The Fall of the House of Usher star Carla Gugino reveals a version of Verna that was cut, but can still be seen in Easter egg form. Mike Flanagan’s Netflix miniseries, inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, featured many macabre moments and creepy characters. But none of the show’s various figures proved scarier, or more mysterious, than Verna, a shape-shifting demon bent on delivering death to the wealthy, immoral Usher family.
Multiple different versions of Gugino’s Verna were seen throughout House of Usher, each one more demonic than the last, but there was supposed to be still one more according to Gugino. The star revealed that though Flanagan ultimately removed this further manifestation of the character from the show, she can still be glimpsed as an Easter egg in a scene involving Mary McDonnell’s Madeline Usher. Check out what Gugino said below (via Collider):
“We also have a character in a little fun Easter egg moment, that is not in the show anymore, except for you’ll see me as a homeless person. When Mary’s [McDonnell] character goes back to the bar in modern day, if you look down, you’ll see there’s a homeless woman sitting there on the side of the road moving, and that’s me, and that’s Verna, and she used to come over and in fact, sing Auld Lang Syne, and it was really cool. … I mean, hair and makeup-wise on just a technical level, it was an extraordinary job and it was so disturbing. I remember Mike came to set that day because he wasn’t directing that scene and was like, ‘Oh, my, I can’t even look at you.’ It was so impactful.”
The Missing Verna Was Removed From House of Usher To Avoid A Madeline Plot Hole
As Gugino further explained in the same interview, though she did a lot of work on this mostly unseen version of Verna, who continues to haunt the area where Roderick and Madeline first met the debt-collecting demon in the 1979/80 section of the House of Usher timeline, her hard work ultimately ended up on the cutting room floor, for perfectly valid storytelling reasons. Gugino said:
Unfortunately, just for story purposes, for Mary’s character to have seen Verna then, and not connect it back was too much, it just didn’t make any sense. I loved playing her and I was terrified to play her, and I did a lot of physical work on that character. So I’m kind of sad it’s not in there, and also it made no sense ultimately to be in there.
The slow revelation of Verna’s terrifying nature is indeed one of the key things keeping the suspense alive up until the shocking Fall of the House of Usher ending, so it’s no surprise to hear that Flanagan took great care in making sure to keep his timeline as airtight as possible, and not either blow the effect, or introduce distracting plot holes. Hopefully, one day the cut Verna footage will find its way to the public as deleted scenes, allowing viewers to enjoy yet one more manifestation of Gugino’s creepy creation. This version of Verna, in fact, might be the creepiest of all, given Flanagan’s reaction to the character’s disturbing appearance.
The Fall of the House of Usher
Loosely based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher is a horror drama mini-series created by Mike Flanagan (Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Hill House) for Netflix. This modern retelling follows a corrupt pharmaceutical CEO, Roderick Usher, as he is forced to reckon with his past as a curse begins to claim the lives of each of his children.
- Release Date
- October 12, 2023
- Cast
- Carla Gugino , Bruce Greenwood , Mary McDonnell , Carl Lumbly , Samantha Sloyan , T’Nia Miller , Rahul Kohli , Kate Siegel , Sauriyan Sapkota , Zach Gilford
- Genres
- Drama , Horror
- Rating
- TV-MA
- Seasons
- 1
- Season List
- The Fall of the House of Usher – Season 1
- Story By
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Writers
- Mike Flanagan
- Streaming Service(s)
- Netflix
- Directors
- Mike Flanagan , Michael Fimognari
- Showrunner
- Mike Flanagan
