House of Usher
American International Pictures (AIP) | Release Date: June 18, 1960 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Corman's legendary parsimony has rarely been so inobvious; House of Usher has the look and feel of a film made for far more than its tiny $200K budget (and on a tight, 15-day shooting schedule). Its authentically creepy dream-sequence – all grasping hands and hazy blue-gelled fog swirls –­ is a minor surrealist masterpiece by its own right. Read full review
80
The DissolveKeith Phipps
Working from a script by Richard Matheson that spins Poe’s story to feature length, Corman, cinematographer Floyd Crosby (father of David), and composer and exotica icon Les Baxter create a hallucinatory swirl of a movie that has the feel of an especially sharp nightmare. Read full review
80
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
The first of Corman's eight-film Poe cycle, and one of his most faithful adaptations. Price is his usual impressive self as the almost certainly incestuously inclined Roderick Usher who, having buried his sister alive when she falls into a cataleptic trance, becomes the victim of her ghostly revenge; but it is Corman's overall direction that lends the film its intelligence and power. Read full review
80
The GuardianPhilip French
The movie, shot in CinemaScope and colour, is punctuated by shocking moments, but is more notable for its claustrophobic, doom-laden, necrophilic atmosphere and elegant camerawork than the kind of fashionable, in-your-face horror that was launched in the same year by Psycho. Read full review
75
Chicago ReaderDave Kehr
Corman's filmmaking runs on unchanneled energy and apocalyptic emotions; his is an art without craft. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
Price is wonderful as the spooky owner, but the other three players are merely adequate. But still a superlative Corman/AIP effort and a great beginning to a varying but always interesting series of horror films. Read full review
70
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
In patronizingly romanticizing Poe's venerable prose, scenarist Richard Matheson has managed to preserve enough of the original's haunting flavor and spirit. The elaborations change the personalities of the three central characters, but not recklessly so. Read full review
50
The New York TimesEugene Archer
Under the low-budget circumstances, Vincent Price and Myrna Fahey should not be blamed for portraying the decadent Ushers with arch affectation, nor Mark Damon held to account for the traces of Brooklynese that creep into his stiffly costumed impersonation of the mystified interloper. Read full review
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