The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2022: House of Usher (1960), directed by Roger Corman

 

The Trailer

and

The Appropriate Tune: 'Buried Alive' by Venom

       Nowadays the name of Edgar Allan Poe is so universal that it’s easy to forget just how influential he was to the world of literature. It was Poe that is credited for the very first detective novel, “The Murder at the Rue Morgue”, the foundation upon which thousands of novels, films and otherwise were built, from Sherlock Holmes to Monk. It was also Poe that helped to build America’s street cred in the literary world, which around this point was regarded as the boondocks of the written word. Not to mention his contributions to the development of horror fiction, as a writer and as an influence to other writers like H.P. Lovecraft. Mostly a name and a dour face in modern pop culture, I’m going to take the controversial position that Edgar Allan Poe was actually pretty good and deserves respect.

       The same could be said about Roger Corman as well, although to a far, far, lesser extent. In terms of output Corman easily outclasses the gothic novelist, having a hand in the creation of hundreds of films as a producer, although the vast majority of those films were budget titles that ranged from decent to shit that would struggle to make a good MST3K episode. In terms of influence might be a more flattering comparison then, as Corman is often credited for giving that initial push to many future hall of fame film legends. James Cameron, Jack Nicholson, Ron Howard, and so on and on. A few years back I covered The Masque of the Red Death, a Poe adaptation directed by Corman which ended up being one of his most successful films critically and commercially, so as long as we’re on this book kick, why not take a look at another of Corman’s Poe adaptations? It’ll probably be more fun than that Poe movie starring John Cusack at the very least.

       Released in 1960, House of Usher was written by Richard Matheson (the pen behind the excellent The Incredible Shrinking Man) and directed and produced by Roger Corman through Alta Vista Productions, based on “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe. Mark Damon stars as Philip Winthrop, a dandy from Boston who is visiting the family home of his fiance, Madeline Usher (Myrna Fahey). Calling it a home might be too great a compliment actually -- Rather it’s a crumbling derelict stuck in the middle of blighted bog, the only residents being Madeline, manservant Bristol (Harry Ellerbe), and Madeline’s brother Roderick Usher (Vincent Prince).  Phil’s hope for a happy reunion is dashed however when he learns that Roderick is adamantly against the marriage. Madeline is seriously ill, suffering as her brother does from a severe hypersensitivity that makes even eating and sleeping difficult, but moreover she’s an Usher. The Usher bloodline is a tainted, evil one, Roderick says, and the only way to purge it from the world is to allow the last two members of the clan (Roderick and Madeline) to die, which would be hard to do if Madeline moved to Boston and started popping out kids. Bullshit, declares Phil, but as he tries to convince Madeline to leave with him even he cannot deny the choking miasma of doom and gloom that radiates from every corner of the manor. Is the Usher family really cursed, or is it a case of a self-fulfilling prophecy? Well it’s not called the Rise of the House of Usher is it?

       The one thing that comes to mind about the other Corman/Poe film that I covered, Masque of the Red Death, was that visually it looked very impressive, and I feel the same way about House of Usher. Much like James Whale’s The Old Dark House a few years previous, the movie lives or dies on not fucking up the house. The house is not only the story’s setting but a physical representation of the cancerous legacy of the Ushers and the deleterious effects it has on the people connected to it. You need that house to look good, and maybe it’s because budget films were easier to make in the 60s or because Corman only had to pay for 4 actors, but he nailed it. From the outside it’s an enormous decaying gothic monstrosity, the kind of place Batman would send psychopathic clowns to, and on the inside it’s full of dimly lit corridors, cobwebs and faded luxury. You get one look at that house and you know exactly what you’re supposed to feel about it, and the subtle moves Corman makes to make the viewer wonder if Roderick is right and the house is really evil are well done. Amityville should take a lesson from Roger Corman.

       Speaking of Roderick, we’ve got the return of Vincent Price to a Corman production, or the debut because I believe Masque came out later, which is a treat because Price and B horror movies go together like cheese and fine wine. Roderick Usher is also more of an interesting character than the one he played in Masque, which if I recall correctly was just a spooky Satanist. Roderick is the villain of the piece, and yet his actions don’t come from a place of malice, but of guilt. He loves his sister, but the Ushers have been such a miserable blight upon themselves and their fellow man that he believes he’s doing the world a service. Still creepy in that classic Price fashion, but there’s a tragic irony in Usher that I think he pulls out wonderfully. The other cast members are solid, but this is definitely a Vincent Price vehicle.

       I brought up The Old Dark House, and upon further reflection I’d say that it’s an apt comparison beyond both films featuring an old dark house. The Old Dark House was a Universal horror film, directed by the man responsible for the best of the Universal horror films, and it is that series that Corman seems to be emulating. Aside from the dream sequence at the end which felt purposefully trippy and the use of blood, Usher carries itself and set things up just as you’d see in that era of genre films, only in color. In fact I like House of Usher as an unofficial Universal horror film more than I did Old Dark House, which for all its gloomy atmosphere never really had a good payoff, compared to the explosion of madness and horror that accompanies the end of House of Usher.

       House of Usher gets the recommendation. A solidly made, solidly performed horror film, and proof that you don’t need multi-million dollar budgets to make great art. Fans of genre films who have already burned through the best of Universal and Hammer will find a kindred spirit here, and fans of Poe will get a nice 90 minute serving of Gothic horror and depressed aristocrats, just as the man intended. Get your bowels of gruel steaming hot and your family coffins cozy, and House of Usher will ensure a pleasant scary movie night.

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2014: The Masque of the Red Death (1964), directed by Roger Corman

The Trailer

and

The Appropriate Tune: "Plague", by Crystal Castles

     Roger Corman is a strange figure in the world of film. The man is amazingly prolific, having directed 55 films and produced some 385 more during his long career in the industry, which goes back as far as 1954’s Monster from the Ocean Floor. He’s also mentored some of the biggest names in the industry, including James Cameron, Joe Dante, Ron Howard and Martin Scorsese, which as far as track records go is pretty solid. Despite his filmography geared almost entirely towards B-movies (and not what you might call ‘cult classics’ if the original Little Shop of Horrors is any indication), the man has made an impression in the medium that won’t soon be washed away. Hell, he was even the youngest director in history to receive a retrospective at the British Film Institute and the Museum of Modern Art. Pretty good for a guy who makes monster movies for a living.

     Perhaps the most well-known work of Corman’s were in the mid-60’s, with a series of films all based around the works of famous American author Edgar Allen Poe. Though they often only bared a tangential relationship to the actual events in the original texts, they were colourful, just violent enough, and featured some of biggest horror icons of the age, such as Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Vincent Price. Alouth they’re all weird enough to earn a position on this list, the one I’ve decided to go for this time around is adapted from one of my preferred Poe tales: even though you already know the name of it from the title, it’s The Masque of the Red Death.

     If you’ve ever read the original story by Poe, then you already have some idea as to what the story is all about; dickish Prince Prospero from some medieval land holds a grand costume party for all his royal friends in his castle while all the peasants outside die of the plague, and receives a grisly surprise in the end. So it is in the film version, but because that wasn’t enough to fill out a full-length movie, Corman decided to make his own alterations to flesh it out. We get the required attractive romantic leads Francesca (played by the very Caucasian Jane Asher) and Gino (played by some guy), an entire subplot based on another Poe story is added (“Hop-Frog”, the main characters of which are renamed Hop-Toad and Esmeralda in this film for some unknown reason), and of course Prospero is a Satanist. Yes, Prince Prospero (played by the legendary Vincent Price) is now a full-blown Devil worshipper, trying to corrupt the sweet, virginal Christian Francesca to a life of implied debauchery. The grand theological debate might have made for a good theme to focus on, but the movie is so biased towards a certain side that it all feels hokey. Francesca acts like someone glued a red wig to a block of wood, and when the grand defense of Christianity is ‘I’m too stupid to know better, but I know you’re bad because reasons’ (paraphrased), that debate ends up seeming a bit uneven. Which makes it seem like this is a religiously themed movie in America that isn’t pro-Christian, but Prospero comes off as such a murdering dickbag that all his valid criticisms and redeemable actions fall by the wayside. I know I shouldn’t expect that much controversy from some 60s B-movie, but if they’re going thrown those elements into a story they should at least try and do something novel with it, otherwise what was the damn point? It could’ve been just the love triangle between Gino, Francesca, and Prospero without any of the Satan crap, and it the story could have played out exactly the same. I guess the Devil was big that year.

