Requiem for the Damned

Kudos to Robert Tinnell and his talented team at Allegheny Image Factory for having the balls to apply a contemporary interpretation to Poe's most famous tales. Purists of Poe's time-locked settings may revolt, but for introducing these stories in a manner more readily consumed by today's audiences, the film is a huge success! As described in the press materials, five of the best known, classic tales of terror by Edgar Allan Poes have been re-shot and re-imagined under contemporary circumstances. While the visual effects at times may betray the budgetary and indie origins of this collection, the concepts and execution are otherwise spot on target. Check it out!

The good news is this is a pretty decent movie, especially when you see from the trailing credits that this was a college/student effort.

The bad news is that the stories in this film have almost nothing whatsoever to do with the Poe tales, to the point I suspect Poe's name and titles were only included as a marketing gimmick.

For example, "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a good story, but outside the fact it happened in a house and the owners were named "Usher", there is nothing of the Poe story in the movie. Why they thought it worth the effort to name it after the Poe story, someone else will have to explain. I would have preferred they be honest, call the story something else, and dropped the Poe reference entirely.

"The Black Cat" is the only story that follows (mostly) the Poe version.

Is this worth watching? Yes, I think so. Just go in knowing that the Poe references are marketing, not information.

I have read all of Edgar's work ourside of those unattainable. As a huge fan as well as a distant relative, I am intrigued to see if this can even scrap the tip of the man of horror I love so much. So with mind wide open I will watch. I will hope it stands up to the master of the macabre all these decades later.