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.

Rainey Dawn I like the film - it was entertaining. I wasn't crazy about the ending, it ended way to abruptly for me but otherwise a decent watch. It's two short stories - about one hour each.1st: "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" - A very wealthy older man is dying and his young wife is after all the money. The wealthy dying man has a young doctor that his wife is seeing. The doctor keeps him alive to sign papers through hypnosis - signing all over to the wife. They have to keep him alive for awhile longer to get all the paperwork taken care of but the man dies while under hypnosis... is he still alive? Has the wife gone crazy? I really love this first one - I wasn't expecting what happens after the man dies. Kept my interest all the way through! 8/10 2nd: "Black Cat" - A woman finds a black cat and decided to keep it. She lives with her photographer boyfriend who is not crazy about cats but says okay to her keeping it. Later on the boyfriend tortures the cat for photos, kills the cat and the girlfriend knows he did it. They argue a lot as he goes deeper into madness - people end up dead.A pretty good story. It starts out good, hits a lull for a few minutes, then picks back up again. After the girlfriend dies it gets really interesting! 8/10 Overall interesting anthology - I liked it.8/10

ma-cortes Two horror stories based on short stories by Edgar Allan Poe directed by two leading terror filmmakers . An uneven and unoriginal anthology of terror stories adapted from the works of Edgar Allan Poe . Two famous horror directors , George A. Romero and Dario Argento realize a pair of Poe tales , though poorly rendered . In the first titled ¨Valdemar¨ by Romero deals with an egoistic , adulterous wife (Adrienne Barbeau) and a greedy , ambitious medic (Zada) leaving the husband in limbo between death and life . In the second part titled ¨The black cat¨, by Dario Argento , an unscrupulous , vengeful photographer (standout Harvey Keitel as a self-obsessed cameraman) murders his mistress (Madeleine Potter)'s black feline and walling it up . This second episode results to be slightly better than the first .Interesting though average and poorly adapted but with imaginatively staged gory killings by the masters of horror, the talented writers/directors Dario Argento and George A Romero ; resulting to be the Argento part more successful than Romero first entry . American George Romero and Italian cult director Dario Argento , masters of arty gore, bring this eerie and stylish story plagued with depraved gore murders . Exciting film with effective aesthetic that packs lots of gore , guts , chilling assassinations and twists plots . Large support cast and cameos as Edgar G Marshall , Sally Kirkland , John Amos as a detective , Tom Savini as the Monomaniac and brief acting of a newcomer , the young Julie Benz of Dexter . This is a trademark terror work for the Horrormeisters Argento-Romero with high tension quotient and equally elevated suspense by means of an ever-fluid camera that achieves colorful shots well photographed . Atmospheric cinematography by Peter Reiners and odd wide screen , though color effects will suffer on small TV set . Thrilling and frightening musical score by Pino Donaggio . It's a homage to Allan Poe and cult director Roger Corman who directed the notorious ¨Tales of terror¨ with various stories distilled by Richard Matheson , being starred by Peter Lorre , Basil Rathbone and Vincent Price appears in all three segments . ¨Two evil eyes¨ is an acceptable and passable entertainment with surprising and intriguing situations , it does have a few good moments .This scary motion picture is professionally directed by Dario Argento and George A Romero , though uninspired and with no too much originality . George A Romero directed the successful ¨The night of the living dead¨ and three equally celebrated sequels, ¨Dawn of the dead (78)¨ where the zombies attack a shopping mall ,¨Day of the dead dead (85)¨ about flesh-eating zombies taking over the world and scientific experimenting on zombies and ¨Land of dead(2005)¨ with high budget played by Simon Baker , Asia Argento and Dennis Hooper . While Dario Argento is one of those film-makers who set off simple for frightening us to death . His period of biggest hits were the 70s when he directed the animals trilogy : ¨Four flies over gray velvet¨, ¨The cat of nine tails¨, ¨Bird with the crystal plumage¨, after he directed some masterpieces as ¨Suspiria¨, ¨Inferno¨ , ¨Tenebre¨ and of course ¨Deep red¨ , one of the best ¨Giallo . In 1995 Argento made a comeback to the horror genre with ¨La Sindrome Di Stendhal (1996)¨ and then by another version of ¨The phantom of the Opera¨ (1998) both of which starred by his daughter Asia Argento . Most recently, Argento directed a number of 'giallo' mystery thrillers which include Insomnio (2001), ¨Il Cartaio (2004)¨, and ¨Ti Piace Hitchcock?¨ (2005), as well as two creepy , supernatural-themed episodes of the USA TV cable anthology series "Masters of Horror". Furthermore , to his Gothic and violent style of storytelling , ¨La Terza Madre (2007)¨ has a lot of references to the previous two movies as 'Suspiria and Inferno' which is a must for fans of the trilogy . And finally directed this so-so film called ¨Giallo¨ . This bloody fun plenty of graphic gore and weirdness may not be for all tastes but to be liked for Argento and Romero connoisseurs especially .

