O Mistério da Casa dos Usher

"The House of Usher" is called "the modern re-telling of Edgar Allen Poe's story from a female perspective".Yeah right,and I'm an alien invader from Pluto.First of all,the film fails as a thriller as it's extremely boring and lacks tension.Like so many earlier adaptations of Poe's work,this latest interpretation bears little resemblance to the source material.The cast is pretty terrible,albeit it's nice to see Polish beauty Izabella Miko in the main role.On the plus side the cinematography is great and the last 15 minutes are actually quite interesting to say the least.It's a shame that the rest of the film is so painfully dull.If you want a proper Poe's adaptations rent or buy a couple of Roger Corman's flicks.3 out of 10.

There really isn't much story here, so it is hard to imagine how this film can be retold. However, there is a twist in this retelling that makes for some interesting imaginings.

It is a Gothic tale with a very wooden Austin Nichols as Roderick Usher, a man who is dying, and dying to continue the family linage, and the curse as well. Izabella Miko, a really hot choice, is his old girlfriend brought back to complete his mission. She is caught in his web, although one has to wonder why, as he has no charm whatsoever.

She tries to escape once she discovers the awful family secret, but it is to no avail. It is only through the intervention of the creepy housekeeper, Mrs. Thatcher (Beth Grant), that she has a chance. Mrs Thatcher hates her, so it's hard to see how she will escape.

That's pretty much it. Like I said, there is not a of of story in this creepy Gothic by Edgar Allen Poe. It would probably be better to see Roger Corman's version.

Or, you could wait later this year for the gay version.

The 2006 House Of Usher film (as opposed to the countless other versions, most recently in 2008) is dull as all hell.

Plainly put. Not much else to say. It's far too bland to even bother typing a review. It's a shoddy little piece. Relatively faithful to the original story, but a bland and tiresome film regardless.

Move on. Buy something interesting. Like, I dunno, Blood Monkey- which I might review some time in the next few weeks.

Since an IMDb review requires 10 or more lines, I suppose I really must elaborate: The film is tosh. It's trash. It's garbage. It takes the dry classical texts of Poe and vacuum seals them, taking out what little life remained from the distinctly dated original works. It borrows only the most obvious aspects of the story, ignores subtlety, and pisses on the livelier bits of the original story. I'm hard pressed to care about it, and even more pressed to write a review for a film so utterly pointless.

Curse it. Curse it back to the burned out pit it most inevitably came from.

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In this very serviceable thriller, a young woman named Jill hears from her former lover Roderick. He and his sister Maddie, her best friend when the three of them were at college together, disappeared suddenly from her life several years ago and she had not heard from either of them since. Roderick tells her that Maddie has died, and asks Jill to come for the funeral.

Roderick suffers from an illness that makes him sensitive to light and touch. He is a novelist and writes at night, wearing gloves and headphones to drown out sensation. He frequently communicates through typewritten notes that bear the Usher seal, weighty symbol of the burden of the Usher legacy. The novel he is writing parallels the happenings in the house, and he won't let Jill read it, saying that he isn't sure yet how it is going to turn out.

Roderick asks Jill to stay because he needs her, but she only gradually discovers his full intent. Austin Nichols is the restrained Roderick to Izabella Miko's translucent but determined Jill. Both are well cast in their roles.

The opening music and the repeated warnings of the housekeeper are a bit heavy-handed and the film might have done better to let the story unfold without them. The second half of the film has lots of plot twists that make for great after-viewing discussion. The artistry of the filming earned this film the best cinematography award at the Boston Film Festival where it premiered.

I recommend seeing this movie (but not alone!)

If you love the classics and was hoping for something remotely related to Poe.... stay away from this one. Nurse Thatcher? That really took a lot of creativity - not. I mean, thats something Mel Brooks would come up with. As a matter of fact, "High Anxiety" has more to do with Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" than this crap. And, they should have got Cloris Leachman to play nurse Thatcher. Geez! This was bad. So bad. It was like something out of the far left wing of the democratic party. It was so bad. Like, maybe, Dennis Kucinich. In any event, there is no need to take the Tyleno PM with this bomb. 10 lines? I'm having a hard time coming up with ten lines. This movie was so bad you can't even say enough bad things about it.