One Gruesome 'Fall of the House of Usher' Death Ranks as Carla Gugino's Favorite

The actress portrayed Verna, a harbinger of death, in the hit Netflix original series.

By Allison Schonter

Director Mike Flanagan's most recent and final Netflix title, The Fall of the House of Usher, racked up a gnarly death toll, but there was on death in particular that stood out as Carla Gugino's favorite. Speaking with AwardsWatch about the Edgar Allen Poe adaptation, the actress, who starred as the harbinger of death Verna (an anagram of "raven"), revealed that the gruesome death of Henry Thomas' Frederick Usher "is pretty insane." Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Fall of the House of Usher.

"Oh, wow. Well, I don't think Verna can play favorites. But I have to say, I think that Henry Thomas's character, I think that death, Pit and the Pendulum, is pretty insane," Gugino shared when asked about her favorite death in the series. "Also because so much of that was done in post; we worked with a certain amount there."

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(Photo:

The Fall of the House of Usher. Henry Thomas as Frederick Usher in episode 101 of The Fall of the House of Usher. Cr. Ricardo Hubbs/Netflix © 2023

- RICARDO HUBBS/NETFLIX)

 For those unfamiliar, The fall of the House of Usher centers around the Usher family. Decades after siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher made a deal with a mysterious woman named Verna that allowed them to build their family's dynasty, the Usher's begin dying one by one, with Gugino's Verna portraying the black raven from Poe's The Raven. Thomas' Frederick, the eldest son of Roderick, was among the final deaths in the show. In Episode 7, "The Pit and the Pendulum," Frederick is gruesomely killed, after being poisoned by Verna at the demolition site of his brother's fatal orgy, a pendulum-like blade saws him in half before the warehouse eventually collapses on him.

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"That scene was so much about us creating a reality that we were told what was happening; and then creating that based on our reactions to what we were told was happening," Gugino recalled of the gruesome death scene. "And to see that all come together, it's just such a gruesome, insane death. So I would say that that one at least jumps out at me."

Of her character, Gugino admitted that she was "absolutely terrified about how I was going to bring her to life," explaining that "because she drives the narrative in certain ways; in terms of just the deal that is made and the consequences that come from it, I felt a great responsibility in that." Despite her initial nerves to take on such a massive role in the project, Gugino not only wowed audiences, but also critics, so much so that she recently earned her first-ever major award nomination when she was nominated in the Best Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television category for the 2024 Critics Choice Awards. The Fall of the House of Usher is currently streaming on Netflix.

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