![]() ![]() The narrator has been called to the house by Roderick Usher, someone he went to school with many years before but who he has not seen since then. The first person we see on the page is the nameless, nondescript narrator, but the first real character we meet is the “melancholy House of Usher ” upon seeing it, the narrator says “a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit.” He goes on to describe it like he would another person, remarking on the vacant, eye-like windows bleak, fissured walls decayed trees around it and the black and lurid tarn below, which, upon viewing, left him with an almost superstitious sense of terror.” This house will come to dominate all other characters throughout the story. In my opinion, that vagueness, while perhaps an interesting writing experiment in how to build a sense of horror in the reader, removes this story from the realm of his “great” works and renders it more of an anomaly. Let’s start our discussion with one of the main concerns of any story adaptation – how true is the film to the source material? Well, that’s a little tricky to say in this case, because Poe’s original story was extremely short on details. The 1960 film House of Usher From the Source’s Mouth “Upon entering his fiancée’s family mansion, a man discovers a savage family curse and fears that his future brother-in-law has entombed his bride-to-be prematurely.” He arrives to find his friend gravely altered, and through his eyes, we see strange and terrible events unfold.” The narrator of Poe’s tale is a childhood friend of Roderick’s, summoned to the decaying country pile by a letter pleading for his help. ![]() They are, therefore, the “House of Usher,” as is the strange, dark mansion in which they live. “Roderick and Madeline Usher are the last of their distinguished line. For those of you unfamiliar with the basic premise, here is a brief synopsis of the short story (taken from ) and the film (taken from ): For the purposes of this blog, though, we will be looking at the 1960 Corman version. It has been adapted for film a number of other times, as well as for theater, animation, and music. Today we’re going to be discussing “The Fall of the House of Usher,” a short story written by Edgar Allen Poe in September 1839 and adapted for the screen in 1960 as “House of Usher” by famed science fiction and horror writer Richard Matheson and “B”-film director Roger Corman (414 producer credits and 56 directorial credits). The original King of horror Edgar Allan Poe ![]()
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