3 gibbles out of 5

Director: Roger Corman

Though it’s hardly enough story to last its hour and nineteen minute runtime, “House of Usher” falls comfortably into the classic horror genre, with a surprisingly chilling atmosphere that carries you through the lack of meat offered in Richard Matheson’s screenplay.

Taking the main elements of Poe’s story, “Usher” attempts to give it a more cinematic flair but in doing so hollows out the impact of what’s what in Usher house.  Mark Damon, as Philip, rides his horse up to the crumbling Usher estate.  He explains to the butler that he is engaged to Madeline Usher and wishes to see her.  The butler, instead, brings him to her brother Roderick Usher – Price – who demands that Philip leave the house at once, as both Ushers are certain to die in the near future…

Corman gives us a pretty awesome set for allowing Usher mansion plenty of space and shadows, and though we only end up seeing a few rooms, you can believe in the expanse of the building, including its secret passageways that connect to a creepily dressed up crypt in the basement.  There’s also a surprisingly effective dream sequence that, though as dated as the rest of the movie, doesn’t try to do anything overly fancy and thus works within the film’s context, just giving us a blue wash over everything and leering looks from weird characters.

There’s some well built tension after Roderick’s pronouncement of doom and Philip’s proceeding attempts to get Madeline to leave with him, but without the overall depressive underlying nature of Poe’s storytelling, once it’s revealed to us why the Ushers are certain to die, the film never warms back up to its initial creepy feeling, instead just stalling until the end sequence – which, again, lacks impact without its ties to the story proper.

All the same, seen through the lens of a different era, “Usher” is an enjoyable flick with a great Price performance.  It has its short-comings, for sure, but the movie is thankfully brief enough to make these not too offensive.