'The Fall of The House of Usher' (1950) - Ivan Barnett.

Sadly one of the lesser known film adaptations of the immortal Poe classic, this effectively eerie, modestly budget version benefits greatly from the prodigious film-making talents of Ivan Barnett who produces, directs and photographs this sinister, shadow-slaked shocker to great effect, Barnett showing remarkable flair as a D.O.P, darkly drenching his creepy iteration of 'The Fall of The House of Usher' in a sublime shuddersome pall of inky, expressionistic doom! This macabre tale of ancestral doom is anxiously narrated by family friend Jonathan (Irving Steen), and not long into his fateful visit to this benighted locale, the dilapidated House of Usher ominously reveals a deleterious taint that appears to have greatly affected his vastly neurotic friend Roderick Usher (Kaye Tendeter) with Roderick's morbidly pale sister Lady Madeline Usher (Gwen Watford) no less grievously disturbed, both being dutifully 'tended' by the faintly disingenuous Dr. Cordwell (Vernon Charles), who shockingly recounts the miserable origins of the family 'curse' with questionable zeal! 'The Fall of The House of Usher' is fearfully festooned with all the delicious cerements of creepy celluloid terror, murderous infidelity, garishly adorned torture chamber, distressingly dank ill-lit secret passages, the demonstratively disturbing Witch-hag, and a diabolical-looking disembodied head, all grimly guaranteed to put a debilitating quiver in the most resolute liver. While Kaye Tendeter somewhat laboured performance as the increasingly unhinged Roderick suffers from an acute case of the screaming am-drams, the supremely gifted Gwen Watford is suitably ethereal as the spectrally wafting lady Madeline. Eagle-eyed Brit-Horror fans might be aware that the beguiling Gwen Watford also starred in 'The Ghoul' and 'Taste The Blood of Dracula'.

'Ivan Barnett's grimly oppressive Gothic chiller is doomily drenched in a shuddersome pall of inky, expressionistic doom! - Weirdlingwolf / Dirty Kunst Video.