User Reviews

I suppose any film dipping into the tormented private life of Edgar Allan Poe would drive most to drink, since his poetry and stories were not too far removed from his personal reality. In that regard, Stuart Gordon's second-season "Masters of Horror" episode delivers in spades, with Jeffrey Combs embodying all the depression and madness that afflicted Poe with great pathos. Unfortunately, the desaturated color scheme makes the film visually unappealing (imagine a Hammer production without the bold, vibrant colors), and the overall plot progresses at a slow, melodramatic pace; there are shocks, yes, but no real scares. Actually, some of the details divulged by Gordon, Combs and others on the DVD "making-of" featurette are illuminating, and gave me a bit more respect for what the filmmakers achieved (in a sense, 'The Black Cat' has much in common with E. Elias Merhige's "Shadow of the Vampire"); in retrospect, blending details of Poe's life with his fiction is a neat concept, and the script (co-written by Gordon and Dennis Paoli) blurs the line quite well. 'The Black Cat,' despite its deliberate pace and lack of out-there humor, has a good anchor in Combs (who looks uncannily like Poe) and a few bits of ironic humor; additionally, the last 10 minutes are by turns touching, shocking, and hopeful--the first time in a long time where I've seen a dream sequence applied with such skill and gratification.

For one, I can't see Poe hurting a cat. He wrote stories to a wanting public about things like that, didn't do them in real life. And the bird as well, who crushes a bird with their hands? I know this is supposed to be a Masters of Horror episode, but still...I feel it is uninspired. I would have rather saw a show which adapted the real Black Cat story instead of this. It is what I thought I was going to watch. Not some blend of reality and fiction, which people love to do these days and it always is lost on me.

I thought the animal violence had no reason. And I felt Virginia's illness was just for gross out, when consumption wrecked the loves of Poe's life. I guess if it is a Poe story, I am OK with it but exploiting his life and persona for a gross out, makes me disrespect the director of this episode. And I don't mind gross out stuff, like the Right to Die episode, that made sense within the frame of the episode. I can't really get my head around what the writers and directors of this episode wanted to achieve. It's not really a bio, not really a story...just a mess of facts and Poe's fiction. It's badly done horror at best, hence the 3, which I give because I personally like the sepia tone look of it and the acting. I just didn't like the writing or concept of it. It seems like a mockery until the last few minutes, when you see Poe was dreaming and he is inspired to write the Black Cat because of his dreams, but it's a bit too little, too late. I will bump it up to a 4 because of the ending.

Maybe it's the idea that horror authors have to be crazy people...like Poe or Lovecraft have to be these out of control characters, when in real life, they were mostly low key. And like I say, making light of consumption is sort of rude. I mean, people don't write horror stories about the grossness of having cancer, except maybe for Saw and I think the cancer thing in that respect tries to make the villain more human.

If I see this episode being about the creative process, I could bump it up to 5. I like the concept of that...yet the rest of the weird mockery stuff bugs me.

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".

This is the first 'Masters of Horror' episode I've ever watched, and my initial thought/comparison is how similar the opening theme music is to John Murphy's 'In the House - In a Heartbeat' from the title track of '28 Days Later from 2013'.

The Black Cat was originally published as a short story by Edgar Allan Poe in 1843 and now having both read and watched this short episode (which is based on the original story). Whilst the short story is less than 4,000 words and the episode less than 60 minutes there are some strong differences worth noting. The story doesn't specify that the narrator is in fact Poe, but this is made clear from the outset in the film.

The film, whilst beautifully shot with vivid colours - the cat's green eyes, the orange of the goldfish and the yellow of the bird, draws the viewers eyes to key aspects from the original story in that Poe was particularly fond of animals stating "I was especially fond of animals and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets. With these, I spent most of my time, and never was so happy as when feeding and caressing them." The original story makes it obvious from the start that intemperance drove Poe to harm the animals rather than any real underlying contempt for them.

The story does not present Poe's wife as being unwell with 'the white plague' or tuberculosis and is merely a victim of Poe's alcoholic rages in the original story. Presumably, this is to give the female character more depth as opposed to just being the mistreated wife and to add to the ongoing rage that Poe suffers. The story also does not have the same happy ending as the film, and ends simply with his wives corpse being located behind the wall after howls from the cat can be heard. For a short story or poetry, this ending works well but could leave viewers wanting more at the end of the episode.

For a lover of gore in movies, there were a number of appealing scenes, including the prosthetics used with the axe, the decaying corpse in the wall and the removal of poor Pluto's eye. Also being an avid fan of Jeffrey Combs and Stuart Gordon made me seek this particular episode out as a first on my journey through Masters of Horror. Unsure where the inspiration is going to come from for the other episodes, this first one has definitely made me want to explore more.

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.

Masters of Horror: The Black Cat starts as the broke Edgar Allan Poe (Jeffrey Combs) tries to sell some poetry to his publisher George Graham (no not the Arsenal football club legend!) but he thinks Poe should get back to writing what he writes best, fantastical stories of horror. Poe disagrees & continues to squander his money on drink, however his priorities have to chance when his wife Virginia (Elyse Levesque) becomes seriously ill & he has to find money for her medicine. As Poe sit down to write the sort of story Graham (Aron Tager) wants his wife's black cat Pluto seems to haunting him & driving him mad...

This Canadian American co-production was episode 11 from season 2 of the hit-and-miss Masters of Horror TV series, the second Masters of Horror story to be directed by Stuart Gordon I was deeply disappointed by The Black Cat. The script by Gordon & Stuart Paoli feels more like an autobiographical character study rather than horror for the first 40 odd minutes before it finally gets going during it's last quarter. As a lover of the horror genre myself I should be fascinated with this episode which bases it's central premise around Edgar Allan Poe who was responsible for the source material & ideas for a lot of genre films but to be honest I couldn't give a toss about him, I haven't got a clue whether this is an accurate representation of him & what he was like & frankly I couldn't care less either way. So straight away I've got a problem with it, then there's the fact that the majority of the time Poe is painted as some drunk, aggressive, rude, lying brute who I really disliked & that made it very difficult for me to care about anything which was going on. Then there's the clichéd lame cop-out ending which destroy just about everything that has gone before although I admit I didn't see it coming mainly because I thought the likes of Gordon was better than it. I was pretty bored during the opening half but at least things pick up towards the end, it's well written enough I suppose & I can see how some might be drawn in & like it but it didn't do much for me.

Director Gordon does a fine job, this one looks good with great period sets & detail as it was set in the first half of the 19th Century (Poe himself lived between 1809 & 1849). Almost all the colour has been removed & this isn't too far away from being black and white apart from the brilliant creative decision to emphasise all the reds, from the bright red wine to the predictable spurts & splatterings of bright red blood, it's a nice touch which works very well & gives The Black Cat a bit of style. There's not much gore here although there is one big special effect when someone gets an axe stuck in their head in a great scene with plenty of blood, a cat has it's eye poked out, someone coughs up loads of blood & animal lovers should beware a few critters bite the dust so bear that in mind. This one lacks any great scares & there are only a couple of horror themed sequences throughout.

Technically The Black Cat is excellent with great production values & it's very well made with a convincingly realised & authentic looking period setting. The acting is good although while I've liked Combs in just about everything I've seen in him I thought he was a bit bland & unlikable in this.

The Black Cat certainly isn't a Masters of Horror I will look back on with any great fondness, I'm sorry but it's as simple & straight forward as that. Another week, another Masters of Horror episode, another disappointment.

It is well done, but I think a longer movie with a better budget would be surely better.