The House of Usher starts as psychical therapist Jill Michaelson (Izabella Miko) receives th sad news that one of her best friends, Maddeline Usher (Danielle McCarthy), has died. Jill travels to the huge ancestral home of the Usher's to attend the funeral & see Maddeline's brother Rick Usher (Austin Nichols), Ricks tells Jill that Maddeline died from a mysterious illness & that he now has that illness & persuades Jill to stay despite warning from the caretaker Mrs. Thatcher (Beth Grant) that she should leave as soon as possible. While staying at the Usher mansion Jill keeps seeing quick glimpses of Maddeline, is i her imagination or is something more sinister afoot? Then Jill begins to research the Usher family & discovers a ancient curse that is the real reason behind Rick wanting her to stay...
Directed by Hayley Cloake & supposedly based on the short story by horror author Adgar Allan Poe this confusing mess of a thriller is surely a contender for the worst Poe adaptation ever with it's slow moving & badly plotted story & lack of any atmosphere or horror or shocks. The script is the biggest problem here, even though the first hour or so drags badly & might put you to sleep you can at least follow it but once Jill finds out about the curse it's all downhill. For a start it's never made clear what the curse is, are we supposed to understand it from a scene showing Jill laying Usher family photo's on the floor? Jill never says anything so how are we supposed to know the significance? I assume that since the Usher family tree doesn't 'branch' the curse is that they are all inbred & each set of new born twins will have sex & produce another set of twins who have sex & then, well you get the idea. Then there's Maddeline, OK so she isn't dead but why is she hiding in the attic? Who did they bury in the funeral scene? Why did she then kill Rick? Why not kill Rick before Jill even arrived? Why not make her presence known to Jill? Why not say anything to Jill? What was Mrs. Thatcher all about? If she wanted to end the Usher curse why suddenly decide to do it now? Why commit suicide when she had failed? Why not see her plan out? The entire climax is an absolute mess, I mean whose blood was that on the floor leading to the attic? Even though we take an educated guess at what was going on nothing quite fits, it's just bad scripting that leaves the viewer cheated & frustrated. The obligatory twist ending has Jill pregnant with twins that kiss each other in her womb(!) so I guess that implies the curse will continue, well that's fine with me just as long as they don't make any more awful films about it.
Despite being based on a rich short story this adaption of The Fall of the House of Usher is so bland & dull I can barely remember anything about it, the Roger Corman directed The Fall of the House of Usher starring Vincent Price is so colourful & atmospheric & a joy to watch visually unlike The House of Usher here which is the complete opposite with dull colours & a very plain indistinct house for the setting. The plot is as boring as the bland visuals. There's no horror here, there are no scares or gore & The House of Usher plays more like the most tepid thriller you can imagine.
With a supposed budget of about $130,000 the budget was low which is why there's only five people in it I suppose. Apparently filmed in Massachusetts. The acting is alright, I didn't think it was that good or that bad either way.
The House of Usher is a terrible thriller, it takes a rich source & ruins it. It's slow, boring & confusing with a poorly written script that whichever way you look at it just doesn't make much sense. No horror, no scares & no gore also help sink this anaemic tepid little thriller without trace.
Directed by Hayley Cloake & supposedly based on the short story by horror author Adgar Allan Poe this confusing mess of a thriller is surely a contender for the worst Poe adaptation ever with it's slow moving & badly plotted story & lack of any atmosphere or horror or shocks. The script is the biggest problem here, even though the first hour or so drags badly & might put you to sleep you can at least follow it but once Jill finds out about the curse it's all downhill. For a start it's never made clear what the curse is, are we supposed to understand it from a scene showing Jill laying Usher family photo's on the floor? Jill never says anything so how are we supposed to know the significance? I assume that since the Usher family tree doesn't 'branch' the curse is that they are all inbred & each set of new born twins will have sex & produce another set of twins who have sex & then, well you get the idea. Then there's Maddeline, OK so she isn't dead but why is she hiding in the attic? Who did they bury in the funeral scene? Why did she then kill Rick? Why not kill Rick before Jill even arrived? Why not make her presence known to Jill? Why not say anything to Jill? What was Mrs. Thatcher all about? If she wanted to end the Usher curse why suddenly decide to do it now? Why commit suicide when she had failed? Why not see her plan out? The entire climax is an absolute mess, I mean whose blood was that on the floor leading to the attic? Even though we take an educated guess at what was going on nothing quite fits, it's just bad scripting that leaves the viewer cheated & frustrated. The obligatory twist ending has Jill pregnant with twins that kiss each other in her womb(!) so I guess that implies the curse will continue, well that's fine with me just as long as they don't make any more awful films about it.
Despite being based on a rich short story this adaption of The Fall of the House of Usher is so bland & dull I can barely remember anything about it, the Roger Corman directed The Fall of the House of Usher starring Vincent Price is so colourful & atmospheric & a joy to watch visually unlike The House of Usher here which is the complete opposite with dull colours & a very plain indistinct house for the setting. The plot is as boring as the bland visuals. There's no horror here, there are no scares or gore & The House of Usher plays more like the most tepid thriller you can imagine.
With a supposed budget of about $130,000 the budget was low which is why there's only five people in it I suppose. Apparently filmed in Massachusetts. The acting is alright, I didn't think it was that good or that bad either way.
The House of Usher is a terrible thriller, it takes a rich source & ruins it. It's slow, boring & confusing with a poorly written script that whichever way you look at it just doesn't make much sense. No horror, no scares & no gore also help sink this anaemic tepid little thriller without trace.