Archive for Edgar Allan Poe

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House of Usher: A Celebration of 1960 Review

House of Usher: A Celebration of 1960 Review

Although many younger television and movie fans may think that the 1970s represent an archaic time in entertainment, there were certain advantages to growing up during this period. One was that television was all about local markets, and this made it necessary for local stations to find programming that would keep the viewer’s attention. One [...]

Supernal Dreams: Orson Welles's unfilmed Edgar Allan Poe script for SPIRITS OF THE DEAD

Supernal Dreams: Orson Welles’s unfilmed Edgar Allan Poe script for SPIRITS OF THE DEAD

In June 1967, the professional film journals announced that Orson Welles would direct an episode of the omnibus film Histoires Extraordinaires or Spirits of the Dead as it came to be known in America. By September, it was made public that Welles’s episode would be replaced by one directed by Federico Fellini. The final film [...]

Nevermore: Artwork from Roger Corman’s Poe Films – Video

Starting in 1960 with THE HOUSE OF USHER, producer-director Roger Corman crafted a series of stylish horror films inspired by the work of Edgar Allan Poe. Although the screenplays (usually by Richard Matheson or Charles Beaumont) had to embellish the short stories in order to fill out the feature length running time, the production design and [...]

The Raven (1935) - Retrospective Horror Film & DVD Review

The Raven (1935) – Retrospective Horror Film & DVD Review

The 1935 pairing of horror stars Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff is still enjoyably over-the-top entertainment.
With the advances in Video on Demand, including services like Amazon.com and Netflix that allow you to watch movies on your TV anytime you like without having to own them, my days of purchasing DVDs are rapidly dwindling. However, I [...]

Two Evil Eyes (1990) - Blu-ray Review

Two Evil Eyes (1990) – Blu-ray Review

This is strange entry in the careers of George A Romero and Dario Argento, as fans expecting an anthology along the lines of Creepshow were instead given essentially 2 almost completely unrelated hour-long features based on stories by Edgar Allen Poe. Romero’s episode is about a wealthy patriarch who dies while under hypnosis; his gold-digging wife [...]

Cybersurfing: Ligeia rises from her tomb again.

Cybersurfing: Ligeia rises from her tomb again.

Den of Geek has an interview with Michale Staininger, who is making his directorial debut with a contemporary film adaptation of Edgar Alan Poe’s “Ligeia” (which previously furnished the inspiration for 1964’s TOMB OF LIGEIA, starring Elizabeth Shepherd in the title role). The story follows a man who believes his late wife willpower was strong enough [...]

Supernal Dreams: Vincent Price on Edgar Allan Poe

Here, from the vast CFQ archives are Vincent Price’s “Thoughts about the horror films that made him famous.” It’s a piece I wrote for the fabulous double issue of Cinefantastique, from January, 1989 on the career of “Horror’s crown prince,” Mr. Vincent Price.

Of course, earlier today, Steve B. posted the sad news about the passing [...]

Supernal Dreams: Richard Matheson’s Poe scripts published by Gauntlet

By a strange coincidence, I have just re-joined the staff of  CFQonline,  only a few days after receiving the first copies of the new book I edited, Visions of Death, which contains two of Richard Matheson’s original shooting scripts for House of Usher and The Pit and the Pendulum.  
For years I’ve wanted to publish Mr. Matheson’s Poe [...]

Masque of the Red Death (1964) - A Retrospective

Masque of the Red Death (1964) – A Retrospective

This film features Vincent Price (the Merchant of Menace) in one of his finest roles—as Prince Prospero. Based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, producer-director Roger Corman’s film mostly eschews shock tactics and formulaic suspense, instead emphasizing the moral aspect of horror, as the Devil-worshipping Prince tries to win over an innocent Christian (Jane Asher) to [...]

Tales of Terror (1962) – A Retrospective

Producer-director Roger Corman’s fourth Poe film (the third starring Vincent Price) benefits greatly from the anthology format, which allows Edgar Allan’s Poe’s stories to reach the screen with relatively less embellishment; consequently, the strengths of the previous films (atmospheric camerawork and production design) are retained, while the weaknesses (limited settings and padded stories) are overshadowed. [...]

Price on Poe: Thoughts about the Horror that Made him Famous

Long before Vincent Price was asked by director Roger Corman to star in a screen version of THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1960), he had been a fervent admirer of the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Price relates “I’ve been enchanted by Poe ever since I was forced to read him as a [...]