Corman at his intoxicating best, drawing a seductive mesh of sexual motifs from Poe's story through a fine Richard Matheson script.
80
The DissolveKeith Phipps
The DissolveKeith Phipps
The film plays like a companion piece to Usher, but one eager to push beyond its limits, particularly in its tinted flashback sequences. It also lets Price begin the film as a delicate gentleman and end it as a madman.
80
EmpireKim Newman
EmpireKim Newman
A highly effective merging of star power (both in front and behind the camera) and finely honed horror sensibilities.
80
The Telegraph
The Telegraph
Watching this film as a child, the piercing image of Medina's wife Elizabeth's (Barbara Steele) wide eyes in the iron maiden stayed with me for years.
75
TV Guide Magazine
TV Guide Magazine
Screenwriter Richard Matheson did a fine job of adapting Poe's rather limited (for films) short story by saving the dungeon sequences for the climax and then creating a rather interesting plot line to lead up to it. One of Corman's and AIP's best.