The House of Usher (1989) User Reviews

Surprisingly, not boring...

[Bored_Dragon · 4/10 · 22 August 2017]

This movie can hardly be considered to be an adaptation of Poe, because it barely has any touch points. They are built on the same base, but the construction is completely different. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but in this case it is. Ideas that changed Poe's story are not that bad, but the realization is lousy. The complete scenery screams FAKE, the story is inconsistent, acting mediocre, directing like in porn, and ending knocks the final nail in the coffin. If we simply cut the last scene and end movie with the one before, without any changes, we'll get an average '80s B horror ending. Why did they feel the need to additionally annoy viewers, already annoyed by wasting an hour and a half on a crappy movie, by adding terribly stupid, inconsistent, illogical and most of all redundant nonsense to the movie that already had a decent ending in the previous scene... I have a feeling that team, who spent their lives making porn exclusively, suddenly decided to make Poe adaptation. If that's true, good job guys, but if it's not the case, then please, change profession, or at least keep your hands off of classics.

4/10

To keep my VHS copy or not? That is my dilemma

[Stevieboy666 · 5/10 · 24 August 2019]

Oliver Reed, Donald Pleasence. Two of my all time favourite actors. Edgar Allan Poe. What could go wrong? Sadly quite a lot. These two great actors play brothers, living in the same house but have not seen each other for 15 years, apparently. Bit hard to digest that. Ollie plays sleazy Uncle Roderick, thankfully he does have plenty of on screen time. Pleasence however is not seen until an hour in. And not one of his finest roles. Usher is set in a fabulous Gothic mansion, good exterior shots. The interior has a rich colour palate, reminded me somewhat of Dario Argento's classics from the 1970's. However there is a cheapness in the look of these sets, especially when the obviously fake masonry starts to crumble. This film took a while to get going in terms of horror. It is a poor adaptation of the Poe tale and was ultimately watchable but somewhat disappointing. So now to my dilemma - I recently bought a nice, clean copy of this on VHS. The box with its artwork looks good but in all honesty I'll probably never watch it again. As a collector I don't like to lose tapes but I'm torn as to whether there is much point in hanging on to this one.

It hadn't aged well...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 30 January 2021]

I sat down to watch this remake of the classic "The House of Usher" tale, as based on the work of Edgar Allen Poe. Sure, I am familiar with the written story, but I've never actually seen a movie adaptation of the story. So I was a little bit excited to get to watch this 1989.

Turns out that the excitement was a bit short lived, as this movie was hardly a grand cinematic masterpiece. Sure, the movie was watchable, but it hadn't aged well. And sitting down in 2021 to watch this movie was a bit toe-curling and somewhat laughable of an experience.

The storyline is good enough, of course, and the transition from penned words to live action movie is well enough. But the movie just lacks atmosphere, and the props throughout the movie were just too fake. I mean, the stone slabs passing as being a coffin was just so clearly and obviously made from Styrofoam or something like that, because the actress had no trouble moving them without breaking a sweat.

"The House of Usher" does have an interesting ensemble of casted actors and actresses, which includes Oliver Reed and Donald Pleasence, two very well-familiar names and faces. But even they could only do so much for director Alan Birkinshaw's 1989 movie.

While based on a very iconic tale, this 1989 movie is hardly a memorable movie. While it was watchable, it just didn't fully bring enough entertainment to the table.

My rating of "The House of Usher" lands on a four out of ten stars. I would suggest you read the story instead, as it has more atmosphere and entertainment value.

good sets, lame ghosts

[horrorbargainbin · 12 November 2003]

A couple of obvious continuity problems caught my eye, but I won't get into it. I did not care for the ghosts and they were never explained. All viewers will feel extremely cheated by the ending.

It's set in a visual interesting House of Usher decorated mainly with flowing drapes and robed statues. That held my attention, but then I got angry about the last scene.

Producer Harry Alan Towers is so cheap he didn't pay for THE FALL OF for the title!

