(1990) ***/****
This film consists of 2 hour long stories loosely based on works by Edgar Allen Poe and I'll review them separately. The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar *** This is a slow building tale directed by Romero. A waitress trophy wife and her lover hypnotizes her ailing elderly husband while he's on his death bed to get him to leave her his fortune. When he dies suddenly, they are forced to pretend that he is alive for a month in order to successfully transfer the funds. So they do what anyone would do, put his body in a freezer in the basement. Bada-bing-bada-boom. Problems arise when the ghost of the old man, who is trapped between 2 worlds haunts them and begs to be released. 1990 was really a dark time for horror movies and this has a 90's TV look to it that distracts you but overall it a fun little Hitchcockian tale. I much preferred the Black Cat **** directed by your friend and mine - the great Dario Argento. This vicious little tale begins with the police
discovering a naked woman sawed in half by an spinning blade in a torture chamber. Harvey Keitell plays a disturbed photographer that photographs morbid acts of violence. He has a creepy girlfriend that chants in her spare time and owns an evil black cat. This cat may or may not force him to do unspeakable things. Without giving away anything else I'll only say that this is the best horror I've seen thus far although the month is young. Like all Argento films, this one is filmed with style and verve. Tom Savini makes a nice little guest appearance as does music by Goblin.
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