The Black Cat (2007)

That was an excellent one.

Fantastic!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

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 ...

Like the early 1910s silent-era versions of The Raven, this version of The Black Cat blends a representation of Poe's life with his work. There's a tendency to represent horror authors as themselves as horrific as their work, capable of the same violence, or as insane as their characters. This seems to be particularly the case with Poe, the poison pen of Rufus Griswold having unfortunately secured the image of Poe as a drunken addict. Griswold appears in The Black Cat as a potential piano buyer, oddly.That issue aside, it's a pretty good episode of Masters of Horror. Combs is nicely made up as Poe and thus has now done two of the greats, having done Lovecraft in the anthology Necronomicon, where he wasn't a bad likeness either but not as good as Christopher Heyerdahl. The accent Combs gives Poe is a little hard to take, but for all I know it may be an accurate one. The work is gorier than I recall the story being, thanks to Stuart Gordon. One wishes the blood did not look so much like Karo syrup in some scenes. There's a scene with an ax that also was a little too blackly humorous, or attempted to be, in the vein of Reanimator. Anyhow, it's perhaps worth watching - if I seem too critical it's only because I noticed there were many positive comments already and thus didn't think I needed to write about its strengths.

Stuart Gordon is one of the directors who truly deserve to be called "Masters of Horror", and his second contribution to the "Masters of Horror" series is another proof for that. The director of "Re-Animator", who is best known for adapting the great H. P. Lovecraft's work in an awesome manner, decided to get into another deity of macabre literature, the all-mighty Edgar Allan Poe, for this eleventh episode of the second season, which bears the famous name of its literary model - "The Black Cat". This is, after his 1991 version of "The Pit And The Pendulum" only Gordon's second Poe-themed creation. The most brilliant Poe-adaptations are (and always will be) Roger Corman's films starring the immortal Vincent Price, and the greatest adaptation of "The Black Cat" in particular is arguably Sergio Martino's Giallo-masterpiece "Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key" (1972). This is not to say that great Poe-adaptations can't still be made, and Stuart Gordon does so in a very original manner. Gordon makes the alcoholic and struggling Poe himself the protagonist of this episode, and the man is played by none other than Gordon's regular leading man, Jeffrey 'Dr. Herbert West' Combs. In Philadelphia of 1840, Edgar Allan Poe, is struggling with alcoholism, the lack of money and the illness of his wife. Eager to write poetry, but only popular for his macabre short stories, Poe is also struggling with nightmares and upcoming insanity... "The Black Cat" is doubtlessly one of the most atmospheric entries to the series. The episode is very dark and more complex than your usual MoH episode, and the performances are excellent. Especially the great Jeffrey Combs is once again brilliant in his role, I couldn't imagine anyone to fit better in the role of Poe. "The Black Cat" is another proof of how great a director Stuart Gordon is and an absolute must-see for fans of the "Masters Of Horror" series.

Black Cat, The (2007) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Stuart Gordon directs this entry into the Masters of Horror series. Edgar Allan Poe (Jeffrey Combs) is slowly drinking himself to death over the illness of his wife when their pet black cat begins to act strangely. This black cat will either drive Poe mad or force him into writing a great story. The first part of the film works pretty well as we see Poe struggling to make a living but things quickly fall apart as the film turns into a slasher film with Poe stalking his wife and pets with an ax. Combs is terrific in the role and has an uncanny resemblance to Poe but the supporting players are all rather dry. The visual look of the film is very good and perfectly captures the time and setting.