GL84 Two of the genre's biggest and most respected directors adapt short stories based on the work of Edgar Allen Poe.The Good Story: The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar-Trying to exploit her terminal husband, a woman and her lovers' plan to collect the money of his estate runs into trouble when he dies before he's required. Desperate for their plans to succeed, they realize that when he was hypnotized before his death the condition carries on into the afterlife only to find his state far more dangerous than they realized. This was quite the wholly enjoyable and thrilling take on the story. Updating the classic period story into a more modern setting, replete with the updates to the insurance methods and finding out how to prolong the death sentence which manages to provide a faithful adaptation of the original story. This one still features enough cleverness in bringing out the haunting angle which slowly creeps into the segment and really begins working nicely here delivering rather chilling scenes trying to bring him out of his condition. Although the ending is somewhat cliché and formulaic based on the type of storyline present, overall there's a lot to like with this effort.The Bad Story; The Black Cat-Trying to get his career going, a photographer finds that his girlfriends' pet cat has taken an extreme dislike towards him which eventually causes him to kill her and the cat. Carrying on as if she left him, he finds that the idea of keeping her stored away isn't as foolproof as he intended when he fears the cat might not be dead after all. This here is quite the disjointed if somewhat enjoyable effort. When this one works, it tends to work on the basis of the tormenting done to the cat, which manages to feel really well-done here with the concept of the photoshoot holding the cat roughly or just physically abusing it which is what makes up the majority of the segment here. The scene of him initially snapping and providing this one with him chopping up the one victim gives this one some extra energy for that scene, and it really plays nicely with the second story adaptation being utilized for the finale. For the most part, though, nothing much happens in this one as it's mostly just the threat of the cat doing something rather than anything actually happening as he spends the main part of the segment trying to get away with his ploy. There's never any tension with anything that happens, and it has so few action scenes that it really just drags on without much happening as a vast majority of its plot threads are dropped and never picked up later on at all. It's enjoyable enough on its own, but there's still plenty of flaws here.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Extreme Graphic Language, Full Nudity and violent actions against animals.

acidburn-10 Here we have two short stories based on the works by Edger Allen Poe, and joint directed by 2 of the greatest horror directors alive George A Romeo & Dario Argento, as well as featuring a great cast that includes Adrienne Barbeau (Creepshow, The Fog), Harvey Keitel (Bad Lieutenant, Reservoir Dogs), & Tom Atkins (Halloween III, Night Of The Creeps) and not to mention wonderful special effects done by Tom Savini.Now all this sounds like a recipe for greatness and while the entire movie is highly enjoyable and entertaining, but however it doesn't quite live up to the high expectations that you would expect from the finest directors of the horror genre. Both segments of this story are about an hour long and both do feel rather stretched with too much padding.The first story 'The Facts In The Case Of Mr Valdemar" which was directed by Romero follows a young gold digging wife plots her husband's death so she and her lover can steal his fortune, only for the husband to come back from the dead and out for revenge. While the storyline is certainly intriguing and its small cast is good with Adrienne Barbeau being the clear standout with the complexity of her character creating much of the tension and Ramy Zada does well as her secret lover as we constantly doubt whether or not he can be trusted. Firstly it's nowhere near Romero's best work with quite a few dull moments, and definitely the most padded one out of the 2 stories and is not tackled with the imagination that this story should have had and the cinematography also falls flat and has that made of TV feel to it, making it look far dated than 1990.The second segment 'The Black Cat' directed by Argento is definitely the strongest one out of the 2 which tells the story of a photographer driven insane by cat and therefore is cursed with bar karma. With some stunning and gory visuals and a brilliantly unhinged performance by Harvey Kietel who definitely steals the entire show as he steadily spirals into complete madness is just thrilling to watch, with a fast pace, an even more intriguing story and solid visuals, Argento balances his strong direction flare on an intense focused story with such style.So all in all 'Two Evil Eyes' should have been a masterpiece, but sadly doesn't quite live up to that level, although both stories are entertaining , they're just not up to the level of what these directors have done previously and comes off on the whole feeling a little bit flat.

