Ranking ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ Family Deaths From Least to Most Gruesome

The Fall of the House of Usher, based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short gothic story of the same name, follows the Usher family, led by the morally bankrupt yet emotionally tortured Roderick Usher and his gloriously indomitable sister, Madeline. The two head Fortunato Pharmaceuticals and they have come to amass a significant fortune on the backs of those addicted to the company’s opioids. (They are clearly a fictionalized stand-in for the Sackler family). 

Roderick Usher’s many children live in the lap of luxury — each using the unending financial supply to dabble in personal and professional endeavors. When Verna, who calls herself “consequence,” shows up, she begins to eliminate the Usher family line — one by one. Karma is a bitch, and sometimes, she’s ruthless. She kills off the Ushers in a creative fashion — pulling from the frightful fatalities inherent to many a Poe tale, including “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and more. So, let’s rank the Usher family deaths from least to most gruesome. 

Spoiler Warning for ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ 

Lenore 

Lenore’s death is anything but gruesome, as it is the most heartwarming and beautiful end to a life undeserving of such a short stay on this planet. The innocent adolescent is not at fault for her father or grandfather’s actions, but she must be punished for them nonetheless, as such states the decades-old arrangement. Verna tells Lenore about the beautiful life her mother will come to lead — the altruistic and philanthropic existence she will have as a result of her daughter’s protection from their deplorable excuse for a father and husband. Verna simply puts her to sleep, as a tinge of remorse crawls across her face. This is the part of her job Verna hates; she does not wish to punish the undeserving. We’re not crying. You’re crying. 

Roderick and Madeline 

As far as gruesome goes, a house collapsing on your body — shards of wood ripping into your skin as you suffocate at the hands of heavy debris and destruction — would be pretty top-notch in most circumstances. However, compared to the deaths in this series, it’s quite mild. It’s not all that bloody. And it’s not very drawn out. 

Yes, Madeline attacks Roderick first and chokes him to death, so his ultimate end is a violent assault. However, he dies at his sister’s hands, so his fate is undeniably imbued with a sense of understanding and acceptance. There’s still a love there…no matter how twisted it has become. And, they get to die moments apart in the very dwelling their journey began. They started as a team against the world, and they will end as one. It’s romantic in a warped way. 

Leo 

Now we’re getting into the nitty gritty of Poe’s timeless themes: the descent into madness, inescapable grief, guilt, and regret. Leo, throughout ‘The Black Cat,’ is tortured by the cat he uses to replace the one that turns up dead (which he keeps a secret from his partner). He hears the impostrous cat hissing and meowing in the walls. It scratches at his eyes as it jumps from behind the designer suits in his walk-in closet. He cannot take it anymore, as mice show up dead in his bathtub. 

He begins tearing apart his home, breaking down the walls to get to this cat and end its existence. The further he descends into a violent madness, the less stable he becomes. His mind, and thus his very existence, hang on by a thread that this cat is puppeteering with spite and cunning. When he finally spots the cat on his balcony railing, he lunges in full force, going over the railing and hitting the pavement below with a resounding thud. Though the journey to this death is excruciating, the death itself, considering he dies on impact, does not warrant a place lower on the list. 

Victorine

What is that beating? What is that sound that cannot be drowned out? That madness-catalyzing incessant pulsing? Oh, it’s just the heart of the woman you murdered and stored in a room for safekeeping. Victorine kept her lover’s heart beating via the cardiac invention that was not yet ready for human use. So, her deceased former lover’s heart kept thumping away, despite her total braindead state. When Victorine finally accepts what she has done, she stabs herself to death. It’s one forceful stab right through the abdomen and up through the heart. Because it’s at her own hand, it’s a difficult-to-watch death, but one that is controlled and timely…and at least not very messy. 

Tamerlane

Tammy loves a copycat — when she’s playing wife to her husband. A double is not as much fun when she’s fighting one for her existence. How does she beat a double who is one step ahead — Who is the calm and collected to her paranoid and impulsive? She doesn’t. 

When trying to destroy Verna, who’s popping up in mirrors throughout Tammy’s home, she strikes at the mirrored ceiling. As she falls to her bed, she is impaled by multiple shards of glass. In terms of brutal, this one is rough. Glass to the face, to the eyes, to the neck, to the torso. Glass everywhere. And then we’re to presume she bleeds out to death (unless the glass hit a major artery or organ). 

Camille 

Mauled by monkey…need we say more? Camille just had to go snooping around. She had to go investigate — to get to the bottom of the scandal. You know what they say: curiosity killed the cat. Well here, curiosity killed the Camille. A monkey brutally attacked her — scratches, punches, kicks, teeth tearing away at her skin. We can only imagine the brutality at play here by the pools of blood left on the laboratory floor. 

Frederick 

A pendulum slowly tears away at Frederick’s abdomen as a building collapses around him. Shallow slices followed by deeper cuts — blood spitting before pooling. The pendulum drops inch by inch. Each passing moment feels like an eternity as another cut digs deeper into what remains of his abdominal organs.

It’s a slow and torturous death. He can think about the immoral acts he has committed as he waits for his consequence to deal its final blow, or should we say incision? He pulled his wife’s tooth out with a pair of pliers; he has earned this brutal demise. He has earned a slow and steady fatality — one that gives him just enough time to analyze the life he led in his father’s shadow. To look back on the man he became when an ounce of power fell in his lap. With each slice, with each ounce of blood spilled, another memory flashes — reminding him of the despicable excuse for a man he was and will die as. 

Prospero

Though Prospero was the first to go, the series had a hard time living up to the brutality of its first kill. Death by acid chemicals — the skin burning away with each drop of chemical rain that falls from the ceiling — is an unimaginably painful way to die. 

It’s also in the atmospheric shift that the kill — which is also a massacre of hundreds — feels all the more destabilizing. The scene immediately transitions from a carefree party of euphoric sexual encounters to death by melting skin. It’s a jarring switch from arousal and party-fueled excitement to cowering discomfort. It’s stomach-churning and shocking. Prospero is also forced to watch those around him scream in agony before facing the very same fate.