[udar55 · 3/10 · 16 October 2012]

Ryan Usher (Rufus Swart) and his girlfriend Molly (Romy Windsor) head to his uncle's isolated estate after receiving a letter from him. Before arriving they crash their car when they see two ghost children on the road. Molly makes it to the home and is told Ryan has already been picked up and is being cared for. She then meets uncle Roderick (Oliver Reed), who assures her all is fine despite his reluctance to let her visit Ryan and the fact he won't let her leave. Yup, ol' Roderick is a perv and, after burying the still-alive Ryan, forces himself onto Molly to carry on the family line. Also, in a nod to THE OLD DARK HOUSE, a crazy brother named Walter (Donald Pleasence) lives up in the attic. As you can see, this barely has any connection to the Poe short story outside of a few events and character names. Filmed in South Africa, producer Towers at least got his monies worth with some nice looking sets. And leads Reed and Pleasence are total pros, although I suspect Reed enjoyed his moments feeling up the attractive Windsor (who was already accustomed to primordial beasts as she just survived HOWLING IV). Director Alan Birkinshaw can't be bothered with things like suspense or terror though. He does throw in a few gore scenes for good measure. Towers' two other Poe "adaptations" were MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (1989; with Frank Stallone and Herbert Lom!) and BURIED ALIVE (1990).

House of Idiot

[Waiting2BShocked · 1/10 · 26 March 2008]

Comment title paraphrases French & Saunders' skit on the 'The House of Elliot'. But here, it's application is unquestionably adroit.

A rare directorial effort from the man responsible for 1978's video-nasty-that-never-was, 'Killer's Moon', produced by soft-porn Eurotrash (ie TRASH, as in rubbish, junk) magnate Harry Alan Towers.

A slightly modernised version of Poe's Gothic saga; due to the complete technical incompetence of the above pair all this has to offer, in the way of thrills, is shaking furniture and fires. Pleasance jobs as the 'sinister' butler, which is at least a plot twist that affords him the opportunity to do something interestingly nasty (an off-screen incident involving an in-subservient maid's hand, and a meat mincer).

An experience akin to scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel - only, from beneath.

Serious subsidence is the least of Molly's problems.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 27 March 2021]

Soon-to-be-wed American couple Ryan (Rufus Swart) and Molly (Romy Windsor) travel to England to meet Ryan's uncle Roderick (Oliver Reed) at the family mansion, which is slowly sinking into a swamp. Whilst driving to the estate, the couple are shocked to see two ghostly kids standing in the middle of the road, and crash their car into a tree. Ryan is knocked unconscious, so Molly runs to the Usher home for help; convinced that an ambulance has been called for her injured fiancé, Molly rests, but ultimately finds herself a prisoner of Roderick, who wants the girl for himself, to carry his seed and continue his lineage.

Fancying himself as a bit of a Roger Corman, director Alan Birkinshaw tackled two Edgar Allen Poe adaptations in 1989, The Masque of the Red Death (which I have yet to see, but has a lousy rating), and what has to be the worst film ever to be inspired by The Fall of the House of Usher. Not only does the plot bear little resemblance to Poe's original story, but Birkinshaw's handling of the film is lousy, the director commanding hilariously bad performances from Oliver Reed and Donald Pleasence (both slumming it at this point in their careers), and staging the whole mess in some of the cruddiest movie sets imaginable: not just hideous to look at (garish paintwork, amateurish murals, ugly statues) but quite obviously fake, with flimsy plywood and polystyrene constructions masquerading as stonework and marble.

The movie makes no sense whatsoever, so much so that Birkinshaw wraps up matters with one of those cyclical, 'it was all a dream' endings that excuses the script's many flaws by closing the story as it began: with the soon-to-be-wed Ryan and Molly driving to the home of Roderick Usher. The fact that none of what we have seen has really happened means that no explanation is necessary for the two ghostly children that periodically appear, or for the extreme loyalty of the Usher's staff and family doctor, or for why Roderick's supposedly wheelchair-bound lunatic brother Walter (Pleasence) remains a prisoner when he can actually walk and there are numerous passages and secret doors by which he could leave.

Of course, films this bad can also prove to be quite entertaining, and the last twenty minutes are a riot: Pleasence goes kill crazy, hacking off the head of housekeeper Mrs. Derrick (Anne Stradi) and mutilating mute maid Gwen (Carole Farquhar) with his wrist mounted drill, and Reed drops all pretence of being a serious actor and gives one of the craziest performances of his career, which is saying something. The finale sees Reed and Pleasence having a scrap (which is worth the price of admission alone), during which a fire starts, all that plywood and polystyrene going up a treat.

