House of Usher

Ian West4.0

Corman’s Poe cycle kickstarter is an economical and atmospheric visual feast—decorated with beautiful sets, matte paintings, and gothadelic sequences to die for... plus the murderous house in this gives off major ‘ding dong you’re dead!’ vibes to any visitor stupid enough to enter. Starting off the fall season by revisiting these movies has been an excellent decision... House of Usher is an atmos heavy winner if you ask me... complete with yet another untouchable Price performance—that blonde hair!!

SilentDawn5.0

97The perennial 1960s American Gothic setting, and a mood-board for spooky, autumnal vibes. The Usher mansion itself being a monument to the fissures of familial desolation, from mental illness to egomania and the lingering, perpetual stench of Death rising from the crypt. Probably Roger Corman's most tasteful Poe adaptation, and so assured that its moments of dreamy color and swift action are both visceral and psychological. The House is constructed initially as having only two spaces, the grand entrance and the second floor with scattered decadent rooms, but Corman soon unveils ancient, evil history within the foundations of the stone, and secret passages that interlock and create an elaborate maze out of a previously coherent spatial configuration. When Vincent Price is on screen, nothing else matters, even as he is only one harrowing piece of a larger atmospheric tapestry.

kat🕷4.0

I find the atmosphere in this house and the art on the walls really scary in it‘s best way. Also the morbid nature of Roderick Usher played by Vincent Price, who even manages to make a simple "Good morning" sound meaningful, is excellent.