The Black Cat (2007)

I'd heard that the second season of MASTERS of HORROR was really bad so going into this a had very low expectations. Every body knows the e.a.p. Story the black cat, nut seldom do the film adaptations follow it closely. This version is VERY complimentary of that story, they even went that extra mile in making the actor look almost exactly like Edgar Allen Poe. I was pleasantly surprised by how graphic the violence was depicted. I really loved this movie. In fact the only bad thing I can say about it is the ending *SPOILER*The ending is just a crock of sh!t! They pull that whole it was all a dream bit. And it's like really? After enjoying every minute up till that point and than boom! Nose dive!

The life of a genius is not an easy one. In literature, the status is often incumbent on the adage, "ok, you're good, but what have you written lately." This then will be the eventually legacy of the actual man who was in fact the great American writer and classical poet, Edgar Allen Poe. Pressed by the enormous pressures of poverty, reoccurring alcoholism and the lack of inspiration, Poe suffers for his art. With historical retrospect,, we have come to lay wreaths of glory and monumental accolades on his works and therefore it's difficult to see how a great man could not have found success earlier. In this film we have another great artist Jeffery Combs, playing the part of the legendary and literary icon. One marvels at how uncanny Combs captured the haunting visual image of Poe and then imbued him with such mortal conviction. He thus awaken the conflicts of the Poet and his struggle for a horror story which would not only scare audiences throughout the decades, but may have paid his wife's medical bills. By immersing himself in a surreal fantasy, he discovers that fact and fiction are separated only by pain. All in all, I suspect this particular film will easily become a classic. ****

I suppose any film dipping into the tormented private life of Edgar Allan Poe would drive most to drink, since his poetry and stories were not too far removed from his personal reality. In that regard, Stuart Gordon's second-season "Masters of Horror" episode delivers in spades, with Jeffrey Combs embodying all the depression and madness that afflicted Poe with great pathos. Unfortunately, the desaturated color scheme makes the film visually unappealing (imagine a Hammer production without the bold, vibrant colors), and the overall plot progresses at a slow, melodramatic pace; there are shocks, yes, but no real scares. Actually, some of the details divulged by Gordon, Combs and others on the DVD "making-of" featurette are illuminating, and gave me a bit more respect for what the filmmakers achieved (in a sense, 'The Black Cat' has much in common with E. Elias Merhige's "Shadow of the Vampire"); in retrospect, blending details of Poe's life with his fiction is a neat concept, and the script (co-written by Gordon and Dennis Paoli) blurs the line quite well. 'The Black Cat,' despite its deliberate pace and lack of out-there humor, has a good anchor in Combs (who looks uncannily like Poe) and a few bits of ironic humor; additionally, the last 10 minutes are by turns touching, shocking, and hopeful--the first time in a long time where I've seen a dream sequence applied with such skill and gratification.

I'm a huge fan of the MOH series, and this episode did not let down at all. Things start off pretty slowly, as we find Edgar A. Poe and his wife Virginia living in Philadelphia, with Poe trying to eek out a living as a writer and his wife staying at home and looking hot. Combs is nearly unrecognizable under the Poe makeup, but that doesn't stop him from doing the very typical Jeffrey Combs overacting, as usual, and for a short time, one begins to wonder where the horror is. My advice to you is to be patient. Because of the slow start, by the time things start getting bloody, you are so invested in the characters that you kinda wish the story wasn't so horrific. There are beautiful, blood-soaked scenes and horrific, disturbing ones. There is a murder in this episode so disturbing that I almost had to turn away. That's as big a compliment as you'll get from me. 9 out of 10.