Revenge in the House of Usher

Name: Revenge in the House of Usher
Genre: Horror
Released: 1988-05-06
Duration: 1 h 33 min
Rating: 3.4
Cast: Howard Vernon, Antonio Mayans, Lina Romay

IMDb RATING

3.4/10

588

YOUR RATING

Horror

A young doctor visits the secluded home of his ailing mentor - Eric Usher - who believes the house itself is alive and plotting to drive him insane, manifesting itself through ghostly appari... Read allA young doctor visits the secluded home of his ailing mentor - Eric Usher - who believes the house itself is alive and plotting to drive him insane, manifesting itself through ghostly apparitions.A young doctor visits the secluded home of his ailing mentor - Eric Usher - who believes the house itself is alive and plotting to drive him insane, manifesting itself through ghostly apparitions.

Directors
- Jesús Franco
- Olivier Mathot
Writers
- Jesús Franco
- Edgar Allan Poe
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

3.4/10

588

YOUR RATING

Directors
- Jesús Franco
- Olivier Mathot
Writers
- Jesús Franco
- Edgar Allan Poe
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Several scenes in black and white from "The Awful Dr. Orlof" (1962) were used in the third cut of the film as flashbacks of a young Usher, since Usher and Orlof were interpreted by the same actor, Howard Vernon.

Alternate versions
There are three different versions of this film:
The first one, which is considered the original cut of director Jesús Franco, is called "The Hundimiento de la Casa Usher" ("The Fall of the House of Usher"), and was shown only once on his premiere on Imagfic - Festival Internacional de Madrid de Cine Imaginario y de Ciencia-ficción, on 23 March 1983. Due to the bad reception from the audience - who laughed and booed from start to finish -, Franco could not get commercial distribution of the film. This version is now alleged to be a lost film.
In 1984, the director filmed three new scenes showing the actor Howard Vernon murdering three victims (among them, actresses Flavia Hervás and Helena Garret, who did not appear in the original cut). He then added these scenes to the film, considerably altering the original plot, and creating the second version, called "Los Crímenes de Usher" ("The Crimes of Usher"). It had a very limited release in some Spanish cinemas in 1986.
Finally, the third version was produced by Eurocine and is the only one that had commercial video release with the title "Neurosis/Revenge in the House of Usher". This version eliminates all the scenes shot for "Los Crímenes de Usher" and inserts new scenes shot with other actors (Françoise Blanchard, Olivier Mathot, Valerie Russell and Jean Tolzac, among others), creating a new plot that turns Usher in a mad doctor who keeps his daughter alive with the blood of innocent victims. Also, this cut reused about 15 minutes of footage from an old Franco movie, The Awful Dr. Orlof (1962), as flashbacks of the main character. "Revenge in the House of Usher" is the version that has less in common with the original cut, or even with the short story by Edgar Allan Poe that inspired the film.

Connections
Edited from The Awful Dr. Orlof (1962)

User reviews26

Review

Featured review

2/10

The Fall of the career of Jess Franco!

Phew...I am a devoted fan of Jess Franco, but watching 3 incredibly awful movies of his in less than one week (this one, Oasis of the Zombies and The Castle of Fu Manchu) really isn't my admiration and respect for him doing much good! "Revenge in the House of Usher" is a very disappointing effort and it's a complete mystery to me what Franco intended to pull off by making it. Why filming another version of Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale when there are already other (and better) movies made revolving on the tale of the Ushers? Why did Franco feel it was necessary to link Poe's tale with his own 60's chiller "The Awful Dr. Orloff"? And, more importantly, why in God's name did I spent 10 Pounds buying this DVD?? This movie has nothing to do with Poe, it's unimaginably boring and it lacks every form of action or excitement. Howard Vernon (him again) stars as an insane "doctor" who keeps on trying to resurrect his late daughter with the blood of young girls. Living with him in the ramshackle castle are some insane employees and a couple of ghosts from the past. 'Revenge in the House of Usher' is horribly slow and it completely lacks all the elements that made Jess Franco (in)famous! Lina Romay stars in this film, yet she keeps her clothes on and the only bit of violence there was to see were actually flashbacks. I can imagine Franco is proud of his "Awful Dr. Orloff" but that doesn't give him the right to re-edit entire sequences of it in other movies! Like every other reviewer here already pointed out: stay far away from this movie!