The Fall of the House of Usher
It’s a strange tradition that the Christmas season tends to bring with it an appetite for ghost stories and other tales of supernatural horror. It’s probably a reflection of a much earlier age when the winter was a harsh and dangerous time, during which food was scarce and survival through the winter meant huddling around a fire trying to stay warm. It seems natural to me that the kind of stories that would be told in such an environment would be of fear and foreboding. It’s not really a Christian tradition, therefore, but the legacy of a much older pagan one. Like Christmas itself, as a matter of fact.
Anyway, a few days ago at our little cosmology group Christmas night out the subject of horror films came up. I’ve never been a particular aficianado of this genre, and I’m afraid most modern horror films are so formulaic that they bore me to tears. I do enjoy the classics enormously, however. James Whale’s 1931 Frankenstein, for example, has to my mind never been bettered; a great film turned into a masterpiece by an unforgettably moving performance by Boris Karloff. I think that’s a wonderful film, but I have to say I never found it particularly frightening, even as a child.
The first film I remember seeing that really terrified me was Roger Corman’s The Fall of the House of Usher starring the inimitable Vincent Price, a film based on a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. When I was around 8 or 9 I was once left home alone on a Friday night by my parents. In those days the BBC used to show horror films late at night on Fridays and, against parental guidance, I decided to watch this one. It scared me witless and when my parents got home they found me a gibbering wreck. I don’t really know why I found it so scary – younger people reared on a diet of slasher movies probably find it very tame, as you don’t actually see anything particularly shocking – but the whole atmosphere of it really got to me. Here’s an example.
This reminds me that I need to get some replastering done in the new year….
Anyway, I’d be interested in hearing other suggestions for the most scariest film through the Comments box…
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In the Dark 
December 17, 2011 at 1:50 pm
“It’s not really a Christian tradition, therefore, but the legacy of a much older pagan one. Like Christmas itself, as a matter of fact.”
If you are referring to the *date* of Christmas then I agree.
Scariest film: Don’t Look Now. Because it’s atmosphere leaves it all to the viewer’s imagination until it finally happens.
December 17, 2011 at 5:14 pm
Agree 100% with Don’t Look Now. In fact we talked a bit about that one too. I have it on DVD and may just watch it tonight, as I haven’t seen it for ages.
December 17, 2011 at 3:10 pm
The first piece of reading that scared me was The Tell Tale Heart.
December 17, 2011 at 3:50 pm
Reading? One night aged 24 I found myself with an HP Lovecraft compendium; I read the first story and failed to understand the fuss about him, then read the second and didn’t even try to go to sleep for a long time, and then with the light on. That story was called The Color From Space, in which the reader is left to infer (always an effective device) that a multicolored flash across the sky was a meteorite which fell down a well on a farm in America, after which that field, then the cattle on it, and so on ever wider, gradually failed to thrive, and became grey to look at rather than coloured. Brilliant.
December 17, 2011 at 5:06 pm
Deeply strange writer, Lovecraft. Occasionally brilliant, frequently execrable, but once experienced never forgotten.
December 17, 2011 at 4:20 pm
I definitely need to see that film, as I’m a fan of both Poe and Price.
Most of my favourite horror films don’t actually scare me (Frankenstein is a very good example) but a few that did:
Rosemary’s Baby
Night of the Living Dead
The Thing (1982)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
It occurs to me that all these films focus more on creating an atmosphere of dread, either instead of, or in addition to, showing the audience lots of violence. The Thing in particular has some of the tensest scenes I’ve seen in a film and an extremely bleak mood.
December 18, 2011 at 9:27 am
If this is the Oliver I think it is (!) then I have The Fall of the House of Usher on DVD, as part of a boxed set. You’re very welcome to borrow it if you like!
December 17, 2011 at 5:18 pm
As an unexpectedly good horror film, I’d offer The Exorcist III, starring George C Scott. There’s a long scene in that consisting largely of a single stationary camera shot along a hospital corridor that builds tension in a way few other films have ever managed. This is just the end:
December 17, 2011 at 6:45 pm
No question… The Fog. At the age of 50 I had to keep the light son all night.
Chris
December 17, 2011 at 8:09 pm
Has the American accent got stronger over the 20th century?
December 19, 2011 at 11:20 am
Actually I’m rather postmodern about spelling. I have my preferences and prejudices, sometimes strongly held, but I acknowledge that that’s what they are, for there is no final authority to appeal to. Language really does belong to “the people,” and the attempt of the Academie Francaise to legislate the French language in the face of American import-words reminds me of the (oft misunderstood) tale of King Canute (or Cnut, or Knut). What I do for clients of my editing service is work towards what will be best received by their target journal.
Even in the 18th century there was much variation. I was told that Magdalene was my Cambridge college whereas the similarly named foundation at Oxford was Magdalen, yet hanging in the Fellows’ Guest Room of the Cambridge college is an 18th century print of its finest building with the caption “Magdalen College”. If I met someone with the surname “Garratt” or “Garret” I would not assume that our respective branches of the family diverged earlier than the 18th century. Presumably the growth of literacy in the 19th century had much to do with standardisation (or standardization).
December 19, 2011 at 10:43 am
One could argue that no movie is scary, as you know its only a movie.
Saying that, Hellraiser is pretty good. And someone has already mentioned the Thing – the 1982 original I hope, not the reent (rubbish) one.
December 19, 2011 at 10:51 am
I watched this again on DVD yesterday and suddenly remembered one of the things that unsettled me so much, although I don’t really know why it had such an effect. Probably as a consequence of the low budget, some of the camera movements are very jerky and unnatural. You can even see a bit of this in the above clip, but only if you watch it full screen. That somehow adds to the sense of unreality and alienation.
Incidentally, I found this excerpt from a review and it reminded me that I forgot to mention that this was the first of Roger Corman’s great Poe films:
May 14, 2024 at 9:07 pm
[…] but some of the films were outstanding. Roger Corman’s death gives me an excuse to rehash an old post about one of his […]