originally posted on tumblr, Mar 8th 2026 

Movie-A-Day-Thon #13: House of Usher (1960)

Yipeeee huraaay!! Another day, another Edgar Allan Poe adaptation featuring Vincent Price!!

I’m going to have to hold your hand for this, folks, but the matte paintings in this one kind of suck ass. Phenomenal pieces, yes, but they would fit better in like, a pulp fiction book cover, rather than as amtte paintings.

And speaking of set work, I’m starting to play a game with these Corman movies, where I play I Spy with the set props and see how many were reused across the movies. Lemme tell you, there are more than a few xD Now listen, I don’t want to be mean here. I think it’s cute and I only do this in good fun. It’s perfectly fine and normal to reuse props!

That said, I missed those titties-out dragon thingies from the previous movies. Might watch the other movies just to see how often I can find them.

I quite enjoyed this one, actually. The drama was very focused and well-paced, and overal very grounded which worked wonders for the narrative. Roderick and Madeline are bit annoyign with the crypticness, but once the backstory is explained, it all rolls out very nicely and we can focus on the horror of it all. Blonde Vincent Price was a bit of a jumpscare, but he did wonderfully with the role here, and Myrna and Mark were also very compelling in their performance.

Can I just say, those fucking paintings are NIGHTMARE FUEL. I’m surprised nobody has sample them for some online horror series or another, cus GOOD LORD! Amazing imagery and style. Likewise with the makeup work on Myrna for the mad Madeline section, I swear she was almost an entirely different person. And of course props to her too with her expressions.

Also, 2/3 where the clymax ends with a half-ruined building going up in flames? Very good movie, can recommend for an overall gothic horror mood.