On the surface, this would seem like a horror fan's wet dream. Two of horror's most celebrated directors, George Romero and Dario Argento, in a pseudo-anthology film, dedicated to the works of American legend, E.A. Poe. The reality, however, is that the film has its' shining moments, but the negatives outweighed the positives for me.
Most of us have some passing familiarity with Poe's work, maybe you've read it in grade school, or maybe you're more familiar with the Corman adaptations from the 60s. He is considered to be the father of American horror, as well as the inventor of the detective story. His work has been used as a launching point for many horror films and here they attempt to adapt his work somewhat faithfully, though with plenty of additions and embellishments. The stories were originally created for a proposed television series. Unfortunately it was abandoned with only two episodes and, thus, we get the two one-hour segments shown here. The fact that they were created for the small screen is one of the biggest drawbacks to the film. Romero's segment, especially, just reeks of low budget and bad production values.
The first story is THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M VALDEMAR done by Romero. It utilizes some of the weakest parts of the Poe oeuvre, in my opinion. It's very indicative of the sort of "detective fiction" that was crafted by Poe letting a plot VERY slowly unwind and, also, shows his preoccupation with the mysticism and hypnotism so popular at the time. The problem is that all the tension that he tries to build just goes nowhere and never provides a satisfying resolution. Maybe I'm just too jaded, but a guy laying frozen with a disembodied voice just doesn't elicit many chills for me. Of course, being Romero, he uses the story as an excuse to comment on capitalism and drag out one of his trademark zombies.
The second story is THE BLACK CAT by Argento, which is really a strange melange of several Poe stories, including THE CASK OF AMONTIDALLO. It stars Harvey Keitel a few years before his Tarantino-fueled resurgence. The story has a few of the best elements of Argento's work, including some gorgeous looking crime scenes. Unfortunately, it has some of the worst elements of his work, as well, namely an odd, meandering plot and a bad male lead character that is hard for anyone to relate to because I've never met one person who acted remotely like him.
Both directors were about five years past their prime, at this point, and do a serviceable job of translating stories that are now over a hundred years old, to make them more modern. I found the Argento segment to be much better than the Romero, but neither one would even have made a very good episode of TALES FROM THE CRYPT, let alone an entertaining horror film.
Most of us have some passing familiarity with Poe's work, maybe you've read it in grade school, or maybe you're more familiar with the Corman adaptations from the 60s. He is considered to be the father of American horror, as well as the inventor of the detective story. His work has been used as a launching point for many horror films and here they attempt to adapt his work somewhat faithfully, though with plenty of additions and embellishments. The stories were originally created for a proposed television series. Unfortunately it was abandoned with only two episodes and, thus, we get the two one-hour segments shown here. The fact that they were created for the small screen is one of the biggest drawbacks to the film. Romero's segment, especially, just reeks of low budget and bad production values.
The first story is THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M VALDEMAR done by Romero. It utilizes some of the weakest parts of the Poe oeuvre, in my opinion. It's very indicative of the sort of "detective fiction" that was crafted by Poe letting a plot VERY slowly unwind and, also, shows his preoccupation with the mysticism and hypnotism so popular at the time. The problem is that all the tension that he tries to build just goes nowhere and never provides a satisfying resolution. Maybe I'm just too jaded, but a guy laying frozen with a disembodied voice just doesn't elicit many chills for me. Of course, being Romero, he uses the story as an excuse to comment on capitalism and drag out one of his trademark zombies.
The second story is THE BLACK CAT by Argento, which is really a strange melange of several Poe stories, including THE CASK OF AMONTIDALLO. It stars Harvey Keitel a few years before his Tarantino-fueled resurgence. The story has a few of the best elements of Argento's work, including some gorgeous looking crime scenes. Unfortunately, it has some of the worst elements of his work, as well, namely an odd, meandering plot and a bad male lead character that is hard for anyone to relate to because I've never met one person who acted remotely like him.
Both directors were about five years past their prime, at this point, and do a serviceable job of translating stories that are now over a hundred years old, to make them more modern. I found the Argento segment to be much better than the Romero, but neither one would even have made a very good episode of TALES FROM THE CRYPT, let alone an entertaining horror film.