The Fall of the House of Usher praised by Peta for ‘horrifying’ portrayal of scientific tests on chimps

In the Netflix series, T’Nia Miller plays a scientist who performs surgical experiments on chimpanzees

Peta is honouring Netflix’s The Fall of the House of Usher and creator Mike Flanagan with its “F*** Around (With Animals) and Find Out” Award.

In a statement shared on Monday (16 October), the animal rights organisation praised the new horror series for “spotlighting the cruelty and pointlessness of experiments on nonhuman primates and other animals” in episode three, “Murder in the Rue Morgue.”

The eight-episode drama follows Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood), the CEO of a corrupt pharmaceutical company, who must face his murky past when each of his children begin to die in mysterious and brutal fashion.

British actor T’Nia Miller plays Roderick’s daughter Victorine, a scientist who performs surgical experiments on chimpanzees.

*Warning, spoilers ahead for The Fall of the House of Usher*

In episode three, Victorine’s sister Camille (played by Kate Siegel) visits her laboratory to take incriminating photos of the captive primates.

Here, the series’ shape-shifting antagonist Verna transforms into an ape and tells Camille: “Do you know how many animals are used for testing in a year? More than 100 million… Ninety per cent of drugs fail in human trials, even though they pass preclinical tests. So, sorry animals… I mean, you lot can’t make a lipstick or a dandruff shampoo without making something suffer.”

(From left) Aya Furukawa as Tina, Kate Siegel as Camille L’Espanaye, Igby Rigney as Toby in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ (EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX)

Verna/the chimpanzee then mauls Camille to death.

“Through Verna and lifelike CGI chimpanzees, Camille and the audience got a memorable and evocative lesson in the real-life horror, cruelty, and waste of animal testing,” Peta director Lauren Thomasson said.

“Peta is celebrating Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher for showing people the violence of animal laboratories and why animal experimentation needs to end.”

The Independent has contacted Flanagan’s representatives for comment.

The Fall of the House of Usher is based on the Edgar Allan Poe short story of the same name, first published in 1839.

However, each episode of the Netflix drama is based on a different Poe story. Episode three shares its title with Poe’s 1841 detective story, which sees two women killed by an orangutan.

American filmmaker Flanagan is best known for his horror series like The Haunting of Hill House (2018), Midnight Mass (2021) and his big-screen Stephen King adaptation, Doctor Sleep (2019) starring Ewan McGregor.

The Fall of the House of Usher is out now on Netflix.