Witchfinder General 666 When the two greatest Horror directors alive (and two of the greatest of all-time), George A. Romero and Dario Argento make a movie together, a fan of Horror might rightly hope for a masterpiece. "Due Occhi Diabolici" aka. "Two Evil Eyes" from 1990 features two separate 1 hour films based on the work of Edgar Alan Poe, "The Facts In The Case Of Mr. Valdemar", directed by Romero, and "The Black Cat" directed by Argento. "Two Evil Eyes" is certainly great entertainment and a pleasant Horror experience, however it does not quite come up to the high expectations one might have of a film by these two brilliant directors. It must be said, however, that it may be very difficult for a Poe-themed movie to impress me after Roger Corman's brilliant Poe-cycle from the sixties, starring my all-time favorite actor, the great Horror icon Vincent Price. These films, such as "Pit And The Pendulum", "The Haunted Palace" and "Masque Of The Red Death" (just to name the three most ingenious masterpieces of this brilliant cycle) are essential all-time Horror greats, no Poe-themed film has ever come close to those flicks, and it is very unlikely that any ever will.The second segment, Argento's "The Black Cat" is, in my opinion, a lot better than Romero's "Mr. Valdemar", not only for the fact that one of the greatest living actors, Harvey Keitel, plays the lead, but also since it is far more twisted and atmospheric. "The Facts In The Case Of Mr. Valdemar", mainly based on Poe's short story of the same name, tells the tale of a woman named Jessica (Adrienne Barbeau), who, alongside her ex-lover (Ramy Zada), is willing to do quite anything to inherit the entire property of her terminally ill older husband (Bingo O Malley)... The 1 hour segment has some very eerie moments, and a chilling atmosphere over-all. As mentioned above, however, Roger Corman handled the same topic with a lot more depth in 30 minutes as the final segment of "Tales Of Terror" (1962). Admittedly, Corman had a brilliant cast, Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone and Debra Paget."The Black Cat", is also mainly based on Poe's short of the same name. However, this second segment furthermore contains elements from certain other Poe works. A crime-scene photographer with a familiar name, Roderick Usher (Harvey Keitel) and his younger girlfriend Annabel (Madeleine Porter) live happily together in a nice old building. Until one day Anabel takes a black cat home... The second segment is highly atmospheric, nightmarish and very eerie, and crowned by Harvey Keitel's leading performance.All said, "Two Evil Eyes" is neither a highlight of Romero's nor Argento's career, however it is still a good film. Let's not forget we're talking about two geniuses here! If you set your expectations too high and expect a masterpiece of the brilliance of "Night Of The Living Dead" Or "Suspiria" you'll be disappointed. Nevertheless, this is great Horror entertainment. Just keep in mind that you're not about to watch something comparable to Romero's or Argento's masterpieces in quality, and you will have a great time as a Horror fan. My rating: 6/10 for Romero's segment and 8/10 for Argento's segment, makes an overall 7/10. Recommended!