Horror 2024 Countdown: House of Usher (1960)

House of Usher (1960), dir. Roger Corman, Alta Vista Productions

I considered not reviewing this, mostly due to Dr. Gangrene's brilliant look back at Vincent Price's career covered everything with such detail I doubted I could do better; then again I do love me some Vincent Price, so why not?

Phillip Winthrop (Mark Damon) is travelling from Boston to the remote countryside to visit his fiancée, Madeline Usher (Myrna Fahey). He remembers her being in good spirits and fair health, yet as he travels through endless fields of blasted heath he comes across her ancestral home, a grim crumbling thing stabbing out of the earth and mire.

The butler Bristol (Harry Ellerbe) won't let him enter is the first sign of trouble. The older man is nice, but he makes it clear he has standing orders to never let anyone enter, no matter what. This does little to placate Winthrop who at length manages to enter. Bristol allows him on the condition he switches his boots to a pair of soft slippers.

Winthrop agrees and goes to meet his potential brother-in-law, Roderick (Price). The older Usher claims he and his sister suffer from an acute sensitivity of the nerves. Roderick has it worse due to him being older. He claims Winthrop's knocks filled him with terror, that even with his feet encased in the slippers his every tread on the floor is like a thunderstorm. 

Winthrop thinks he's a nut. 

Madeline seems awfully fine too, despite her brother's insistence that she's practically at death's door. Before Winthrop can spirit her away though, Madeline apparently has an attack and drops dead during an argument with Roderick. Winthrop is distraught, so much so he doesn't think to check her body as it is sealed away in the family crypt. During breakfast the next day, Bristol mentions the type of disorders that have plagued the Usher family, including catalepsy. Winthrop is horrified but Roderick insists his terror is greater, as he can hear Madeline's madness growing...

A bit polarizing; either this is a brilliant slow burn building to a fiery climax or a slow plodding mess. Price's performance has its detractors too, his slow underacting is either genius or lethargic. I go with the former camp. He plays it wonderfully as a man slowly driven mad by his own senses. He treatment of Madeline-noble or twisted intent?