The permeability of danger expands as the film unfolds. Can he reliably prophecize if his faculties are overloaded? And what are we to make of the way that the house literally trembles? Chandeliers drop from the ceiling skeletons leap from the crypt. Roderick implicitly acknowledges that he – as an Usher – is mad. Yet, there is equal horror in the respective cures proposed – an attempted abortion for Quaife’s fetus euthanasia for Usher’s sister. The difference is, Veronica Quaife was perfectly sane. Roderick Usher frets over the replication of madness. Roderick’s dread of what might be born from his sister’s womb anticipates Veronica Quaife’s anxiety about her potential fly-fetus in Cronenberg’s The Fly remake. Roderick assures Philip that his ancestor’s morals were equally misshapen. The distorted family portraits attest to a deformity of features worsening with each generation. There is a decay in the mists – a rot persisting in the Ushers in their house. Gradually, Roderick convinces Philip that the sickness in the grove has taken root in the family tree in Madeline. It seems the young woman's brother is violently oppos- ed to her planned marriage and resorts to macabre ends to prevent the tainted Usher blood from spreading to future. It not Vincent Price in the role of Roderick Usher, the film might lose its grip. When a beautiful young woman's suitor arrives to ask her hand in marriage, the doors of the mysterious house of Usher fling open.and terror begins. House of Usher might be termed a slow burn, 1960s style. If Philip and Madeline wed, the defect will be passed to their children. The same morbidity of the trees infects the Ushers, Roderick insists. Like most older brothers, he’s over-protective. The Usher home is also inhabited by Madeline’s overwrought sibling, Roderick. He calls upon her at her isolated country estate, the House of Usher, situated in a grove of dead trees. What affliction weakens the Usher mansion and its two offbeat siblings? It stars Vincent Price (the original The Fly, the original House on Haunted Hill, and the original Madhouse), Myrna Fahey ( I Died a Thousand Times), and Mark Damon ( Byleth and Crypt of the Living Dead). House of Usher (also known as The Fall of the House of Usher and based on the story of that name by Poe with a screenplay by Richard Matheson ( The Legend of Hell House and Duel) was directed by Roger Corman ( The Raven, The Terror, The Wasp Woman). It’s about a family curse – and a clueless potential new in-law from Boston.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |