Two Evil Eyes

(1990) ***/****

Two stories by Edgar Allen Poe "The Facts About Mr. Valdemar." Directed by George Romero and “The Black Cat” Directed by Dario Argento.


The Facts About Mr. Valdemar:
A woman and her lover are trying to scam her sick old husband out of his fortune. Her lover, a doctor hypnotizes the old man and directs him to sign papers authorizing his wife to have control over a large sum of money. Everything is going swimmingly until the old man dies unexpectedly before the paperwork is finalized. They decide to hide his death and store the old guy in the freezer until said paperwork has come through. Here’s the trouble, the old man died under hypnosis and is trapped in some kind of netherworld purgatory. He is able to speak and communicate with the doctor and his unfaithful wife and begs to be released. What follows is paranoia and panic on the part of the two lovers. They must decide on what to do before the old coot’s babbling drives them insane.

Not a bad story but done a bit draggy. This is not Romero at his best. I should note that it’s in this film that Adrienne Barbeau’s mammoth tits make a second appearance to this years Horrorthon.

The Black Cat:
A wife brings a stray cat home much to her husband’s dismay. He tries to get rid of it but the damn thing keeps coming back, even after he thought it was dead. I don’t want to give you any more than that because this story slowly builds to nail biting suspense.

If you do not know this Poe tale then you should definitely either read it or watch a movie as in this one. Argento is brilliant here and I have to say this is one of the best portrayals I’ve seen of this particular story. Harvey Keitel is great as the angry husband. If you only watch this film for the second segment it’s entirely worth your time. Excellent!