How The Fall Of The House Of Usher Uses Song Selection Perfectly Throughout The Show

Contains general overall spoilers for "The Fall of the House of Usher"

There's something magical about a show that knows how to use its needle drops. The critically adored "The Fall of the House of Usher" twists Edgar Allan Poe's body of work into a vibrant, new beast. With the aid of a lot of modern music and classic rock, it brings its story into the 1970s and beyond.

Many of the miniseries' song choices underscore its major plot twists. During the first episode, for instance, "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1" by Pink Floyd plays as the clock strikes midnight during a Fortunato company New Year's Eve party. It's a song cue that resurfaces during Episode 8, when Madeline (Willa Fitzgerald) and Roderick Usher (Zach Gilford) get Roderick's boss, Rufus Wilmot Griswold (Michael Trucco), extremely drunk. They then brick him up behind a wall, where he is destined to starve to death so Roderick can inherit the company in his absence. 

Within Pink Floyd's 1979 concept album "The Wall" and its film iteration from 1982, "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1" helps establish the sense of abandonment that Pink, the story's central protagonist, feels after his father dies during his early childhood. This sense of anger and loss is echoed in Roderick and Madeline's reaction to being ignored in the line of succession for Fortunato; born entirely out of wedlock, they must steal what ought to be theirs legally. Thus, the song's lamenting cry for a father figure rings true to the two characters' lives, and even echoes down to the next generation, as the way Roderick coddles his own children with money brings about their doom.

That's just one very poignant example of the show's careful use of sound and music to craft one memorable, very spooky story.

A thoughtful sort of musical story crafting echoes throughout "The Fall of the House of Usher." During Episode 3, a cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" can be heard as Verna (Carla Gugino) stalks Prospero "Perry" Usher (Sauriyan Sapkota) during his orgy. She is indeed playing a wicked game with him, but Verna is playing a role; her costume suggests she has arrived as Laverna, patron goddess of cheaters and thieves. And Verna is about to claim a long-held debt from Perry's father with her very presence.

The other songs heard during the party, such as the Nine Inch Nails hit "Closer," are remixed in the style of house music — specifically, acid house music. And that is exactly how Perry — and all of his friends, save the sister-in-law he covets — meet their doom, thanks to an acid rain bath from the warehouse's sprinklers.

Bonnie Tyler's pop hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart" can be heard during Episode 5 as Victorine LaFourcade (T'Nia Miller) performs desperate surgery on her girlfriend, Dr. Alessandra "Al" Ruiz (Paola Nuñez), after accidentally killing her in a fit of rage. While Alessandra will remain technically alive after the surgery, she is all but zombified, and Victorine is left to be haunted by the sound of the device that keeps her blood pumping.

From its sweeping use of eerie visuals to its clever score, "The Fall of the House of Usher" definitely knows how to get your toes tapping when they're not curling up in reactionary dread — which is all too appropriate, as director Mike Flanagan has referred to the miniseries as "heavy metal horror."