House of Usher

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John S Oct 25 I suspect that much of everything spooky I ever loved as a child owes much of its existence and atmosphere to this delicious little morsel of a film. Vincent Price is a treasure. There's not much story, but it's a wealth of spooky fun. See more JG Aug 3 Classic Vincent Price See more Madoka A Jun 23 Fantastic. Spooky. Funny. Great product! Really good! See more Nick O Jun 1 As the first flick in Roger Corman’s “Poe Cycle”, this atmospheric fever dream creeps like a Cramp’s song, oozing slowly into 60’s gothic madness! See more Hector I May 7 I've been looking at Corman's adaptations of Poe, and here's a short story that's been brought to the fore by publishers to give a new lease of life to Gallimard's edition of Poe's short stories and Baudelaire's translation. The story here is quite different from the short story. In the short story, Winthrop is Roderick's (Vincent Price) friend, which is not the case in the film, where Winthrop comes to ask for Madeline's hand in marriage. Roderick refuses, as the family is said to be haunted. The action takes place in a gloomy land where nothing grows, in a house visibly drawn (aie aie aie). Only a servant still holds on to the house, which seems to be falling apart and falling into ruin. The atmosphere is not badly rendered, and you can really feel the house crumbling into dust and looking like it's been inhabited by something else. The ancestors' paintings are also very well rendered in a very avant-garde pictorial style, and Winthrop's dream is quite audacious. But I didn't really enjoy this film. Why shift the plot from the short story to a charming principle trying to save his beloved in the first place? It's a real shame. Secondly, the drawing of the castle is a real shame, and immediately undermines the suspension of disbelief. Price plays well, but I find the other two actors, Madeline (Myrna Fahey) and Winthrop (Mark Damon), more anecdotal. The servant, on the other hand, is more striking (Harry Ellerbe). See more John C @JC00773202 12/22/2024 This adaptation of the Fall of the House of Usher is much better than I expected it to be, genuinely immersive and atmospheric despite some 1960s campiness and melodrama here and there. Vincent Price is on top form as the crafty and unhinged Rodrick Usher, and the rest of the cast put in reasonably good performances (Myrna Fahey's really comes alive towards the end), but the story itself and the gothic spookiness of the setting is what makes this so good. See more Read all reviews

House of Usher

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