The Fall of the House of Usher & The Pit and the Pendulum

The Fall of the House of Usher & The Pit and the Pendulum

Together on one double-sided disc, director Roger Corman and star Vincent Price's first two film adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's works are now available. House of Usher is a solid retelling of Poe's classic about the cursed Usher family. Pit is screenwriter Richard Matheson (author of the original 1954 I Am Legend novel; he also adapted the aforementioned Usher film)'s slightly more plot-heavy take on the Poe tale with more backstory for the characters and featuring a classically hammy (but not bad) performance by Price (in a dual role). With audio commentary tracks by Roger Corman himself (who reveals, among other things, that he managed to "sell" the Usher film to AIP Studios by insisting that it was a monster movie and that the "monster" was the house itself!) and two beautifully digitally restored prints, this double feature shouldn't be passed up!
-Ed