Wonderfully offbeat film!

The movie is wildly uneven but lively and timely - in its own surreal way

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

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

Generally I have nothing against creative adaptations of some classic works. I was even able to swallow South Park adaptation of Dickens story which was of little fun but in the context of the series it was okay. But there are some limits that should not be crossed in rehash and these have been crossed a big way here. The actors performance and the Victorian era feel are okay, but the movie is simply wasted by its insulting and crazy storyline.This "Poe story" rehash is a very bad one. Basically it is mix of several of his stories together combined with his real life to create very generic Hollywood thriller. It is basically a big fail to mix several self contained stories in some "thriller revue" style putting focus to something that would Poe never do (like focus on the secondary characters in the story, because Poe never did that in his stories). There are too many twists for such short story etc etc. In short: Do not try to improve Poe if you have no idea how his stories work. Even the Simpsons adaptation of The Raven was more faithful! To add insult to the injury the creators of this mix-up decided to use Poe as a lead psychopathic character. They let him kill several animals in pretty ruthless graphic way, then kill his wife, then bury the wife and to tease the police officers. This is just incredible for real character! Yes, there is artistic license to change reality a bit, but there must be limits. What about making a movie about Abraham Lincoln that would show him has a young spoiled brat that would beat the black guys and rape the black girls? You know, you would do that because you want to create "the redemption" style movie, he changes his ways of life, then leads the nation against the slavery. Why not? If you can show A.E.Poe as a psychopathic murderer, why not do the same thing for A. Lincoln? I find both these cases insulting in the very same way. You just do not pee on people's graves just because it could add some "juice" to your story. That's insulting, simply insulting! And what about the ending in style "it was just a bad dream"? It is classical poor unimaginative ending when you have no idea how to quickly clean up all the mess you have created. The only thing that would be even more pathetic would be "The End?" This movie is an insult to E.A.Poe and to the good taste in general. I simply do not understand anyone who would comment this movie as a "respectful" or "true to the Poe's work".

I'd heard that the second season of MASTERS of HORROR was really bad so going into this a had very low expectations. Every body knows the e.a.p. Story the black cat, nut seldom do the film adaptations follow it closely. This version is VERY complimentary of that story, they even went that extra mile in making the actor look almost exactly like Edgar Allen Poe. I was pleasantly surprised by how graphic the violence was depicted. I really loved this movie. In fact the only bad thing I can say about it is the ending *SPOILER*The ending is just a crock of sh!t! They pull that whole it was all a dream bit. And it's like really? After enjoying every minute up till that point and than boom! Nose dive!

Combs is just perfect. I don't have a clue, if that's how Poe looked like, but the portrayal that Combs gives to this man and the way it is handled by the director is just great. I really loved it (despite the fact, that the ending might kill some buzz for quite a few people, who might not like the way it concludes).This is how crazy people work you could say. And while I have seen quite a few attempts to capture the essence of Poes short stories, it seems refreshing to watch it from the point of Poe's view. While he was great writer, he also was human. And that is what Combs captures greatly with his performance. Every facade of him, even if most of it might not be entirely true (again, I'm not a Poe scholar or anything), this is highly entertaining. I can't account for any biographical mistakes that are being made here. But if you notice any, hopefully you won't mind too much, because although this is about Poe, it's also meant to be a fictional Masters of Horror episode. A good one at that ...

Edgar Allen Poe(Jeffrey Combs, a bit hammy but still entertaining)is really struggling to find the inspiration to write another tale of the fantastic as his darling wife Virginia is slowly dying from tuberculosis("The White Plague")and his damn cat Pluto seems to be more irritating than usual. Living in poverty and drinking heavily, Poe is sliding into an abyss of sadness and depression. Virginia wishes to sell her beloved piano and Edgar returns from another round of gobbling booze so the idea of talking finances seems moot. A visitor, hoping to purchase their piano, is witness, along with drunken Edgar, to Virginia's beautiful playing only to see the horror of her throat's blood vessel bursting resulting in lots of splatter. Blood all over the piano and floor as Pluto drinks a little from a puddle. Very soon, Virginia can no longer stand very long and is practically bedridden. But, they are so poor(..and Edgar makes so little for his work during this period)and burdened with debt that their doctor will no longer invest in the welfare of her condition. With his wife at death's door and a creative drought lasting endlessly, Edgar is slowly growing mad and Pluto the cat just won't keep away from the pet goldfish and canary. He even claims that the cat is "killing" Virginia as Edgar spots it around her face when he walks into the bedroom. Soon she's passed on and he is at the point of no return..blaming the poor cat, Edgar cuts out his eyeball and eventually hangs him. Yep, cat lovers may wish to look elsewhere for their entertainment. With no money to properly bury his beloved, Edgar decides to leave her casket open while burning down the home they lived in..while Pluto hangs from the neck in death. Little does he know that Virginia actually awakens from the dead and Edgar carries her from the flaming house to live elsewhere. Yet, he will be haunted by the sound of a cat and the shadows of the feline loom around him.Stuart Gordon presents a stunning looking film which might appeal to gorehounds and B&W Gothic horror fans alike. One image seems directly inspired by Tourneur's "Cat People" as a frightened Edgar walks hurriedly from a bar he just got thrown out of as a large panther-like shadow follows him across the stone walls of buildings. There's a nasty "head-splitting" scene where an unfortunate victim stands in the way for Pluto as Edgar lunges an ax directly into said person's face dicing the skull. The blood-vessel burst is a nasty bit of business as Stuart has sprays and gobs of the thick red stuff landing on the camera and piano keys. It's clear Stuart had to add a little black humor within the sad scene as the cat drinks from a blood puddle as if it were milk. The effects are amazingly accomplished on such a tight budget using both make-up effects and computer generated work. I watched the behind-the-scenes documents on the making of the short film from the Masters of Horror brand and the creation of the special effects and make-up. Combs looks very similar to Poe. My only real problem is the dialogue which seems rather modern, but I dealt with it okay, I guess. I think Gothic horror fans would fall in love with Stuart's use of black and white photography, splicing bits of color within. The setting, I felt, was pretty accurate for that time period considering the smallish budget this kind of production has. I am kind of curious if the twist at the end will work for many..I kind of thought it works as a presentation of a troubled artist finding inspiration through a bout of dementia.