CAST: Oliver Reed (Roderick Usher), Donald Pleasence (Walter Usher), Romy Windsor (Molly McNulty), Rufus Swart (Ryan Usher), Norman Coombes (Mr. Derrick), Anne Stradi (Mrs. Derrick), Philip Godawa (Dr. Bailey). Directed by Alan Birkinshaw.
SYNOPSIS: Ryan Usher and his fiancée Molly have been invited to the estate of his wealthy uncle Roderick whom he has never met. While driving to the estate, they get lost and while looking at the directions, Molly suddenly sees two children on the road. Ryan swerves to avoid hitting the children with the car and crashes into a tree. Molly staggers out of the car and discovers that Ryan is unconscious from a bleeding head injury. She then walks up ahead and reaches the Usher estate, where she explains the accident to Clive Derrick and his wife, servants at the Usher estate. Molly is told to wait in the house and rest while they get Ryan to the hospital. That night Molly is introduced to Roderick, who explains the Usher family misfortunes, including the fact that the estate is slowly sinking into the marsh before inquiring about her own family. That night, Molly hears the voices of the children which leads her through a secret passage, where she discovers a hidden family crypt with the body of Ryan laid out. Outraged at having been lied to by Roderick, Molly is told that nothing could be done anyway even though she hears scratching from inside Ryan’s coffin. She is later drugged and Roderick has her examined before trying to take advantage of her, due to his need to find a bride to continue the Usher line of descent. After trying to escape from the house, Molly finds Roderick’s insane brother Walter (Donald Pleasence) locked up in the attic. Walter soon escapes and kills Clive’s wife and daughter. In the confusion, Molly slips into the crypt and frees Ryan, but before they can escape, Roderick, Clive, and Walter appear and begin fighting to the death as the house crumbles and burns around them. Ryan manages to holds back Roderick to allow Molly to escape from the dreaded House of Usher as it quickly goes up in flames.
COMMENTARY: Edgar Allan Poe’s 1839 classic short story The Fall of the House of Usher has been filmed several times, most notably director Roger Corman’s 1960 adaptation with Vincent Price as Roderick Usher. This 1989 version is considered as an ‘updating’ of the story with new characters but fails miserably for several reasons. One of the most problematic issues is the screenplay that contains many plot holes and weak dialogue. The fact that Molly is a hairdresser from Los Angeles stands out like a sore thumb from the rest of the characters and the expression on Oliver Reed’s face when Molly explains that her mother sells Avon is priceless. But Reed himself is also to blame for some of the problems because his acting in this film is way over the top in a bad way. A much better production with Pleasence and Reed is the television production The Black Arrow (1985). Although House of Usher does provide some suitably creepy settings and decent gruesome effects, it is ultimately disappointing, especially because of its very confusing and nonsensical ending.
Even in poor films like House of Usher, Pleasence still managed to create interesting characters as he does here in his hammy performance as Walter Usher. Locked away in the attic and bound to a wheelchair with his wispy long hair and a bizarre drill contraption strapped to his hand, Walter Usher at first seems to be a pathetic victim and a bit off his rocker, but once he escapes, things take a turn for the worse, especially when we realize that Walter is a maniac killer, such as when he beheads Mrs. Derrick and turns her head into a centerpiece before moving on to kill her daughter. Walter also reveals himself to be Ryan’s father which is confusing because Ryan never mentions this fact to Molly. One of Pleasence’s best bits occurs when Molly runs into him again and sees that he is no longer in his wheelchair to which he replies with an astonishment smirk, “I’ve made a miraculous recovery!”