Edgar Allan Poe Movies

Seven students participating in an experiment designed to eliminate the sensation of pain begin to question the validity of the study after arriving at a remote institute and realizing that their numbers are dwindling fast. Greeted at the institute by eccentric scientist JB Divay, the students view their host's fascination with hypnosis, clocks, and cactuses as simple personality quirks. Before long, however, the frightened lab rats discover that Divay is far from the harmless crackpot she first appeared to be. Later, when one of the students finds his boyfriend strapped to a table beneath a giant pendulum, he must race to prevent Divay from finishing her final experiment. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Curtis Harrington, a perennial cult figure who made such atmospheric low-budget horror films as Night Tide, Queen of Blood, and Games, both stars in and directs this adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Fall of the House of Usher. Harrington plays Roderick Usher, a poet who lives in his family's decaying mansion along with his twin sister, Madeline. As a young writer comes to visit the aging poet, the close bond between Roderick and Madeline becomes obvious, and when the sister dies while celebrating her birthday, Roderick quickly has her buried. But is Madeline truly dead? And what has become of her brother? Usher marked the second time Harrington adapted Poe's tale for the screen, having directed an amateur film based on the story when he was a teenager. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Edgar Allan Poe's timeless tale of murder and madness arrives onscreen in filmmaker Scott Mansfield's loyal adaptation of The Tell-Tale Heart. Driven to madness and compelled to take the life of his elderly, bedridden charge, a man seeking peace and quiet finds that death is only the beginning of his terror and there is no escape from the sound of the world turning. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Edgar Allan Poe's classic 1841 detective story Murders in the Rue Morgue was adapted for television by David Epstein. Two women--a mother and a daughter--are brutally killed in their tiny Paris apartment. There are no eyewitnesses, and the earwitnesses are wildly contradictory. The evidence points to a man of superhuman strength: perhaps it was the girl's jealous fiance. Enter consulting detective C. Auguste Dupin (George C. Scott), who with a methodical application of logic solves the mystery. The younger of the two unfortunate ladies was played by Rebecca De Mornay, still in her ingenue phase. Murders in the Rue Morgue was originally telecast December 7, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A maddened Roderick Usher (Martin Landau) and his dying sister Madeline (Dimitra Arliss) are the only surviving members of the ancient race of the Ushers in this rendition of the classic Edgar Allen Poe tale. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

Italian goremeister Lucio Fulci applies his characteristic touch to the Edgar Allan Poe tale (of which very little remains intact) to tell the story of a deranged, wheelchair-bound English psychic (Patrick Magee) who can record the voices of the dead on tape, and apparently possesses the ability to channel evil spirits into the body of his cat -- which he then commands to take vengeance on his enemies. When a freelance crime photographer (Mimsy Farmer) notices traces of feline claw-marks on the bodies of accident victims, her own investigations eventually lead her to Magee's naughty kitty... leading to a confusing climax wherein it is learned (sort of) who's really in charge. Remarkably restrained horror from the man behind such flesh-rending epics as Zombie and The Gates of Hell, this is also nearly incomprehensible, possessing a nightmarish lack of cohesion that is more irritating than frightening. In fact, the most horrifying thing about this film is Fulci's aggressive tendency to shoot super-tight widescreen close-ups of Magee's eyes and nose. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

This low-budget Mexican production (originally produced for television) is a tepid but fairly accurate adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's tale, set during the Civil War. The story involves a young woman haunted by the vengeful spirit of a young bride, whose soul had been trapped for decades within the woman's portrait (painted by her insane husband). The occasionally rich period atmosphere is flattened almost completely by sluggish pacing, badly-dubbed (and equally dull) dialogue, and an insolvent ending which may lead the viewer to believe the filmmakers have lost a few pages of Poe's original text. The entire affair plays like one of Roger Corman's Poe adaptations -- albeit staged without humor, style or verve. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