4/10 - It's an interior decorator's nightmare, a film to set Poe spinning in his grave, and an insult to the viewer's intelligence, but I couldn't help but like it just a bit.

Beyond awful

[westley34 · 1/10 · 6 May 2017]

This movies starts put okay, gets bad about a quarter of the way through, and just keeps getting worse and worse as it goes on. Unless you are into really bad '80s horror I definitely suggest skipping this really horrible movie. The only upside is Oliver Reed gives a pretty good (though disturbing) performance. Pleasence really hams it up though. This is a complete butchering of Poe's story.

very bad

[lord_nikon78 · 1/10 · 23 February 2006]

This depiction of Edgar Allen Poe's classic tale is a big joke. I never bash movies but this film had unrealistic acting and came off to me a just plain humorous. Retro 80's music is great, but fails to tell a valid story without seeming comical. Tries to maintain seriousness but ultimately fails. All of Oliver Reed's reaction scenes towards smells are too funny. Possible conception of the house "settling" and falling apart may symbolize how Usher's decomposition in health is apparent. The only reason you should consider viewing this film is the great Donald Pleasence plays Usher's brother. Terrible looking fake sets combined with boring visuals leaves this film to be a yawner. Unnecessary ending...Viewer beware!

Wow!

[BandSAboutMovies · 7/10 · 11 September 2022]

I'm really in love with what 21st Century did with their Poe movies, which was to barely skim the originals and then just do whatever they wanted, as long as they had some of the names and events inside. Just hire the right actors - Oliver Reed, Donald Pleasence - and let's have some fun.

Molly McNulty (Romy Walthall, The Howling IV) and her fiancee Ryan Usher (Rufus Swart, Space Mutiny) are on the way to London to visit his uncle Roderick (Reed) when he swerves to miss two ghost-like children standing in the road (I really need to do a Letterboxd list of movies in which ghost children cause car crashes). Barely surviving, Molly makes it to Roderick's mansion. When she awakens the next day, she's told he's receiving care, but the truth is that the old man wants her - and the way that she can help him escape the cursed incestual Usher bloodline - all for himself. Also: he's imprisoned his brother Walter (Pleasence) in the upstairs of the house.

PS: Those kid ghosts never figure into anything else in this movie.

Shot in the same South African house that director Alan Birkinshaw and writer Michael J. Murray made The Masque of the Red Death in for 21st Century - are they starting to feel a little Empire or nascent Full Moon with all these castle epics? - this movie goes off the rails in the best of ways, featuring a scene where Roderick drugs McNulty and marries her himself, shoving a piece of cake in her mouth and eating it while still in her open mouth, topped by a later scene where she imagines that she's making love to her fiancee in the shower - she thinks he's dead - and wakes up to a nude Reed pounding it out. Also: for some reason Pleasence has a drill mounted on his hand. An oh, before I forget - and how could I - Roderick deals with a doctor who wants to have sex with his new bride by feeding the man's cock to a rat that he has starved for this exact purpose. That's planning.

There's also an outright ripoff of the hands coming out of the wall from Day of the Dead and it nearly made me cheer and run around the room I got so excited.

There's also a butler named Clive (Norman Coombes), his maid wife (Anne Stradi) and their daughter Gwen (Carole Farquhar) all living in the house or they were before Walter escapes and kills them before dancing a little jig. Then Roderick heaves him down the stairs, the house catches on fire and Molly decides to open a sarcophagus and finds her drugged fiancee, although I have no idea how they plan on getting married after all this.

And then it's all a dream! We go right back to the beginning!

This movie looks so lavish and I just fell in love with every bit of its look. The interiors were shot in South Africa, while the outside of the Usher house is actually Blenheim Palace, which you may recognize from The Legend of Hell House, Barry Lyndon, King Ralph and so many more movies. I adore that this film is at once a gothic romantic horror and a direct-to-video mindwarp.

Of course this was produced by Harry Alan Towers. I mean, who else? This is literally everything I want in movies, the kind of junk that most people would laugh off and yet I find so much to gush over.

