I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Three Poe stories; three directors; three failures.Simply put, this movie is not entertaining. Using Poe's name, and labeling the stories as interpretations by famous directors does not cover the poor performance and overall boring conclusion.The viewer, very possibly a fan of Poe, keeps hoping for something to develop, but it never does. Jane Fonda never removes her clothes. Peter Fonda is a again outperformed by a bird. The beautiful scenery and castles are fantastic. Hells bells ring loud and clear. But the movie never turns into an entertaining event.The Night Gallery TV series had many good stories and many duds. The adaptations of Poe stories in the film Spirits of the Dead would never have been used in the most desperate space-filler needs of television.There are several good film adaptations of Poe stories, but Spirits of the Dead is not worth watching.

The stories differ in their messages. The first one,"Metzengerstein", from Roger Vadim, is quite simple and it has plenty of erotic scenes. Jane Fonda showed her beauty at that time when she was married to Vadim. I did not find anything interesting in this story, except that selfish always wants what is denied to them. The second is "William Wilson" with Briggite Bardot vs Alain Delon, who played two roles in this segment. The director Louis Malle probably wanted to show that each person has two faces or characters, one bad and another one good. The problem is that the good one dies normally before the bad. The scenes of this story are very much revolting. Fellini's "Toby Dammit" was the last one, which I saw with some skepticism of being able to understand it. Sometimes you should be inside Fellini's brains to understand what he really wants to say, but incredibly this was understood. An actor already tired of not having his own life and invited to receive an award suddenly he is becoming himself and doing some unpleasant declarations and gestures. The end of his life is his happiness, i.e. when he is able to do what he wanted.

It's reassuring to see that other IMDb reviewers have had the good sense to pan this disappointing film, at the risk of blaspheming against the great Vadim, Malle and Fellini.These directors may be talented & artistic in their own right; however in attempting to pass off this hodgepodge of attempted eroticism and 60s chic as *in any way* related to Edgar Allen Poe's stories, they exposed themselves as frauds. Either (A) they didn't bother to read the Poe stories, or (B) they read them but were so transfixed by their own egotistical agenda that they didn't pay Poe any mind.Imagine if Metallica plugged in their guitars, cranked the amps up to 11 and moshed out 3 chords claiming it to be Beethoven's 9th Symphony. That's the feeling you'll get after sitting through this film. If you're a Vadim/Malle/Fellini fan (Metallica), you'll dig it. If you're a Beethoven fan (Poe), you'll puke.METZERGENSTEIN...Here we begin with a bizarre porno version of Poe. OK, "porno" may be a bit extreme haha, but at the very least you have to call it a Barbarella version (including, I don't doubt, some of Jane's outfits coming directly from the set of that scifi romp). Vadim falls into old clichés of his own: the girl lying on a bed being pleasured by some man whilst from the pillow-cam we see the apathy in her eyes; the general lassitude and ennui of a woman who finds no satisfaction in hedonism. Cute stuff, but "Metzergenstein" ain't the place for it. And in addition to the Barbarella outfits and irrelevant erotic themes, Jane Fonda's awful American accent and unconvincing performance as a European countess made this the worst casting since Julia Roberts in that lousy version of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.WILLIAM Wilson...Here's a great Poe story about the madness that claims a man when he realizes that he is no longer unique in the world. If you really want to see a fantastic visual interpretation of this theme, go watch Star Trek episode #27 "The Alternative Factor". But here, Malle glazes over that central theme and instead focuses on... any guesses...? yup, eroticism, sadism and debauchery. Ho hum. Brigitte Bardot's role is a complete fabrication to accomplish that end, and once again the director distorts a classic Poe story into a masturbatory catharsis of his own unrequited sexual issues. Do it on your own time, Malle. I thought we're here on Poe's dime.TOBY DAMMIT....The absolute worst of the three and possibly the worst film I've seen since "Staying Alive". At least Fellini showed some tact in changing the title, but his departure from the original plot, theme and humour of the story is so vast, I wonder if he just picked this reel out of his private collection of home movies, stamped "Edgar Allen Poe story" on it and submitted it to this collection. I strained very hard to find any thread of familiarity with Poe's works, but there was absolutely none.The original Poe story ("Never Bet the Devil Your Head") is a short and hilarious dark fable about a man who constantly exclaims "I'll bet the devil my head..." On a foggy morning, the devil takes him up on his offer. The result is the sickest and silliest thing you've ever read. This was Poe, the comedian, at his finest (yes, Poe wrote many comedies. Also check out "A Predicament" and "Devil in the Belfry" if you want a taste of his witty, satirical works).This Fellini version? It's bland, soulless, and not funny at all (unless you consider it funny to see a drunk stumbling over himself for 45 minutes). Here Fellini's egotistical rant is about an artist struggling with the hypocrisy, pretense and mediocrity of cinema. Most of it is set at an awards ceremony where Fellini beats us over the head with sarcasm, cynicism and that classic "sour grapes" attitude that we find in all Fellini films dealing with cinema. Note the sarcastic jabs at "the critics", a recurring theme in Fellini's films. For someone who considered himself above the critics, Fellini sure spent a lot of time talking about them. At any rate, I feel like Fellini just took some outtakes from 8 1/2, spliced them together and sold it as a Poe story. Worst "adaptation" ever.I think I put more effort into typing this review than any of the three directors put into making a Poe movie.

Those 5 out of 10 stars go only to the Fellini piece which is the last of the three.The first tale directed by Vadim starring both Jane & Peter Fonda is the cheapest looking of the three. Maybe Fellini actually made his part first and used up most of the budget for this flick. Who knows! Anyway, this first part is really only worthwhile to see Ms. Fonda looking gorgeous at the height of her beauty. Other than that, it's a total snoozer. Literally will put you to sleep. Not much dialoug even, just lots of scenes with Jane riding around on a horse.The second part directed by Louis Malle starring Alain Delon is more straight forward in narrative but tells a boring story. Bridget Bardot is totally wasted in her part of the movie as a gorgeous heavily eye-lined courtesan playing a game of cards with the star. Mr. Delon is a boring as hell actor and Mr. Malle's boring direction only makes matters worse.Finally when you think this movie couldn't get any worse, you're right and in comes Mr. Fellini with his third of the movie. Immediately your taken by surprise at the production values and are amazed at how expensive the movie looks and you realize HERE is the grade A production you've been waiting for! Now to be honest, the story really didn't grab me and frankly, Mr. Fellini is not one for subtlety when he's trying to make a point, but he is a master at creating fun visuals to simply look at and enjoy. And the best performance in the movie goes to the great Terrance Stamp who doesn't fail to impress us here. I think if you just showed this last third of the movie at a college it would get a great response.If you never catch this flick, don't worry about it. But if you're one of those die hard movie fans who like to be able to cross unseen movies off their list, well then, give it a go I guess.