Saturday, October 11, 2014

The Fall of the House of Usher (1960)


American International Pictures
Directed by Roger Corman
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Shout! Factory)

A young man arrives at a remote, crumbling castle in search of his fiance. It turns out her brother, Vincent Price, is keeping her there, possibly against her will, and thwarts his attempts to take her away. Price is convinced the family is cursed with a variety of ills, both physical and mental, and the death of both him and his sister is imminent. The castle itself is also a character, with falling chandeliers, rickety staircases and endless hidden passages also trying to do in the visitor. It unfolds slowly, like a good novel, and it is not until the final act that it takes on a feverish pace. Very influential Gothic horror, the first of many adaptations of Poe by director Corman and Price.

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