The Fall of the House of Usher

One of Roger Corman's first adaptations from an Edgar Allen Poe story which also features his frequent collaborators, screenwriter Richard Matheson and star Vincent Price. While it's traditionally regarded as a horror film, I prefer to describe it as a gothic psychological drama -- a descent into madness and the macabre, which of course were Poe's specialties. Price thinks that the Usher family and its home are cursed with the evil done by his ancestors. The decaying house, I take it, is to be a metaphor for madness. Atmospheric, but never scarey. Corman is a better director than he is often given credit for (there's often more going on than meets the eye), but he's never been a great filmmaker. Features a symbolic, firey ending and some terrific production design.