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Hola amigos, buenas vibras para todos.
**Hello friends, good vibes to all.
Mike Flanagan is back with another story where we see again the decadence of the human being in its maximum expression. With this are five series he has done for Netflix, from here they have all been seen, and while it is true that horror is the flag of his work lately seems to have moved away from that a little. The best for me is the first we saw of him, The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor second, this would be the third, The Midnight Mass fourth to close with the great fiasco that was The Midnight Club. I know it all seems like a tongue twister but Flanagan has a certain aesthetic and pattern in his work, hence we see great similarities even with his actors who are always the same, this is another detail that I like about him.
The truth is that I had high expectations with this series, as a good fan of the director and the genre I always expect a production to surpass the others, this one did? - Well, half way. As you read above of the five series this one is right in the middle, yes I liked it but I also make a retrospective of what I have seen so far of Flanagan and there were things that were missing or left over that in my case did not allow me to make the full click. There is terror, there are deaths, there is blood, suffering but there are also human feelings like greed, avarice, selflessness, hunger for power and when you put all that together the result can be quite dangerous and explosive. So nothing, let's go and talk a little bit about what this new plot of the Usher family is about.
To understand a little more about the characters and the way things happen, you have to know that this is inspired by a work by Edgar Allan Poe, hence its nature. So, we have two siblings, Roderick and Madeleine Usher (Bruce Grenwood and Mary McDonnell) who are the owners of a giant pharmaceutical company called Fortunato, a company that has some pretty questionable bases but you will see that in the series. The thing is, it's not just them who are involved but all of Roderick's offspring have a part in it. Everything in this family is what is wrong with the world, each one has a personality worse than the other based on power and money and that they will soon have to pay for past mistakes.
Out of nowhere all these Usher children begin to die, one by one and in very particular and striking ways at the hands of a woman surrounded by mystery and intrigue, she is the great Carla Gugino. When these murders begin, it is true that cracks begin to appear everywhere, dirty secrets come to light, the past comes knocking at the door to collect for unpaid bills, in conclusion, the Usher family is plunged into chaos. From here on we will see how one by one each member of the Usher family falls while we see flashbacks to better understand how they got to this present so murky and full of death.
When one associates Flanagan with a series, usually the first thing that comes to mind is horror, which throughout the story I feel has been mutating a bit, since at the beginning it was more paranormal. Now with this story of the Ushers and I think it happened with The Midnight Club also that terror migrated to a more visual one filled slightly with a gore, to one more graphic and more explicit. This doesn't mean that the first one has been abandoned, but rather that there was a kind of synergy to make the stories more shocking and more to the taste of more people. Blood is a main element in this story, it is very raw at times but at others it is poetic given the way the characters die. The moral is that everyone gets what they deserve according to how they were as people.
So the paranormal takes a back seat? - No. There are still those jumpscare that characterize these plots, those weird and bizarre scenes that may scare you, but the tension that maybe I felt in other series I didn't experience here, I missed a lot of that, of that "fear" that was hanging around in every scene in this series is not felt. And it's a shame because I repeat, one of Flanagan's most important signatures was that. Still the series goes well, it has some pretty good staging, the way they elaborated all the deaths are incredible. Honestly it's enjoyable, it's probably that the chapters get a little long but I think it's because behind everything there is a context that has to be told.
The other relevant thing that is shown here is the human value of each character, of each son. Flanagan shows the power struggle that surrounds these families, how they can be so disconnected from reality as long as their own interests prevail. It is a sample of egocentrism and narcissism in its maximum expression with each of the characters, all suffer the same evil only that is expressed in different ways. In the end money corrupts, is another thing that this series leaves us as a learning experience, you can have great values or be a good person but if in the end you run into the temptation to do what is forbidden, what is wrong, only for your own benefit you will end up paying a very high price. This is all, as people fall and self-destruct thanks to an ephemeral power.
The characters are very top notch. I think what Mark Hamill does is spectacular, the best character in that series, without a doubt. There are familiar faces like Kate Siegel, Rahul Kohli, Samantha Sloyan, Henry Thomas, Ruth Cood; all of them are practically Flanagan's family since they are always in his series. Each one is unique and despicable, you really come to loathe a few of them, they are very good performances. But I repeat Hamill is a standout, Pym is the family lawyer but his role is more than that. It's good to see him. Carla Gugino also stands out, as always. It is a cast to which one is accustomed and this time they brought us exaggerated characters, even caricatured but they do the job.
I give it an 8/10. I think it's worth watching, personally I liked it a lot but it's true that there were a couple of little things that I would have liked to see or that I missed. The chapters sometimes get a little long but nothing serious. It has a little bit of everything, it entertains, good deaths, good scenes, good scares, so I think Flanagan, with just enough, complies. There are eight chapters and it's on Netflix. I leave the trailer here for you to see it.
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Bueno mi gente por hoy es todo, espero que les haya gustado. ¡Un abrazo a todos, nos vemos en la próxima!
***Well my people that's all for today, I hope you liked it. ¡A hug to everyone, see you next time!