The Fall of the House of Usher (Roger Corman – 1960)

The Fall of the House of Usher (Roger Corman – 1960)

This film fits into the horror genre because it generates responses of fear, horror and terror from viewers. We can instantly tell that this is a horror film by the dark, cold, barren looking landscape, at the start when Philip Winthrop is on his horse, the camera moves round in a sneaky style, this gives the audience the impression that someone is watching him. The mist that blows across the landscape creates an intense atmosphere and adds tension and suspense. Throughout the film there is a great detail of obvious iconology, like bibles, long shadows, cross, myths, and other gothic surroundings. This film was made by AIP (American International Pictures). The Director and Actor Steve Berkoff wrote the play based on the story. The footage of the house burning (which was on-site footage from a real burning tragedy) would be used in many later Corman productions. In the early 1960’s, low-budget filmmaker Roger Corman convinced American International Pictures to give him enough money to make a movie based on Edgar Allan Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher." The film would be entirely in colour, a first for AIP, and would also feature something unheard of for such a low budget studio. Vincent Price is the most effective piece of atmosphere in the movie. It is his talent to portray haunted and tortured twisted together into a single emotion. His voice expresses horror, both given and received. He rarely speaks in anything stronger than a whisper, and yet his presences dominates the film as if Roderick Usher was the very core of the Usher curse. The audience would have enjoyed many aspects of this film.