Oh! One last thing. This totally recycles Gary Chang's score for 52 Pick-Up and some of the music from Ten Little Indians. I have no idea how Menahem Golan got those seeing as how he was no longer with Cannon.

"Avon. You know, like ding dong?"

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 15 May 2021]

Okay, so that's not the line, but it might as well be in this revisal of the Edgar Allan Poe story made as a quota quickie in England in 1950 and later by American International starring Vincent Price. This seems to be set in modern times then moves into an apparent time tunnel where the action seems to be in a weird gothic mansion from one of Ken Russell's dreams that he decided not to use in a film. Donald Pleasence goes up against Oliver Reed as rivals for the Usher family curse, and we're supposed to believe that the young people that came from America and encountered two children on the road, ending up in a car accident, are somehow supposed to be there.

The less said about the acting of the ensemble outside of Pleasence and Reed the better. One of the grossest moments turns out to be false when a butler, angry with the housemaid, shoves her hand into a meat grinder and we're supposed to believe that as she screams, it's her flesh coming out. That's early in the film and when you think of the gothic thrillers of the past, that's not what you think about possibly happening. Those films work because the gore was suggested, not shown, and when it was suggested, you knew that the gore that you didn't see would be really graphic if it actually happened. Then there was a ravenous rat unleashed on the unsuspecting hero, and that was where I said that I've had enough. While the basic plot of them wanting a female relative to keep the tradition of relative marrying relative does seems like something out of Poe, it is just creepy here.

With really slow pacing and uninteresting characters outside of the two veteran leading men, this is a complete disappointment, and even the art direction of the old Gothic mansion is bad. It looks as if someone just took some sheets and threw them over some old furniture to add to the atmosphere, and the mixture of modern characterizations with obvious early 20th Century characterizations is just plain weird. This is one film I'm glad I did not go to the theater to see because otherwise I would have ushered myself out.

Perfectly good horror

[tvcarsd · 8/10 · 1 May 2021]

Judge a movie on its own merits I say. Yes there is a couple of bad acting moments but there is nothing wrong with this movie per se. The movie has good production values, story and music. Oliver Reed doesn't disappoint and neither does Donald, those guys are very reliable actors.

You know the story, couple crash car and girl ends up in mansion by herself being prepped for her reproduction values by some evil inbred wealthy peeps. It's really nothing new to horror fans. Maybe the movie is a little drawn out and maybe some of the characters don't seem 100% all the time. I think a lot of people were not expecting its weirdness though, weird horror is not everyone's cup of tea. I liked it and at anything less than 5/10 its under-rated imo.

If Edgar Allen Poe were still alive ... he'd be laughing his socks off!

[Coventry · 3/10 · 21 April 2022]

"The House of Usher" was a priority on my must-see list for two notable reasons: a) the pairing of two of my all-time favorite actors, namely Donald Pleasance and Oliver Reed, and b) because Edgar Allan Poe is undeniably one of the greatest horror authors in history. Of course, I knew this rather obscure and negatively rated late 80s version wasn't ever going to be as brilliant as the silent 1928-version or the preeminent 1960 classic directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price, but I honestly didn't expect for it to be this bad!

The film is a total laugh riot, but not in a good way. The plot changes that were made to Poe's original tale are dumb, illogical, unstructured, and - most of all - don't make the least bit of sense. Set in present day, England, but everything still looks and feels as if it were a Victorian-era gothic movie. The exterior shots of the titular house, supposedly slowly sinking into a swamp, look terrific but the set pieces and scenery inside are awful. As if the entire budget went to the two big names in the cast, and there only was a little bit of money left for cardboard interiors. Reed's Roderick Usher obsessively craves a woman he never saw before, and to procreate with her he's willing to bury his nephew alive in the family tomb. Pleasance only appears after 50 minutes into the film, but he plays one of the most bonkers roles in his career (and that is saying a lot). He sits in a wheelchair, but he can walk, he has a drilling device attached to his arm, and he barbarically mutilates relatively innocent for no apparent reason. He, as well as lead heroine Molly, whine about being unable to leave the house, but there are plenty of escape routes and opportunities!

The first hour is quite boring, full of either cliches or nonsensical moments (like with the doctor), and only Reed's atrocious over-acting kept me somewhat amused. The last half hour is more outrageous, with gore and absurd twists, but still very bad and with the kind of infuriating climax that every horror-fan hates with a passion.

