This was meant to be a horror anthology, apperently, but two directors backed out so we’re left with two hour-long Edgar Allen Poe adaptations by George Romero and Dario Argento.

George Romero’s segment has very little going for it… it pumps straight into the story on opening but the acting is pretty bad, there’s no pace, no sense of direction, till maybe the last few minutes where you start laughing ‘cos the crappy characters are getting their come-uppance.

Dario Argento’s segment is much better but not brilliant. Cat-lovers beware: do not watch this movie, seriously. Harvey Keitel strangles a cat, then later tries to hang it when it “returns” (nine lives, I guess). This is seriously not nice to watch, but… I have to admit, part of the disturbance is the inability of me as an audience to take my eyes off it. That’s what Dario Argento works on. The whole segment is very much about the evil in all mankind, the realisation that all people can go the way of what is considered “evil”. I haven’t read Poe in a long time, so I probably missed a lot of references here, but apparently there are many. Keitel gives a great performance, playing that kind of character who is particularly suave, who is smart in deceiving his suspectors for some time, but too drawn to showing off in the end, giving clues to his cop friends, betraying himself to further inspection. The whole final sequence is impossible to take your eyes off, the innocence of an autograph request, the infuration of a pen not working, the acceptance of Keitel’s discovery.

These two shorts joined together are a demonstration of bad and good movie making. Though neither are particularly masterful works of art, it’s all too clear that Argento’s segment is better than Romero’s. Therein lies the only interest of this movie.

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