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.
Review of Revenge in the House of Usher