     My creative problems with the story aside, Masque of the Red Death is an okay horror/thriller movie for its time. I’ve always loved older films explosive use of color, and this movie is based on color. Vincent Price steals the show of course, as he does with almost every film he’s been in. It’s certainly a twist on an old favorite, and if you know to expect something hokey going into it, this might be a good film to get into this Halloween.

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2017 - Witchfinder General (1968), directed by Michael Reeves

The Trailer
and
The Appropriate Tune: "Witchfinder General", by Witchfinder General

     Grab any newspaper, or more recently a webpage from a news site, and you’ll find stories that are far worse than any horror movie you’ve seen before. Ghosts and vampires and space aliens are certainly spooky, but the fact of the matter is that they’re fictional, i.e. not real. Our fellow human beings are real, depending on your level of solipsism, and the things that they do have a tangible effect on the world. Murder, torture, rape, bigotry, all the ills of society that we so despise we bring upon ourselves. Sometimes it is used an fuel for reform, sometimes it is ignored or even encouraged by those with their own agenda, but no matter what it seems determined to stick around.

     Oh, and it makes for some great movie material.

     Witchfinder General, otherwise known by the awesome but otherwise inaccurate title The Conqueror Worm, takes place during a particularly violent and hate-filled time in the world: 1645,in the midst of the English Civil War. Ol’ Albion is split roughly in half not only on political lines, Oliver Cromwell and his supporters on one side and the monarchy on the other, but on religious ones as well, with Catholics and non-Catholics squaring off against each other as well. Law and order has fallen to the wayside leaving chaos and misery in its wake, and from that chaos comes a popular new form of paranoia and prejudice. The villages of East Anglia are apparently infested with witches and witchcraft, driving its people to ruin with their satanic practices, and it is up to the Witchfinders, those paragons of divine virtue to root them out and take care of them. Through torture and executions, of course.

     Yeah, there’s a story here, an army captain wanting revenge against a corrupt witchfinder, but presumably that’s not what movie audiences were into in the late 60s. They want the violence, and Michael Reeves piles it on like a fat man putting cream cheese on a bagel. Frequent, brutal torture scenes, agonizing drawn-out hangings, even a rape thrown in there for good measure, and you start to see where the term ‘video nasty’ got its start. Hell, if they didn’t use really obvious red paint for blood you might be forgiven for mistaking this as some kind of weird prequel to the Saw franchise. Both films play to the ‘brutality of man’ idea while ironically desensitizing you to violence by smothering you with violence, both feel overly pretentious (although WG at least masks it in a period piece), and both just kind of suck. They’re basically cousins!

     I originally picked this film for the Marathon because it featured Vincent Price (here playing the devious Witchfinder Matthew Hopkins), and I wanted to make sure I didn’t skimp out on the horror legends. While it is good to see Price getting work, I don’t think he changes expression even once throughout this entire damn movie. He’s menacing sure, Vincent Price can do that in his sleep, but it's such a bland, unremarkable form of menacing. Compare it to his work in Masque of the Red Death or The Abominable Dr. Phibes and you wonder if Vincent had swallowed a couple Valium before each take. Hopkins doesn’t have to be super melodramatic and theatrical to be a good villain, but at least make it so I’m just sitting around waiting for him to be killed off. I should be relieved that good has triumphed over evil, not that I can finally get on with the rest of my life.

     Witchfinder General, aka The Conqueror Worm is a mentally exhausting, ultimately miserable experience. What could have been a poignant warning on the dangers of mob mentality and bigotry is pushed aside for 70 or minutes of torture porn, which is uncomfortable to watch and that ends up feeling frustratingly pointless and nihilistic for the sake of nihilism. Unless you’re really into that torture porn stuff I’d say don’t waste your time, and even then there are probably more recent and more gory films to satiate your appetite. Or you’re throwing a Renaissance fair themed Halloween party/movie marathon and you’re desperate for material, but that sounds really dumb. Don’t do that dumb thing please.