What with it being Halloween today, we’re thinking about all things spooky, so we wanted to to share some of the things we’ve been watching and listening to this season in the Tulgey Wood.
Given how many stories by the O.G. (original ghoulish) writer Edgar Allan Poe we’ve done for our series Through a Glass, Darkly, we decided to check out the new mini-series The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix.
Hold onto your cask of Amontillado, it was a lot.
It’s definitely not a version you’ll hear us do… or really anything on broadcast radio, but knowing that many of you enjoy some of the horror audio fiction that is similarly not safe on the radio, we share this. And the mini-series, which weaves together a whole host of Poe’s writings into a topical story of a perfectly horrid family that has parallels to the Sacklers and their painkiller empire. Of course, in Poe’s gothic hands, this family has many skeletons in their closet and bricked up behind walls. It’s just TV-MA with all the trimmings.
Really, we can’t understate how “TV-MA” the series is. They almost certainly had a sizeable special effects makeup team and all of them are doubtless exhausted from their extensive labors. Some of the characters’ dialogue isn’t so much sprinkled with profanity as soaking in it. And language isn’t the only vulgar thing. Still, fans of Mark Hamill taking another turn as a villain will be rewarded.
Now, if you’re not up for something grotesque, or if you simply want to refresh your knowledge of Poe, you can check out our dramatic readings of “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat,” “The Raven,” and “The Masque of the Red Death.” Frankly, many of these are disturbing and grotesque just in their original 19th century form… and animal lovers may want to steer clear of “The Black Cat,” but at least you will be responsible for the visuals as opposed to what will likely be a soon-to-be award-winning production team.
Stay spooky, dear listeners!