This may not be a movie for everyone, as the previous and only other review clearly indicates. But, it truly is a work for fans of Poe's writing.
It is dark. It is unrelenting. And the atmosphere descends through black depths as the truths of the horror unfold.
Poe's writing is not scary in the modern horror-movie-fan sense, rather, it is dark, ominous, and unrelenting as the reader peels back layer after layer of the narrator's insanity to uncover the actual horror story.
The Fall of Usher is not a retelling or modernization of any specific works of Poe, but a re-weaving of many of the themes and atmospheres from multiple stories.
The movie opens with a classic Poe device of the main character talking directly to the audience (or perhaps just himself), and although that specific device does not return, the use of archaic Poe language, dialogue, narration and silent movie-esque cards, keeps the viewer grounded in Poe's era even while the setting remains modern day.
This is the definition of slow-burn done right--not boring, not plotted poorly, but rather the viewer is taken on a ride of reveal after reveal, a step-by-step uncovering the actual reality that is being hidden deep in the mind of the unreliable and insane narrator. Even the tiny cast and small set evoke the claustrophobia which lies at the core of several of Poe's stories.
Most "fans" of Poe, are not really fans of his actual writing--most find it overly complex and opaque, even if they love the soul of the horror story as told. The Fall of Usher definitely follows not only the "soul" of Poe's works, but the actual complex, opaque devices and dialogue, and because of that, it's true that its audience may be niche.
If you truly love to *read* the works of Poe, if you swoon over the complex language he uses to evoke his dark atmospheres, if you live for half-page-long sentences, stuffed with iterative atmospheric descriptions, then you will find SO much to love in this movie!
It is dark. It is unrelenting. And the atmosphere descends through black depths as the truths of the horror unfold.
Poe's writing is not scary in the modern horror-movie-fan sense, rather, it is dark, ominous, and unrelenting as the reader peels back layer after layer of the narrator's insanity to uncover the actual horror story.
The Fall of Usher is not a retelling or modernization of any specific works of Poe, but a re-weaving of many of the themes and atmospheres from multiple stories.
The movie opens with a classic Poe device of the main character talking directly to the audience (or perhaps just himself), and although that specific device does not return, the use of archaic Poe language, dialogue, narration and silent movie-esque cards, keeps the viewer grounded in Poe's era even while the setting remains modern day.
This is the definition of slow-burn done right--not boring, not plotted poorly, but rather the viewer is taken on a ride of reveal after reveal, a step-by-step uncovering the actual reality that is being hidden deep in the mind of the unreliable and insane narrator. Even the tiny cast and small set evoke the claustrophobia which lies at the core of several of Poe's stories.
Most "fans" of Poe, are not really fans of his actual writing--most find it overly complex and opaque, even if they love the soul of the horror story as told. The Fall of Usher definitely follows not only the "soul" of Poe's works, but the actual complex, opaque devices and dialogue, and because of that, it's true that its audience may be niche.
If you truly love to *read* the works of Poe, if you swoon over the complex language he uses to evoke his dark atmospheres, if you live for half-page-long sentences, stuffed with iterative atmospheric descriptions, then you will find SO much to love in this movie!