Not really a movie, An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe is a videotaped 90-minute TV special starring Vincent Price. Appearing solo, Price recites several vintage Poe tales, including The Black Cat, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Cask of Amontillado. Price is dressed in period costume and performs before 19th century sets, but the stories are staged as "reader's theatre," with only an occasional visual representation. The best of the batch is Cask of Amontillado, which Price relates with giggling glee rather than with the haunted, tormented interpretation utilized by most actors. An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe was a Halloween fixture of local TV stations during the mid-1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Just the thing for spooky Halloween-night viewing, this good-looking German film from director Harald Reinl tells the story of the horrible Count Regula (Christopher Lee), who murdered a dozen virgins and drained their blood. For these heinous crimes, he was sentenced to be drawn and quartered. Thirty-five years later, his undead servant resurrects him for revenge and a 13th victim (pretty Karin Dor), whose blood will give Regula eternal life. Lex Barker (a former movie Tarzan) plays the descendant of the man who sentenced Regula to death and has the task of stopping him, aided by Dor's maid and a highwayman disguised as a monk. Some chilling visuals (a haunted forest with corpses growing out of trees, swarms of vultures in the castle corridors, the obligatory pendulum) and assorted creepy crawlies (pits of snakes, spiders and scorpions) make this a real old-fashioned scare-fest, and it is not too bloody for horror-hungry children. Very loosely based on Edgar Allen Poe's Pit and the Pendulum, this film delivers on its promise to frighten, although the badly-dubbed U.S. version is to be avoided. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

In the early- to mid-1960s, the University of Michigan shipped out several half-hour TV series to local stations. The best of these included The Plays of Shakespeare, The Inquiring Mind and a group of programs spotlighting the Interlochen Youth Camp. Likewise well produced (and well received) was American Story Classics, in which famous short stories were dramatized, then analyzed. Edgar Allen Poe's The Cask of Amontillado, a chilling tale of infidelity, drunkenness, and "premature burial", was one such story. In its own humble way, this adaptation of Cask is every bit as entertaining as the one incorporated into Roger Corman's 1962 omnibus theatrical feature Tales of Terror. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Once again Vincent Price stars for director Roger Corman in The Tomb of Ligeia, the last of Corman's eight Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, a film graced by a script by Robert Towne and moody cinematography by Nicolas Roeg. Price has the creepy lead role of Verden Fell. In 1821, when Verden's wife Ligeia (Elizabeth Shepherd) dies, she is buried in a churchyard, despite the parson's objections that she can't be buried there since she isn't a Christian. Before the grave is closed, abetted by the screech of a black cat, Ligeia eyes shoot open, startling Verden, who becomes convinced that she is not dead. Months later, Lady Rowena (also played by Shepherd) is thrown from her horse and lands at the foot of Ligeia's grave. Verden tends to her and soon falls in love with her. They marry and move into Verden's gloomy Gothic abbey, where Rowena begins to have strange dreams involving Ligeia and a black cat. One night she awakens to discover a dead fox in her bed. When Ligeia's grave is exhumed, instead of Ligeia's corpse, a wax figure is discovered. Then Rowena finds, to her horror, Verden in the arms of his dead wife in a hidden room of the abbey. Having hypnotized Verden before she died, Ligeia had Verden convinced she will live forever. Verden, now possessed by the spirit of his dead wife, takes a torch to the abbey, trapping himself and Rowena in the flaming conflagration. But Christopher (John Westbrook), an admirer of Rowena, endeavors to rescue Rowena from the flames. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Roger Corman's Tales of Terror stars Vincent Price in a trio of short stories, liberally adapted by Richard Matheson from the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The film gets off to a rousing start with "Morella," in which Price's bitterness over the long-ago death of his wife results in tragedy for his estranged daughter Maggie Pierce. The last of the three terror-filled tales, "The Case of Mr. Valdemar," finds Price being put into a state of suspended animation by the diabolical Basil Rathbone; when Rathbone claims Price's bride Debra Paget for himself, Price briefly revives, only to melt before our eyes (this horrific image was reproduced on the film's advertising posters). The film's best story is its centerpiece, "The Black Cat," which weaves elements of "The Cask of Amontillado" into a mordantly funny revenge tale concerning Price, his bitter enemy Peter Lorre, and Lorre's two-timing wife Joyce Jameson. This is the one in which a besotted Lorre walls up Price and Jameson in his cellar, then endures a hellish hallucination of Vincent and Joyce playing a football game with his head! A mixed bag, to be sure, but Tales of Terror remains one of the best of Corman's Poe cycle (though it does lose a lot when not shown in its original Cinemascope form). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi