‘I suggest you leave, Mr Winthrop. No? Then perish with us...’
Over a period of four years at the start of the 1960s, legendary B-movie director Roger Corman directed eight films in what would later become known as his “Poe Cycle”. Most of these adaptations bore little resemblance to Poe’s original stories (many of Poe’s tales are only a few pages long), and most of them, thankfully, star horror icon Vincent Price. House of Usher was the first film in Corman’s Poe Cycle, and it’s an absolute beauty…
Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon) arrives at the titular House of Usher to see his doomed fiancée, Madeline (Myrna Fahey in her final film role). Upon arrival at the desolate mansion, Winthrop is sorrowfully informed by Madeline’s brother, Roderick (Vincent Price), that Madeline cannot possibly leave the Usher house, or she will die. Winthrop is understandably perturbed by this development and is further perplexed by the revelation that the house itself seems to be trying to harm him.
While Corman has a (mostly deserved) reputation for producing trash, House of Usher (and indeed many of the films in the Poe Cycle) is a genuinely accomplished and competent film. Price is absolutely incredible. His line delivery and intensity could so easily slip into melodrama, but his performance is so convincing that it’s impossible not to get swept up in it all. Price is the kind of actor and indeed person who is so captivating that if he were telling a story on the other side of a crowded pub, it’d be impossible not to lean in and listen.
The film also looks great. Production designer Daniel Haller repurposed some old sets from Universal, and the result is both striking and innovative. The infamous paintings of the Usher relatives that haunt the old mansion are suitably repugnant, drawing from expressionism and the paintings of Francisco Goya, to produce something truly grotesque. And that’s the key thing here, unlike many of the other horror films of this era, particularly the period films, House of Usher is properly unsettling. Corman successfully cultivates and then maintains the kind of ominous atmosphere that has pervaded all haunted house movies ever since.
The combination of Corman, Price, Poe and screenwriter Richard Matheson is a heady one. It is no surprise that House of Usher turned out so well.
