Mike Flanagan’s series The Fall of the House of Usher seems to have found its audience on Netflix. This story of a family curse, with a twist of horror, is an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s story, published in 1839. The author, world-renowned for his gothic style, has inspired numerous films and TV series — most recently, Wednesday, still on Netflix.
The Fall of the House of Usher alone has had more than a dozen film adaptations. One of the first is French and dates back to 1928 by director Jean Epstein. But Roger Corman remains the most famousReleased in 1960 with Vincent Price.
The plot is as different from a short story as it is from a Netflix series. It opens with Philip Withrop arriving at Usher’s mansion as he prepares to marry his fiancée, Madeline. Her brother, Roderick, greets her and tells her that his sister is suffering from an incurable disease that has targeted their clan for generations.
House of Usher is a film that mainly relies on its gloomy atmosphere with a huge mansion shrouded in fog. The story takes place behind closed doors, highlighted by a disturbing performance by Vincent Price that makes Roderick Asher’s skin crawl. His voice is particularly charming – it was not for nothing that Michael Jackson used it for his legendary. Thriller.
This horror drama contains very few characters, but the family mansion is an entity in itself. Its long corridors, ghostly portraits hanging on the walls… it almost feels like Disneyland Paris attractions. And despite the limited resources, the show exists.
In its time, the House of Usher was a real turning point in the Hollywood industry. The film reimagines the production of low-budget projects that were previously destined to remain scrappy and scrappy works. With just $300,000, Roger Corman turned the exercise into an ambitious project for the general public.
Vincent Price in The Fall of the House of Usher.
The success was such that the studios asked the director to continue the adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe. In total, he directed eight films adapted from his writings: Torture Chamber, Buried Alive, Empire of Terror, The Raven, Curse of Arkham, Masque of the Red Death and Tomb of Ligeia. All in just five years.
Roger Corman is 97 years old today. Celebrated at the recent Cannes Film Festival, he remains one of the most iconic filmmakers in Hollywood history. Among his many works, he has featured other great directors such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola to name a few.
The Fall of the House of Usher series is available on Netflix.
Source: Allocine
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