Paul Celano (chelano) So Dario Argento and George Romero decided to make some movies based off of Edgar Allan Poe. This was tough since it was two movies in one because one movie couldn't ruin the whole feature. The first film was "The Facts in the Case of Mrs. Valdemar". This was Romero's film. I enjoyed this film and how it was done. The cast was half and half though. Ramy Zada was good and so was Jonathan James who played the zombie. Adrienne Barbeau on the other hand was not that good and didn't play her part well. The movie makes you wonder if there is life between reality and Heaven? If so, are they good or evil? The film had some moments that were not scary, but creepy. Where if you were in that situation, you would really be scared. The next film was "The Black Cat". This was Argento's film. The film started off strong, but faded by the end. The cat in the film got creepy after awhile. Harvey Keitel was the lead and at points seemed pretty good. But again, near the end, his acting faded. Madeleine Potter was getting on my nerves. First off I couldn't stand how she looked. It did not fit her character and her acting didn't really work either. Even though the film kind of left the good zone by the end, the whole background to the story was pretty interesting so I will give it that. So Romero wins and I guess you could say Argento was a close second.

Dagon Here we have two stories based off the works of Edgar Allen Poe, directed and written by George Romero and Dario Argento - The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar, and The Black Cat. You would think that such a communion would cause the world to rotate off its axis! I've written several reviews discussing the works of Argento and I've even covered a few of his films - to spare yourself the lecture, travel back and familiarize yourself. I was very excited to finally get the chance to view this film, since I am a huge fan of 1982's Creepshow, and the 1987 follow up Creepshow 2 - two anthology films that combined the creativity of Stephen King and Romero. While Romero was not responsible for directing the second installment, his talents were recognized in the screenplay. Naturally when I realized that Two Evil Eyes was another anthology, I was thrilled! Especially since I greatly admire the work he did on Tales From the Darkside, an anthology TV series that ran from 1984-1988.***The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar - Directed/Screenplay written by George Romero***The lead female role, Jessica Valdemar, is played by John Carpenter's ex-wife Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog 1980, Swamp Thing 1982, Creepshow, and notable television work). The premise concerns Jessica's attempt to cheat her terminally ill father out of his assets with the help of her lover, Dr. Robert Hoffman. They achieve this by hypnotizing Ernest Valdemar with the intent of falsely misleading the lawyers that require certain paperwork to be completed on his behalf. Suddenly, Mr. Valdemar goes into cardiac arrest during a hypnosis session and his body is moved into the basement. Then...moaning and other noises are heard throughout the night.It's also worth mentioning that Tom Atkins appears in this story as Dectective Grogan. Atkins has been in a number of horror films himself, with The Fog, Creepshow, Halloween III: Season of the Witch from 1982, 1988's Maniac Cop, the 2009 remake of My Bloody Valentine, and 2000's Bruiser which I'll be reviewing in just a bit. He seems to gravitate towards the role of an old-school detective even if its a minor one. There are some who claim that Romero laced this story with an undercurrent theme of capitalism but I just enjoyed it for what it was. It was Poe's genius that created this tale but it's very entertaining to watch Romero adapt the story into film and revisit, yet again, the walking dead. There is also a very good adaptation of this Poe tale in 1962's Tales of Terror with Vincent Price, Joyce Jameson (Amaryllis from The Comedy of Terrors!), and Basil Rathbone.***The Black Cat - Directed/Screenplay written by Dario Argento***Rod Usher, played by Harvey Keitel, is a crime scene photographer who lives a gritty and harsh lifestyle in comparison to his girlfriend Annabel, who enjoys playing the violin and appreciating the arts. When Annabel introduces a new cat into the house hold, Usher grows increasingly violent towards the animal - eventually causing him to murder it. Several days after its death, Annabel grows suspicious of the whereabouts of her pet, and even concludes that Usher played a part in its disappearance. A stray cat with identical markings of the diseased animal is brought home, much to the surprise of Usher, who attempts to kill it once more. The madness that follows thereafter, builds to an exciting finale.It's a relief that Argento had access to English-speaking actors and did not have to resort to dubbing the audio - this enables the film to rest alittle easier on the viewer's patience. I read that Argento mixed several different elements from Poe short stories into his version of The Black Cat. The character name of Rod Usher, short for Roderick Usher, assuredly, is taken from another Poe short story entitled The Fall of the House of Usher - which happens to be a personal favorite of mine! Tom Savini even makes a cameo but most of his work is realized in the form of special effects. This is such a great combination of talent on all fronts...even when Argento fails to deliver in every other department, his vision, at least aesthetically, is always represented so morbidly; it's fantastic. Argento guarantees you that much.**An 18-year-old Julia Benz also appears in this film as a young violin student. You may know her as Rita from the hit TV show Dexter featured on Showtime.In conclusion, Two Evil Eyes is a must-see for anyone who appreciates anthology films, a must-see for anyone that loves Argento, and a must- see for any Romero fan. The stories chosen may not touch accurately enough to be considered true derivatives of Poe's work...but out of the many adaptations that I've seen, this almost always seems to be the case.