Film Review
To quote the immortal bard,
O
horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee!
I have struggled to come up with something positive to say about
this film, to tease out some small redeeming feature that justifies the effort spent
putting it into the DVD player and taking it out again, but no,
nothing. There is absolutely
nothing
to commend this horror disaster, which has to be the most
painfully botched adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe story you can
imagine. This is exploitation cinema at its worst.
It doesn't even begin to bear comparison with the classic
Roger Corman version of
Poe's Usher story and only a sacrilegious fiend with a pathological dislike of French
silent movies would even contemplate mentioning it in the same breath as Jean Epstein's
La Chute de la maison Usher (1928).
This is a cinematic atrocity that just reeks of cack-handed amateurishness from top to bottom.
The film marks the absolute professional nadir for its
two star actors, Oliver Reed and Donald Pleasence, who both exude
enough cuts of prime ham to cause a total collapse in the world's meat
industry, doing for the histrionic art what George W. Bush and Tony
Blair did for world peace in 2003.
The quality of the direction, which is at best uninspired, is matched
by a script that appears to have been cobbled together by an illiterate
13-year-old. Even the set design is abysmal, as cheap, tacky and
rickety as the film itself. As for the ending... What on Earth was
the script writer thinking? It's a good thing they don't hand out
suicide pills when you buy your cinema ticket - this one would have
resulted in a massacre (assuming anyone was daft enough to go and watch it). It
is possible that this may not be the
worst horror film ever made, but it will take some beating (preferably
with a very, very large sledge hammer).
© James Travers 2010
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Ryan, a young American, takes his girlfriend Molly to England to visit
his Uncle Roderick Usher at his ancient mansion. On the way, Ryan
drives his car into a tree and knocks himself senseless.
Molly is then accosted by a stranger who turns out to be Uncle
Roderick's faithful retainer, Mr Derrick. Although grateful for
the hospitality she receives at Usher House, Molly is anxious to be
reunited with her boyfriend whom, she is told, is in hospital
recovering from his injuries. Exploring the old house, she comes
across Ryan's lifeless body in a coffin. Not content with
Uncle Roderick's explanation that his nephew died in hospital, Molly
tries to escape. Her efforts are thwarted by Roderick, who
intends that she should bear him a son to continue the Usher
line. As if that wasn't bad enough, Roderick has an insane
brother who enjoys carving people up with his hand drill...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.