming with references to Edgar Allan Poe beyond the core narrative of the author's 1839 story. But they're not all as obvious as you might think, with many hidden within the rotting eaves of the macabre horror-drama series.
As Mashable's Belen Edwards writes in her review, Mike Flanagan's adaptation "feels like a mini Poe anthology, all bound together by the framing device of Roderick's confession." But did you catch them all?
We've pulled together every single Poe reference in The Fall of the House of Usher, so you too can be a smug couch commentator to your unsuspecting co-watchers. Did you know that the unscrupulous Fortunato CEO Roderick Griswold is named for one of Poe's rivals? Who are all the awful Usher kids actually named after? Did you catch that Toby Dammit reference hidden in the dialogue?
SEE ALSO: Where you've seen 'The House of Usher' cast before: Welcome to the FlanaversePoe famously loved ciphers, so Flanagan has peppered his episodes with references for sleuths to find — the director has even dropped references to his own work throughout the series. But this list is all about Poe.
Every episode is based on a short Poe story.
Leo succumbs to "The Black Cat" Credit: Eike Schroter/NetflixIn case you didn't notice the titles of each episode, each one is also the name of a Poe story, with the exception of the first episode ("A Midnight Dreary") and the last ("The Raven"). "A Midnight Dreary," is of course, is a phrase from the first line of "The Raven." Furthermore, each episode is itself an adaptation of the individual Poe story its title references:
The structure of the show itself — two men discussing the terrible, inexplicable, gruesome, and morbid happenings of the recent past, including a confession, beside a fire on a dark and stormy night — is pulled straight from multiple Poe stories and Gothic horror as a genre itself (hellooo, Wuthering Heights).
There are other Poe titles hidden within these episodes too, like "Morella" (Morrie's fate), "The Premature Burial" (Eliza's fate), and of course, "The Raven" (Lenore's fate).
Each Usher sibling is named for a Poe character.
From Prospero to Tamerlane. Credit: Eike Schroter/NetflixThe six children of Roderick Usher — Frederick (Henry Thomas), Tamerlane (Samantha Sloyan), Victorine (T'Nia Miller), Napoleon (Rahul Kohli), Camille (Kate Siegel), and Prospero (Sauriyan Sapkota) — don't actually feature in the original story by Poe, so Flanagan has named them all for various characters or people from the author's life. We've done a whole explainer on the kids' names for you, because those ghastly siblings need all the memorialising they can get after those poorly attended funerals. In fact, two of the Usher's names predict their grisly fates according to their associated stories.
Every single character name in Fall of the House of Usher is a Poe reference.
Allessandra's name has a sad clue to her terrible fate. Credit: Eike Schroter/NetflixAs if Flanagan hadn't already gone super Poe nerd on the Usher kids' names, every single character in the show is a reference — including the extended family tree but also the people orbiting the Ushers. Let's break this down, shall we?
Dr. Allessandra Ruiz (Paola Núñez)
Victorine's girlfriend, Dr. Allessandra Ruiz, is named for Poe's 1835 unpublished play Politan, in which a suicide pact is made — a clue as to Allessandra's murder by Vic.
Annabel Lee (Katie Parker)
Roderick Usher’s first wife, the love of his life and mother of Freddie and Tammy, is named for Poe’s 1849 poem, in which the narrator laments his lover who died. In the series, Roderick constantly quotes the poem to Annabel Lee as if he wrote it himself.
Arthur Pym (Mark Hamill)
Arthur Pym, the Ushers' lead attorney, whose "particularly nasty" contracts are deemed masterpieces by the family, has been cleaning up messes for an age. He's named for the protagonist of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Poe's only published novel. Released in 1838 and inspired by a newspaper article, it follows the seafaring tale of a whaling ship, upon which a New England boy called Pym stows away. But the ship steers into truly doomed territory in multiple ways. It's a fitting string of awful circumstances suffered by the namesake for Hamill's character, who has seen and covered up some real shit with the Usher family — a doomed sinking ship in itself.
In a little extra in one episode, Pym mentions he's having dinner with Richard Parker, which is the name of a cabin boy from the story.
Auguste Dupin, meet Arthur Pym. You're from two different Poe stories. Credit: Eike Schroter/NetflixBill T. Wilson (Matt Biedel)
Tammy's husband Bill and face of BillT Nation is named for Poe's 1839 short story "William Wilson," which is about a doppelgänger — a fitting connection to Bill and Tammy's roleplaying nights.
