Vincent Price's 8 Most Entertaining Horror Films

"I suggest you leave, Mr. Winthrop. No? Then perish with us."

It's fair to say that Roger Corman's name isn't immediately associated with high art or effective genre storytelling. For a man who has essentially built a successful career around, well, crap, Corman produced something very special indeed with his period Gothic series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations in the 60s. As a filmmaker who adopts a 'quantity over quality' approach to his horror output, Corman delivers undeniable evidence of his skill with Usher. It's also worth noting that the great Richard Matheson was on board as a screenwriter, which certainly did no harm!

Of all of Price's films, Usher is the one that most feels like an elaborately designed and costumed theatre production (well, maybe apart from The Masque of the Red Death). It is one of the 'big' classic haunted house chillers, ranked up there with the likes of The Innocents, The Haunting and The Changeling. While most of the examples that come to mind adopt a gloomy sort of aesthetic, Usher pulls off the same sinister melancholy with vibrant colour. This is rather like the effect Kubrick would later achieve with The Shining. As cliched as it might sound to say, the house is a character in itself - as it absolutely ought to be in any haunted house film.

The climax of Usher is nothing short of stunning. In fact, Corman was fortunate enough to have stumbled across a property soon to be demolished, which he set ablaze and filmed as his dramatic closing shot.