To commemerate Edgar Allan Poe’s 200th birthday this very day, I thought it would be appropriate to break my rule of one movie a week and present you these wonderful films based on Poe’s story The Fall of the House of Usher. Both films are made in 1928 and are silent movies. If you don’t want to offend Edgar Allan Poe’s ghost, you should at least watch the fantastic surreal shortfilm by James Sibley Watson, but if you want to show his rotting corpse the respect it so deserves you’d better watch the full movie by Jean Epstein too.
Director: Herk Harvey
Writer: John Clifford
Release Year: 1962
She Escaped Death. Now It Wants Her Back!
With an overwhelming majority of votes (2), this week we’ll feature this low-budget but atmospheric film of a young woman who is the sole survivor of a car accident after a drag race, and tries to get on with her life. What happens next you can see for yourself.
Director: Bernard Vorhaus
Writer: Muriel Roy Bolton and Ian McLellan Hunter based on a story by Crane Wilbur
Release Year: 1948
When Horror and Film Noir collide!
Historically, it’s always thought that after living a time of great splendor in America during the first decade of sound, the horror genre disappeared in the 40s, the years of World War II, to cede its place to the propaganda of war films, the paranoia of spy films, and the cynicism of Film Noir. Horror is supposed to be dormant, only to be resurrected in the 50s with Atom era horrors and the films of Hammer Studio.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Writer: Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Hill
Release Year: 1963
The Most Terrifying Screen Experience Of Your Life! A Brand New Concept in Motion Picture Shock! A Thrilling New Creation of Terror Thru Sight and Sound, Filmed Entirely in the Shock-Packed Process of Dementia 13!
Director: Burt Brinckerhoff
Writer: O’Brain Tomalin
Release Year: 1976
Trends and waves have appeared vastly in the horror genre throughout all decades. And by the time the second half of the 70′s came around, it were the animals who had built up an unstoppable reign of terror in horror cinema.
(Spoilers!)
