The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) (Wildcard #5) (movie #98)

Having recently watched a newer update on the classic Edgar Allen Poe tale "The Fall of the House of Usher," it was intriguing to go back and watch this, one of the earliest silent films based on this story. Let me tell you, if I thought that movie was trippy and weird (and I did) it has NOTHING on this little silent movie. the dreamlike/nightmarish imagery in this movie is crazy, and it's hard to tell the dream world from reality (which I suspect was the point). This silent movie follows the original story a little more closely than the recent update I watched a few weeks ago (a man goes to the ancestral home of his friend whose sister has recently died of a mysterious disease, only to discover that something more sinister might be going on and she might not be dead) but the nightmarish imagery makes it hard to tell what is going on. I remember reading the Poe story and not being sure what was going on either, though, so I think this is just a theme of this story. Nevertheless, I'm glad I watched this, because it gave me a better appreciation for the "House of Usher" update of the story.