House of Usher Page #2

you leave this place with me.

- If only I could.

- You will, you will.

You don't understand.

But you've never seen the heart

of this horrible house.

Darling, once you're with me you'll

wake up from this... this nightmare!

Good night, sir.

Mr. Usher, perhaps you fail to understand...

Good night, sir.

You cannot order my life, Roderick.

Is it so easy for you to forget, Madeline?

- My life is my own.

- Is it?

Yes.

- I think that...

- Is it, Madeline?

You hate me so much you want to keep

me a prisoner here?

Hate you?

Oh, my dear, hate you?

Don't you know that I love you more than

anything in the world?

Can't you see it's my love for you makes

me act as I do.

You cannot leave here, Madeline.

You know what would happen if you did,

you know that.

- I know what you've told me.

- Oh, my dear.

Do not delude yourself, I beg of you,

do not delude yourself.

- Sir...

- I shall stay with her.

In the name of God, would you not

understand! Leave my sister be.

Mr. Usher, I mean to take her from this

house tomorrow.

I will not argue with you.

Will you leave, please?

We'll be all right, Madeline.

Madeline?

Don't touch her!

You mustn't wake her, sir.

The shock could be very harmful.

- How did she get here?

- Se walks in her sleep, sir.

And then she comes here?

She is obsessed by thoughts of death.

Poor child!

How long has she been doing this?

Ever since her return from Boston, sir.

I'll just take her to her room.

- No, I...

- No!

You might awaken her, sir.

Better let me.

I've done it before.

- Good morning, Bristol.

- Good morning, sir.

Has Miss Madeline had her breakfast yet?

Oh, no, sir.

Good, then I'd like to take

her breakfast straight to her.

Very well, sir. Of course, she does not

eat very much usually

Well then we will see that she

does eat.

- Yes sir...

- All right, let's see what we have here...

bread, that's good...

Milk? A little fruit?

Why, I'll take it to her, sir.

- No, I'll do it.

- Yes, sir.

- Oh, how about some eggs?

No, sir. I think perhaps a little gruel.

It's the most she has ever eaten

in the morning.

- Gruel?

- Yes, sir.

Oh, yes, her sense of taste.

- Well, all right then, hot gruel

...for both of us.

- Yes, sir.

How long have you been with

the Ushers, Bristol?

Sixty years, sir.

- Sixty years?

- Ever since I was a boy.

Why then this is as much your house

as it is Mr. Roderick's.

And Miss Madeline, sir.

Not after today.

I'm taking her to Boston with me.

We'll see.

How long has that been going on?

So long I'm hardly aware of it any more.

It's just the settling of the house.

That settling can cause this entire

structure to collapse.

- And that doesn't worry you?

- Oh, no, sir.

If the house dies, I shall die with it.

Be careful, sir. It was about to hit you.

It could cause a nasty burn.

It's that fissure that causes the

entire house to shake.

Yes, sir.

Who is it?

Your breakfast, Miss Usher.

Hot gruel and... hot gruel.

It's so dark in here I can barely see you.

There.

No sunlight.

There'll be sunlight where we leave.

Now... good morning.

Good morning.

If he comes in now don't be afraid.

He won't come in. He has to take drugs

to sleep

Oh, I'm sorry.

Well now...

We'll fill you with hot gruel in good share!

You're so sweet to me.

Nothing too good for future

Mrs. Winthrop.

- Mrs. Winthrop?

- Open your mouth.

I'm not hungry.

Madeline, I have no scrawny woman I my

home, now open your mouth.

Come on.

Madeline, get ready to leave.

- I want to, Philip.

- Then you will.

- I can't.

- Why?

Because very soon I shall be dead.

I forbid you to say that ever again.

- It is true, Philip.

- It is not true, Madeline.

You're full of life.

Look at me, Philip. Do I look full of life?

I remember you as you were in Boston.

Do you remember? You were exuberant.

You were filled with the joy of living.

And so you'll be again when you leave

here and become my wife.

I wish you could understand.

Let me understand, Madeline, let me

so that I can help you.

Perhaps you shall feel differently

after you see.

- Where are we going?

- You'll see.

Careful, darling.

- You don't want to go in there.

- I want you to see.

Put your weight against it.

The all our... Ushers.

It's the lack of air in here.

It's the air itself.

Nothing can survive that long.

My great-grandfather.

His wife.

My grandfather.

My grandmother.

My father.

My mother.

This is monstrous!

Whose idea was this?

Your dear brother's?

There is one for him too.

Does that absolve him?

It waits for me.

No, it does not.

They all wait for me.

Madeline, Madeline,

you must stop this.

Can't you see what you are doing to yourself?

You don't understand.

I understand, but you must leave

the dead to themselves.

Madeline, come away with me now.

What have you done?

Give her to me.

- Thank you. See to the crypt, will you?

- Yes.

Well, are you content now,

Mr. Winthrop?

It is not I who forced her to

live in the cemetery.

Do you think that I

wish her harm?

I think you still do not understand.

And I think it's time that you did.

The tarn is very deep.

One of the Usher women drowned

herself in it.

She was never found.

I dare say it's deep enough

to swallow this house entire.

I'm waiting, Mr. Usher.

Last night you asked me about the

singular aridity...

...of the land around this house.

Once this land was fertile,

farms abounded.

Earth yielded her riches

at harvest time.

There were trees and plant life,

flowers. Fields of grain.

There was great beauty here.

At that time this water was

clear and fresh.

Swans glided upon its crystal surface.

Animals came to its bank,

trustingly, to drink.

But this was long before my time.

Why do you tell me these things?

And then something crept across the

land and blacked it.

The trees lost their foliage.

The flowers languished and died.

Shrubs grew brown and shrivelled.

The grain fields perished.

And the lakes and ponds became black

and stagnant.

And the land withered as

before a plague.

A plague?

Yes, Mr. Winthrop, a plague of evil.

Anthony Usher,

thief, usurer...

...merchant of flesh...

Bernard Usher. Swindler, forger.

Jewel thief. Drug addict.

Francis Usher...

professional assassin.

Vivian Usher. Blackmailer...

...harlot, murderess.

She died in a madhouse.

Captain David Usher...

...smuggler, slave trader...

mass murderer.

Mr. Usher, I don't see that this has

anything to do with Madeline and myself.

I don't believe in the sins

of the fathers being...

...visited upon the children.

You do not, Sir?

The house of Usher seems to

you, then, normal?

The house, Sir, is neither normal

nor abnormal.

It's only a house.

You are very wrong, Mr. Winthrop.

This house is centuries old.

It was brought here from England.

And with it every evil

rooted in its stones.

You really believe this?

Evil is not just a word.

It is reality. Like any living thing...

...it can be created and was created

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