JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Crwthod A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Stevieboy666 Creaky, low budget British adaptation of the Edgar A Poe story As a horror fan of over 35 years I have just watched this one for the first time, with it turning up on British TV on the Talking Pictures channel. It appears to be quite rare. It oozes gothic horror but sadly it's not a very good film. The acting is painfully wooden, the story is a tad confusing at times and the day for night scenes are awful (OK, Hammer later did the same but not quite as bad as here). There is an old hag, who is pretty creepy. Overall this is a bit of an oddity but watch the Corman version instead.

Leofwine_draca THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER is a low budget British adaptation of the storyline that has been somewhat eclipsed by the lush and colourful Roger Corman/Vincent Price version of the tale. That's a shame, because this is an interesting little movie in its own right, a film where every penny of the budget has been put on screen.The film has a disjointed, almost dream-like atmosphere to it which reminded me of the horror classic VAMPYR. The set design is absolutely wonderful and the film as a whole is packed with creepy and atmospheric locales which really add to the experience. Some aspects of the Poe tale have been altered, and the acting from the unknown cast members is nothing to get excited about, but the quality of the direction and script helps make up for these shortcomings. The addition of the hag character for a number of jump scares is a good one too, although the make-up job is a little crude by modern standards.

Robert J. Maxwell I've never read the original so can't comment on the degree of congruence, but it's an odd flick on its own, in some ways better than the Roger Corman stuff we're used to, and in some ways lacking.At least it's in black and white, which seems to suit the story better than Corman's usual garish hues. And effective use is made of the wintry English landscape with its chill wind and skeletal trees.There is a framing story in which four or five modern gentlemen sit comfortably in their gentlemen's club, drinking highballs and chatting. In an attempt at entertainment, one of them reads aloud Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher." There follows the period story in some detail.At the end we return to the reader who closes the book. "Well -- what HAPPENED? What was all that about the milk? Was she poisoned? Did she escape from her coffin?" The reader smiles and turns directly to the camera, saying puckishly, "That's for YOU to decide." Frankly, I thought Fritz Lang's similar set up in "The Woman in the Window" was far superior.Although I never thought I'd opine that Roger Corman's ripoffs were superior to any other Poe tale, I have to do it here. This is a spooky story, not clumsily directed, but abominably acted and poorly edited.I don't think there's a line in the movie that's uttered convincingly, including the many screams. It's an embarrassment. The despair and melancholy are palpable but due as much to the stagy performances as to Poe's contribution.Somebody ought to get to work and figure out a way to project hallucinations convincingly on the screen. Here's a hint on how not to do it. Don't have them act as realistically as all the fully fleshed characters.

c532c "Found Objects" are those things generally discarded or ignored that somehow possess an intrinsic artistry, and this "Quota Quickie" certainly qualifies. Dashed off in what looks like a couple of weekends on whatever locations were handy, with badly-synchonized sound and wretched acting of pointless dialogue, it nonetheless conveys a genuine creepiness I found oddly haunting. The photography reminds one of the French New Wave, which came along a decade later, with starkly realistic images contrasted with baroque set-ups and disorienting editing. The story -- as much as I could understand -- offers a nightmarish progression through some sort of curse, and a mockingly down-beat ending.