|
Edgar
Allan Poe is a tormented writer with a very ill
wife. He drinks all his money away and is slowly
running out of ideas for new stories. Things go from
bad to worse as his wife is on her death bed while
Allan is unable to pay for a doctor. With no one else
to blame but himself, Allan decides that his wife's
black cat is the source of his misfortunes.
Rave reviews are popping up everywhere for Stuart
Gordon's latest Masters Of Horror episode, and I can
see how Gordon fans would really enjoy this. For me
on the other hand, it's a bit too artistic. Just like
with Dreams In the Witch-House, The Black Cat is dark,
confusing and very abstract. It's not a popcorn-movie
at all since the pace is pretty slow and the mood is
quite depressing. I appreciate the fact that Gordon
tried to capture how Edgar Allan Poe really was as a
person, and let us see the world through his eyes.
Any normal movie critic would love a deep and dark
movie like this, I'm sure, but I just think that movies
like these are depressing - good but depressing.
The story is bizarre to say the least (well, if you've
read the story you should know). The movie revolves
around Poe himself (played by Jeffrey Combs at his
absolute best) and his tormented mind. His wife is
very ill with the white plague and coughs up blood
every time she gets upset over something. Allan's
drinking doesn't exactly help the situation, nor does
the fact that his wife's cat seems to be the cause
of everything that's going wrong in his life. Allan
decides to get rid of the evil animal once and for
all, but will he succeed?
It's a difficult movie to review, I'll give it that
(though isn't that the case with most artsy movies?)
and it does have a clever story that Gordon has handled
more or less flawlessly. Yes, for Edgar Allan Poe and
Gordon fans, this is probably the best movie of the
year. It's just not my kind of movie. It's too dark
and too depressing for my taste, and the animal cruelty
was extremely difficult for me to watch (which was
probably the point). Great episode if you're into dark
and depressing movies - but definitely not for everyone.
An axe in the head and some animal cruelty.
Peculiar soundtrack that makes the movie even more
artsy. It does seem to fit in though but it didn't
do very much for me.
For me, this was just okay, but for many others, I'm
sure that this will be the movie of the year. If you're
into dark movies, you will love this. It's definitely
not a popcorn movie that you watch with your friends.
|
|
