In 1960, a young filmmaker called Roger Corman, who specialized in low-budget B-movies,

pitched a new film to American international pictures.

He wanted to make an adaptation of a short story by one of his favourite horror authors,

Edgar Allan Poe, called The Fall of the House of Usher.

First, the producers who were keen to create monster movies with Corman were reluctant,

noting that there was no monster in full of the House of Usher, to which Corman, thinking

quickly on his feet, replied, The House is the monster.

For hundreds of years, evil parts and evil deeds have been committed within these walls.

The House itself is evil now.

House of Usher was greenlit.

It starred Vincent Price and was shot on a soundstage across 15 days for $300,000,

and it went on to make over a million dollars on release.

Off the back of that success, American international pictures produced a series

of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations over the next few years, including The Raven, Tales of Terror,

The Mask of the Red Death, and of course The Pit and The Pendulum.

You are about to enter hell, Antalamy.

Hell!

The combination of Poe's short stories, Corman's filmmaking, and Vincent Price's fun,

but haunting performances, felt like a match made in horror heaven.

All films perfectly captured the eerie, queesiness of Poe's writing,

mixing classic Gothic horror with a more experimental sensibility.

The films solidified Vincent Price's reputation as a true legend of horror,

...