None of the numerous Poe adaptations that were made during the late 80s/early 90s are actually good, but "The House of Usher" is far worse than the other ones I've seen ("The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Haunting of Morella", "Haunting Fear", "The Black Cat", ...). Still, somehow, I'm convinced that Edgar Allen Poe himself would have laughed himself silly with how ridiculous and despoiled this version is.

this wasn't all that great

[todd2u · 4 November 2002]

There are only a few parts in the movie I liked. the rest wasn't even scary at all. The acting was good but I really didn't care for this story to be updated. I guess the gore was OK. The music was ok. It was to 80's. Over all I don't really recommend this movie to anyone cause it just wasn't worth watching. It really didn't catch my attention at all. Maybe if your board watch it but thats it.

Awful

[kevinrvs · 1/10 · 19 February 2021]

The most God awful butcher of a fantastic tale. Garbled. There's 'interpretation' and there's completely distorted. Then there's this film. I can't tell you how bad it is in every way.

Mixed Feelings

[Tweetienator · 4/10 · 5 October 2022]

After a solid and interesting start, this movie adaption of The House of Usher sadly gets more and more boring. I really don't know why, but after a certain point the movie sails deep into the sea called boredom. The strongest feature of this adaption are the settings which echo fine those long gone times of Hammer Film productions - fine coloring and a careful Gothic composition, make this one pleasing to the eyes of the right kind of audience. But that's simple not good enough, maybe some cutting would do some good to the momentum of the story told and raise the entertainment level. Anyway, if you are heavy into Gothic horror movies and Poe's work, you may dare to try this one - if you got nothing else on your plate. Verdict: can't compete with the movie made in 1960 starring maestro Vincent Price.

Trite and Predictable

[gracehenson-30790 · 3/10 · 26 December 2021]

An engaged couple travel to the London countryside to meet the man's rich uncle. Two ghostly children appear in the road, distracting them and the man crashes the car, knocking himself out. The woman runs to the estate and walks into a nightmare.

If The House of Usher has anything going for it, it's the stunning production design and costumes which look like something from a much better and more expensive movie. The script is a complete, hopeless mess, but the initial setup is intriguing enough to keep your interest for a while until things start getting redundant.

Dire adaptation of classic horror

[filmbuff-51 · 11 September 1999]

Harry ALan Towers' produced this, another remake of Poe's classic tale. Oliver Reed does a lot of whispering and Donald Pleasence runs around a lot with his chainsaw. Not really a very good film but worth a look for it's two stars, who are again lumbered with a none too bright script.The youngsters Rufus Swart and Romy Windsor are positively dire, but scenes like a hungry rat being placed on a man's privates are quite fun to watch.

Clunker version made in South Africa

[lor_ · 5 June 2023]

My review was written in January 1991 after watching the film on RCA/Columbia video cassette.

A lackluster remake of the Poe tale, "The House of Usher" was shot in South Africa in 1988 as one of four Harry Alan Towers Poe films, all going direct to video Stateside.

Fond memories of the Jean Epstein silent version or Roger Corman's vehicle for Vincent Price (which set off the Poe cycle in 1960) do not prepare one for this boring entry, perhaps closer to a forgotten 1949 British programmer version.

Oliver Reed huffs and puffs his way through the central role of Roderick Usher, decaying last representative of the House of Usher who is determined to impregnate young Romy Windsor to carry on his diseased, inbred line.

She's the girlfriend of his nephew Rufus Swart, latter dispatched in the opening as she's made a prisoner in the Usher mansion. Upstairs lives kindly uncle Donald Pleasenxe, but it will take a very slow-witted audience member not to spoth him as an incipient bd guy Other than some interesting sets that recall the Robert Fuest-helmed "Doctor Phibes" pictures of two decades ago, this remake offers no suspense and a very weak cast. Windsor, who previously went to South Africa to film "Howling IV", is unscintillating as the oppressed heroine, and little sympathy is generated for the family of servants who see to Reed's needs.

Unnecessarily sleazy in several scenes of torture, pic does not reward the patient viewer since the ending is a fakearoo that undermines all that's come before. Tech credits, with South Africa doubling for a British setting, are minor.