InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Aubrey Hackett
While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Juana
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
gavin6942
A traveler arrives at the Usher mansion to find that the sibling inhabitants are living under a mysterious family curse: The brother's senses have become painfully acute, while his sister has become nearly catatonic.Why has this film been given the new name of "Zombie 5"? I mean, sure, it is a stretch to say it is based on Poe's "House of Usher", but it is an even bigger stretch to try to say this somehow fits in the Italian "Zombie" franchise... not even close.People seem to hate this film, and I can see why. The effects are terrible: the poor use of a spotlight to simulate a hand-held light, the strange eyeball. One reviewer said they fell asleep twice in the first fifteen minutes. I did not find it nearly all that bad. Cheesy, sure, A bit weak on plot, certainly. But I have seen a lot worse than this, even from Jess Franco.
Woodyanders
Jess Franco movies are a real iffy proposition. For every truly decent or good film you might stumble across, there are at least a dozen duds. This particular flick rates highly as an unmitigated stiff. Dr. Alan Harker (the insipid Antonio Mayans) visits his unhinged and reclusive former university professor Dr. Eric Usher (an embarrassingly hammy performance by a pasty-faced Howard Vernon) at Usher's remote crumbling castle. Usher tries to resurrect his comatose daughter Melissa (pretty Francoise Blauchard) by giving her the blood of lovely abducted young ladies. Of course, Usher sinks further into insanity as both his mind and castle continue to deteriorate. Franco completely fumbles the ball in every conceivable way: the lethargic pace crawls along at an excruciatingly sluggish clip, the script is drab, talky, and uneventful, Daniel White supplies a very annoying wonky droning score, the bland cinematography likewise fails to impress, Franco doesn't bring any style or energy to the drab proceedings, and, worst of all, there's absolutely zero graphic gore or gratuitous female nudity on hand to alleviate the severity of the stupefying boredom. A protracted flashback consisting of copious footage from Franco's earlier (and far better) "The Awful Dr. Orloff" doesn't help matters any. You know a Franco feature seriously smells when the ever-luscious Lina Romay pops up in a sizable supporting role, but never takes her clothes off. In fact, this drippy, static and inert lump of wasted celluloid is so incredibly atrocious that it's often a downright painful chore to sit through. The castle does inevitably fall apart at the bungled climax, but by then it's way too little much too late. A godawful lemon.
eccom2002
Most of the user comments which I concur with are based on the French version produced by Eurocine. This is a Spanish film written, photographed and directed by Franco that was re-edited for its French and English versions by Eurocine which included adding the footage from THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF as well as the whole subplot with Usher's daughter and Morpho in the contemporary part of the film (Vernon and protagonist Antonio Mayans never share the screen with the two French actors). The Spanish version features Vernon recollecting or imagining murdering a number of women. I don't understand Spanish and there are no subtitles on the version I saw but its an atmospheric mood piece that is far easier to watch than the French/English version (though even that version plays better on DVD in French with English subtitles). I'm rating it a 5 because I don't know how well it will hold up with an English translation but it looks better made and conceived than the Eurocine cut. Even though it was made in 1983 (well after the other Franco's death) around the same time as some of his explicit Golden Films productions, there is no nudity and little on screen bloodshed but it shows that Lina Romay can definitely act when clothed.
Coventry
Phew...I am a devoted fan of Jess Franco, but watching 3 incredibly awful movies of his in less than one week (this one, Oasis of the Zombies and The Castle of Fu Manchu) really isn't my admiration and respect for him doing much good! "Revenge in the House of Usher" is a very disappointing effort and it's a complete mystery to me what Franco intended to pull off by making it. Why filming another version of Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale when there are already other (and better) movies made revolving on the tale of the Ushers? Why did Franco feel it was necessary to link Poe's tale with his own 60's chiller "The Awful Dr. Orloff"? And, more importantly, why in God's name did I spent 10 Pounds buying this DVD?? This movie has nothing to do with Poe, it's unimaginably boring and it lacks every form of action or excitement. Howard Vernon (him again) stars as an insane "doctor" who keeps on trying to resurrect his late daughter with the blood of young girls. Living with him in the ramshackle castle are some insane employees and a couple of ghosts from the past. 'Revenge in the House of Usher' is horribly slow and it completely lacks all the elements that made Jess Franco (in)famous! Lina Romay stars in this film, yet she keeps her clothes on and the only bit of violence there was to see were actually flashbacks. I can imagine Franco is proud of his "Awful Dr. Orloff" but that doesn't give him the right to re-edit entire sequences of it in other movies! Like every other reviewer here already pointed out: stay far away from this movie!
