La maison des Usher

A couple of obvious continuity problems caught my eye, but I won't get into it. I did not care for the ghosts and they were never explained. All viewers will feel extremely cheated by the ending.

It's set in a visual interesting House of Usher decorated mainly with flowing drapes and robed statues. That held my attention, but then I got angry about the last scene.

Soon-to-be-wed American couple Ryan (Rufus Swart) and Molly (Romy Windsor) travel to England to meet Ryan's uncle Roderick (Oliver Reed) at the family mansion, which is slowly sinking into a swamp. Whilst driving to the estate, the couple are shocked to see two ghostly kids standing in the middle of the road, and crash their car into a tree. Ryan is knocked unconscious, so Molly runs to the Usher home for help; convinced that an ambulance has been called for her injured fiancé, Molly rests, but ultimately finds herself a prisoner of Roderick, who wants the girl for himself, to carry his seed and continue his lineage.

Fancying himself as a bit of a Roger Corman, director Alan Birkinshaw tackled two Edgar Allen Poe adaptations in 1989, The Masque of the Red Death (which I have yet to see, but has a lousy rating), and what has to be the worst film ever to be inspired by The Fall of the House of Usher. Not only does the plot bear little resemblance to Poe's original story, but Birkinshaw's handling of the film is lousy, the director commanding hilariously bad performances from Oliver Reed and Donald Pleasence (both slumming it at this point in their careers), and staging the whole mess in some of the cruddiest movie sets imaginable: not just hideous to look at (garish paintwork, amateurish murals, ugly statues) but quite obviously fake, with flimsy plywood and polystyrene constructions masquerading as stonework and marble.

The movie makes no sense whatsoever, so much so that Birkinshaw wraps up matters with one of those cyclical, 'it was all a dream' endings that excuses the script's many flaws by closing the story as it began: with the soon-to-be-wed Ryan and Molly driving to the home of Roderick Usher. The fact that none of what we have seen has really happened means that no explanation is necessary for the two ghostly children that periodically appear, or for the extreme loyalty of the Usher's staff and family doctor, or for why Roderick's supposedly wheelchair-bound lunatic brother Walter (Pleasence) remains a prisoner when he can actually walk and there are numerous passages and secret doors by which he could leave.

Of course, films this bad can also prove to be quite entertaining, and the last twenty minutes are a riot: Pleasence goes kill crazy, hacking off the head of housekeeper Mrs. Derrick (Anne Stradi) and mutilating mute maid Gwen (Carole Farquhar) with his wrist mounted drill, and Reed drops all pretence of being a serious actor and gives one of the craziest performances of his career, which is saying something. The finale sees Reed and Pleasence having a scrap (which is worth the price of admission alone), during which a fire starts, all that plywood and polystyrene going up a treat.

4/10 - It's an interior decorator's nightmare, a film to set Poe spinning in his grave, and an insult to the viewer's intelligence, but I couldn't help but like it just a bit.

I sat down to watch this remake of the classic "The House of Usher" tale, as based on the work of Edgar Allen Poe. Sure, I am familiar with the written story, but I've never actually seen a movie adaptation of the story. So I was a little bit excited to get to watch this 1989.

Turns out that the excitement was a bit short lived, as this movie was hardly a grand cinematic masterpiece. Sure, the movie was watchable, but it hadn't aged well. And sitting down in 2021 to watch this movie was a bit toe-curling and somewhat laughable of an experience.

The storyline is good enough, of course, and the transition from penned words to live action movie is well enough. But the movie just lacks atmosphere, and the props throughout the movie were just too fake. I mean, the stone slabs passing as being a coffin was just so clearly and obviously made from Styrofoam or something like that, because the actress had no trouble moving them without breaking a sweat.

"The House of Usher" does have an interesting ensemble of casted actors and actresses, which includes Oliver Reed and Donald Pleasence, two very well-familiar names and faces. But even they could only do so much for director Alan Birkinshaw's 1989 movie.

While based on a very iconic tale, this 1989 movie is hardly a memorable movie. While it was watchable, it just didn't fully bring enough entertainment to the table.

My rating of "The House of Usher" lands on a four out of ten stars. I would suggest you read the story instead, as it has more atmosphere and entertainment value.

My review was written in January 1991 after watching the film on RCA/Columbia video cassette.

A lackluster remake of the Poe tale, "The House of Usher" was shot in South Africa in 1988 as one of four Harry Alan Towers Poe films, all going direct to video Stateside.

Fond memories of the Jean Epstein silent version or Roger Corman's vehicle for Vincent Price (which set off the Poe cycle in 1960) do not prepare one for this boring entry, perhaps closer to a forgotten 1949 British programmer version.

Oliver Reed huffs and puffs his way through the central role of Roderick Usher, decaying last representative of the House of Usher who is determined to impregnate young Romy Windsor to carry on his diseased, inbred line.

She's the girlfriend of his nephew Rufus Swart, latter dispatched in the opening as she's made a prisoner in the Usher mansion. Upstairs lives kindly uncle Donald Pleasenxe, but it will take a very slow-witted audience member not to spoth him as an incipient bd guy Other than some interesting sets that recall the Robert Fuest-helmed "Doctor Phibes" pictures of two decades ago, this remake offers no suspense and a very weak cast. Windsor, who previously went to South Africa to film "Howling IV", is unscintillating as the oppressed heroine, and little sympathy is generated for the family of servants who see to Reed's needs.

Unnecessarily sleazy in several scenes of torture, pic does not reward the patient viewer since the ending is a fakearoo that undermines all that's come before. Tech credits, with South Africa doubling for a British setting, are minor.

Oliver Reed, Donald Pleasence. Two of my all time favourite actors. Edgar Allan Poe. What could go wrong? Sadly quite a lot. These two great actors play brothers, living in the same house but have not seen each other for 15 years, apparently. Bit hard to digest that. Ollie plays sleazy Uncle Roderick, thankfully he does have plenty of on screen time. Pleasence however is not seen until an hour in. And not one of his finest roles. Usher is set in a fabulous Gothic mansion, good exterior shots. The interior has a rich colour palate, reminded me somewhat of Dario Argento's classics from the 1970's. However there is a cheapness in the look of these sets, especially when the obviously fake masonry starts to crumble. This film took a while to get going in terms of horror. It is a poor adaptation of the Poe tale and was ultimately watchable but somewhat disappointing. So now to my dilemma - I recently bought a nice, clean copy of this on VHS. The box with its artwork looks good but in all honesty I'll probably never watch it again. As a collector I don't like to lose tapes but I'm torn as to whether there is much point in hanging on to this one.