Auguste Dupin (Carl Lumbly)
The Usher's legal nemesis, assistant U.S. attorney Auguste Dupin takes his name from a character that's very much like him: Poe's great detective C. Auguste Dupin. First appearing in 1841's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," Poe's detective would have immeasurable impact on one Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his own detective, Sherlock Holmes.
Eliza Usher (Annabeth Gish)
Roderick and Madeline's ill-fated mother Eliza Usher could be named for Poe's own mother, Elizabeth Arnold, or his wife, Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe.
John Neal (Nicholas Lea)
The trial of Usher vs. the state is presided over by one John Neal, named for a critic of Poe’s; it's a fitting nod to judgment.
Julius (Daniel Chae Jun)
Leo's incredibly supportive and empathetic boyfriend is named for Poe's story "The Journal of Julius Rodman." Julius also owns a black cat called Pluto, which is the name of the leading feline in Poe's "The Black Cat" — and a big clue to Leo's fate.
Juno Usher (Ruth Codd)
Roderick Usher's 22-year-old wife Juno could be a reference to Poe's own extremely young wife (his cousin Virginia Eliza Poe was 13 when they were married, yikes) or it could be a reference to Poe's poem "Eureka," which mentions the Asteroids, including Juno.
Duck! Credit: Eike Schroter/NetflixMorella Usher (Crystal Balint)
Morella Usher is named for Poe's 1835 short story, which fittingly revolves around a type of black nightshade. This is a reference to the experimental new nightshade agent for paralysis that Freddie uses on her to punish her for attending Perry's doomed orgy.
Rufus Griswold (Michael Trucco)
Rufus Wilmot Griswold, the founder and CEO of Fortunato who really screws over Roderick Usher, has a name fittingly taken from Poe’s real life rival, the literary critic and editor who pissed off the author with mediocre reviews. However, he also published Poe's works. Everyone's a critic.
William Longfellow (Robert Longstreet)
Roderick and Madeline's father, CEO of Fortunato Pharmaceuticals, and Eliza's boss, William Longfellow is named for the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who had a longstanding beef with Poe.
And then, there's Toby Dammit...
"Toby, damn it!" is a very clever hidden Poe reference.
"DAMN IT, TOBY!" Credit: Eike Schroter/NetflixIf you're wondering why morally nihilistic PR mogul Camille L'Espanaye (Kate Siegel) repeats herself when excoriating her assistant Toby (Igby Rigney), you're not alone. Of course, it's yet another Poe reference! Here's what the "Toby, damn it!" line is all about.
Several Poe poems are read aloud by characters.
Roderick Usher takes the credit for most of them, but several Poe poems are read aloud by characters during The Fall of the House of Usher.
In the very first episode, the priest recites "Spirits of the Dead" at the funeral for Victorine, Tamerlane, and Frederick.
Roderick recites "Lenore" when describing his and Madeline's burial of his mother in episode 1.
For his wife, Roderick constantly recites the poem "Annabel Lee." in which the narrator laments his lover's tragic death.
After Lenore's death, Roderick recites "The Raven" aloud, which links directly to her fate.
To Madeline, Verna recites the entirety of "The City and the Sea."
Verna's named aliases are also Poe characters.
Credit: Eike Schroter/NetflixVerna may be a demon created specifically by Flanagan for the show, but some of her aliases are references to Poe.
Verna's name, which she shares with Roderick and Madeline at the bar in 1979, is an anagram for "Raven."
In episode 3, Verna assumes the identity of one Pamela Clemm when signing up to be the first human test patient for Victorine's heart mesh at R.U.E. lab (for more on that, see below). Her name is a reference to Virginia Eliza Poe (née Clemm), Poe's wife. You can see her name on the driver's license Vic finds in her file. Another little tidbit on the license is her address, which is on Reynolds Street, which may relate to the legend of Poe's deathbed, when he's said to have shouted the name Reynolds, though no one has figured out who that is.
Fortunato is named after an ill-fated Poe character.
The Ushers' mega corporation, Fortunato, is actually the name of the protagonist's friend in Poe's story "The Cask of Amontillado." That's also a major clue as to the fate of its CEO, Rufus Griswold. In the tale, Fortunato is dressed as a jester for carnival, and indeed meets a sticky end.
In another little tidbit, the company Roderick Usher suggests Griswold buy in episode 3 is Landor Pharma, a reference to Poe's 1849 short story "Landor's Cottage."
Ligadone is a reference to the story "Ligeia."
The core drug at the heart of the house of Usher's success with Fortunato is called Ligadone, which seems like a reference to Poe's story "Ligeia." In this tale, a woman called Rowena dies of an illness but is resurrected as Ligeia, who was the narrator's first wife. The poem speaks a lot about the inevitability of death, which is fitting. As an added bonus, the narrator is addicted to opium, and the whole thing could just be a hallucination; Ligadone is, of course, an opioid.
R.U.E. is a big Poe reference and a plot clue.
R.U.E. eh? Credit: Eike Schroter/NetflixRodrick Usher Experimental — R.U.E. — is the name of Vic's lab, owned by Roderick Usher as a testing and development facility. The acronym is a reference to Poe's story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." As Camille explains in episode 2, she says the family used to call it the "R.U.E. Zoo" in reference to the animal testing happening within it. Later, "they knew better" as to the real fate of the chimpanzees, and began calling it the "R.U.E. Morgue."
It's a major clue as to Camille's fate too; in "Rue Morgue," Camille is a character murdered by an orangutan.
Freddie's ship in a bottle is packed with clues.
In episode 2, Freddie and Lenore are putting the last touches on a ship in a bottle for Roderick, which is a reference to Poe's 1833 short story "MS. Found in a Bottle," about a person who travels at sea in worse and worse circumstances. Even further, Lenore dubs it "The Grampus" for her grandfather, a reference to The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, the namesake of the Usher's lead attorney. In that story, the doomed ship is called the Grampus, which is a fitting tribute. Two doomed ships!
Lenore and Morella's movie choice is a Poe throwback.
In a scene in episode 6, you'll spot Lenore Usher (Kyliegh Curran) watching a movie with her mother, Morella (Crystal Balint), who is recovering from the horrific burns she received at Prospero's ill-fated "Masque of the Red Death" orgy from episode 2. What are they watching? Roger Corman's 1961 film The Pit and the Pendulum, which stars Vincent Price and boasts a script by horror legend Richard Matheson based on Poe's short story. It also very much predicts Freddie's fate.
Verna's entire bar from 1979 is Poe-themed.
Credit: Eike Schroter/NetflixWith a dazzling decor that takes the universe of the series and makes it into a Moment, Verna's unnamed bar that "exists beyond time and space" is almost entirely Poe-themed. The stained glass at the back of the bar shows a horse (a reference to Poe's 1832 short story "Metzengerstein: A Tale in Imitation of the German"), a raven sitting on a skull beside a crescent moon ("The Raven"), a black cat ("The Black Cat"), a ship in a bottle ("MS. Found in a Bottle"), and casks (presumably of Amontillado).
But most of all, there's a tiny framed picture of Poe above the bar.
Vic's heart device features the "vulture eye" from "The Tell-Tale Heart."
In a neat bit of production design, Vic and Allessandra's heart mesh design has a circular disk at the front with smaller circles within it. Essentially, it looks like a creepy eye. And it's almost certainly a reference to the "The Tell-Tale Heart," whose protagonist feels "vexed" by the pale, filmy blue eye of his elderly companion staring at him — so much so that it drives the protagonist to murder. Here's a full explainer on this clever prop.
Vic has a tiny pendulum on her shelf in episode 5.
Foreshadowing the death of her brother Frederick, Vic's office in the R.U.E Morgue has a few tasteful decorations, and one not so tasteful — it's a pendulum. In fact, all of the Usher siblings' deaths are teased with visual clues.
Is that expensive cognac a reference to the Poe Toaster?
Roderick Usher swills a bunch of that pricey booze throughout the series — Henri IV Dudognon Heritage Cognac Grande Champagne, a bottle of which cost "€4 million at auction" — and aside from its connection to "The Cask of Amontillado" and Fortunato's taste for fine wines, it could be a reference to someone known only as the Poe Toaster.
According to the Smithsonian, "Every year, on Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday, a masked man would leave three red roses and a bottle of cognac on his grave." And nobody knows why.
How to watch: The Fall of the House of Usher is now streaming on Netflix.
