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.
phibes012000
I really have to give up on Jess Franco movies. This film was a total ripoff for anybody expecting a gory version of a Poe adaption. It had very little to do with Poe's famous story and much to do with Franco's previous Dr. Orloff film. A good chunk of this mess is scenes from Orloff and looks like what it is: padding. The box art for the version I saw has a woman being menaced with a power drill: no such scene exists in this movie. What does remain of Poe is a badly done retread of earlier efforts concerning the fall of the house of Usher: all done better by the 1960 film by Roger Corman. Nothing to recommend. I have heard there is a Spanish version that is completely different and much better but at this point who cares?! Avoid!
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!
JHC3
I understand that director Jesús Franco has a strong cult following and that when his name is attached to a film, it is something many people will pay attention to. Unfortunately, I did and I paid good money to rent this awful film. The problems with "Revenge in the House of Usher" are too numerous to mention, but I will provide a sampling.First off, except for the name of Howard Vernon's character, this film has nothing, and I mean nothing, to do with the works of Edgar Allan Poe.Second, this is a slow-moving and intensely dull film, one which literally put me to sleep. I had to turn the film off and finish it several hours later. Sound familiar?Third, the acting is atrocious. Perhaps this has something to do with the pathetic screenplay. I don't know nor do I care.Fourth, a long, black and white portion in the middle of the film is taken directly from an earlier Franco film, also featuring Howard Vernon. I believe that it is from the original Dr. Orloff film, but I cannot confirm this since I have not yet viewed any of Franco's work that pre-dates 1970. This black and white section is provided as kind of a flashback from the point of view of Dr. Usher. Whatever.Save your money and especially, save your precious time. Avoid this like you would the ebola virus. The only way I was able to finish the darn thing was so that I could write this review and warn users of the IMDb database.
AD
