Squeeze Play: A Horror Scene About Lemons — Ghosts Not Included

by Freddy Tran Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango + Guy Who Loves A Good Scare… On TV…

Hollywood has long loved Halloween. The horrific holiday brings out the best (and the beasts) in TV and movies, since hardcore horror fans will devour whatever the industry dishes up, turning even low-budget indie flicks into box-office smashes.

But my favorite scene from a horror show or movie is not the least bit scary or gory… except for predatory capitalists and those of us who must co-exist with them…

This epic monologue from the 2023 Netflix series The Fall Of The House Of Usher — perfectly delivered by actor Bruce Greenwood — is the most eloquent indictment of predatory capitalism I’ve heard in years. (Hopefully YouTube keeps it up, so watch it while you can.)

As someone who teaches marketing and ethics, I lapped up every bitter word.

Series creator Mike Flanagan is known for cerebral horror series filled with acerbic insights into humanity and society, including The Haunting Of Hill House and Midnight Mass.

The Fall Of The House Of Usher is Flanagan’s evisceration of amoral capitalism. He specifically skewers (in many gory ways) a certain family that profited from America’s opioid crisis, which addicted millions and killed over 600,000. Greenwood plays the patriarch of the fictitious Usher family, who watches his offspring vengefully killed off. In a surprising citrusy twist, he delivers this potent speech.

I will say that Usher is not my favorite of Flanagan’s series (Hill House takes that honor). The revenge killings of the Usher family members are supposed to provide catharsis for a society plundered by living ghouls, but the scenes are mostly just gruesome, and since we know what’s coming, they’re a bit predictable and tedious.

Plus (spoiler alert), as a cat lover, one sequence left me traumatized. Like many, I can oddly watch horror inflicted on humans, but ahoy, creators, LEAVE THE ANIMALS ALONE.

That said, this Halloween we’re bereft of another Flanagan series since his Netflix deal came to an end. He’s currently working on a series based on Stephen King’s Carrie (another one?), but that’s reportedly not coming out until 2026.

The horror, the horror…