It’s Friday the 13th, day of dread, when mirrors shatter, all ladders are left suspiciously unattended and black cats leap from dark corners to startle the unwary. What better day to curl up with a little Edgar Allan Poe, courtesy of the good people at American International Pictures? Starting with House of Usher in 1960, AIP turned out a series of delightfully ghoulish films loosely based on the works of Poe, each directed by B-movie mastermind Roger Corman and starring the inimitable Vincent Price. Produced primarily for the consumption of teenagers at drive-ins, the films vary wildly in quality, but at their best they are clever, creepy and (thanks to Price) very good fun. Should you ever find yourself in an old dark house with the shadows creeping in, here’s how to tell if you’re in a Poe cycle film.
Vincent Price in ‘House of Usher’
- There is a perpetual thunderstorm outside your door.
- Despite the period setting, your clothes, paintings, furniture and mode of transportation display a tenuous grasp of historical accuracy.
- Your long-dead wife won’t stay dead.
- You are heir to a damning legacy of unspeakable horror. You speak about it—at length.
- Despite your wealth, you employ only a skeleton staff of an old retainer and a single maid.
- All the goblets, glasses and gowns you own are blood red.
- Your fiancée has suddenly broken off all contact with you. You have travelled to her desolate family home in search of answers.
- Your sister has suddenly died. You have travelled to her desolate family home in search of answers.
- An old retainer keeps giving you strange looks.
- You are an elegant, brooding and sensitive aristocrat. And possibly a maniac.
- The house you’re staying in is crumbling to pieces around your ears. No one else is bothered by this, least of all your host.
- You are tormented by bad dreams. The resulting dream sequence is a colour-tinted nightmare swathed in fog.
- A black cat stalks the halls.
- Someone is screaming in a nearby room. You wait until the last possible moment to investigate.
- A malevolent presence in your home is trying to possess and/or kill you. You continue to stay.
- A deadly plague is ravaging the land. You decide to host a party.
- You stubbornly insist that there must be a rational explanation for what you’re experiencing, despite all evidence to the contrary.
- Your ancestral pile is riddled with secret passages. There’s a torture chamber in the basement, just next door to the family crypt.
- The house/castle/abbey you live in burns down during the climax.
- Regardless of its construction, the house/castle/abbey always looks suspiciously like a cardboard miniature as it burns. Or a barn somewhere in 20th century California.
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