Extraordinary Tales

It was fun to see a series of animators and directors put their mark on some of the most recognizable Poe stories. First of all, each animation technique is quite unique and good fun. They are not for the faint of heart, some of the images being quite graphic. Last night Guillermo del Toro won the Academy Award for best director and best movie. I was surprised to see that name in the credits for one of the films, but it certainly gave them credibility. And, to get an old narration of Bela Lugosi to do the Tell-Tale Heart was really interesting. I found the best of these to be the last: 'The Masque of the Red Death." I''m quite glad I had an opportunity to see this, considering I had never heard of it.

An interesting anthology of Edgar Poe short stories.

The best part is that they use different forms of animation for each story. They all add a special feeling to each story. The one from Tell tale Heart is pretty hard to watch, but it very artistic and is fine for such a short animation, it is also extra creepy because of it and it fits well with the old recording of Bela Lugosi.

I liked the comic books style animation of The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, it gave it a very vintage feeling.

All in all a great collection. Doesn't really feel like horror animation though. I think it is even suitable for children from a certain age to introduce them to literature.

In the time of excessive CGI, it's nice to see that there's still a place with distinct comic book, video game and ever classic painting style. This anthology is a delightfully eerie visual parade of short stories, each account spans for approximately ten minutes. While this eccentric niche unfortunately might not appeal to everyone, it's a great homage to the poet and frighteningly quirky enough for fans to thoroughly appreciate.

The tales are treated as separate stories, with different production value and narrator. For those who like graphic style of Corpse Bride, Coraline or even Sin City, they might find fascinating surprise here. There's even a nod to comic book signature, as well as my favorite "The Masque of the Red Death" which seem like a living portrait from centuries before.

They have one underlining theme of dread, with scare and gore one would expect from horror nowadays, although nothing too intrusive that it would repulse audience. Most have narrators and voice acting, these instances have such surreal feel about it. Many, especially gamers and animation enthusiasts would recognize the voice of Christopher Lee. However, the silence can just be equally effective to deliver the short burst of fright.

Its main obstacle is, ironically, its own unworldly styles. They can be so strange that one or a couple of them might alienate the audience. Among even fans of comic book or horror, not every tale would resonate on the same level. Still, they are relatively short, so one would most likely find something to adore here.

This collection is a myriad of uncanny tales affectionately crafted with unique visual. They are unmistakably bleak yet charming and designed to charm viewer with sheer oddity.

The movie is likely to be entertaining for those who have read little to none of Poe's oeuvre, but it fails to deliver for those who know Poe very well. It didn't live up to my expectations, and they were not too high.

Were the stories presented back to back, the whole would be much better than with the cheesy conversation between a crow (shouldn't it be a raven?) that represents Poe and a feminine Death. The bird is poorly drawn and speaks nonsense that would never have left Poe's mouth, making the dumb dialog in the cemetery rather cringeworthy. With a more Poe-like Raven and a more Gothic feel, the tone could have been much closer to that of Poe's tales.

The short story adaptations are OK, although the recording of Bela Lugosi is (understandably) very bad quality, and the last story just didn't feel like a story at all. Naturally, not much happens in the original short story; it has a vivid imagery, full of gloomy impressions. This is why it probably shouldn't have been included in the movie. The other four stories are decently realized. Sadly, at the end, a word of the famous line from The Raven is misspelled: "quot", instead of "quoth", adding insult to injury.

A good effort, overall. It's a pity that the stories were "linked" to each other in such an awkward manner.

Before I begin my review, I just have to make a statement. You wouldn't ask a vegetarian to review a steak house, or a film maker to tell you how to fix your car. So, when you see reviews from philistines complaining about the 'quality of the audio recording of Bela Lugosi', or complaining about the animation style, just picture the reviewer as a fully snow-suited Eskimo in a sauna, and ignore their complaints. Moving on...

I saw this when it was first released to streaming services, and wrote down my thoughts in an Edgar Allan Poe Facebook group. Now that it's on Netflix, I've revisited, and re-experienced a lot of the same feelings. Here are my thoughts:

1) There is a great atmosphere of dread, or "October, the season of death" as Ray Bradbury may call it, over the entire anthology. I love this. Very "sparse" feeling, if that makes sense.

2) I really like the original wraparound story. In fact, once the two main characters were positively identified, I found that the wraparound was probably the most creepy and thoughtful of all presentations in the film. However, I don't believe that the voice actor was well chosen to portray the character that he was supposed to be. They needed a more fitting voice for the foreboding style, instead of one that sounds like a generic television family dad. Also, the character's dialogue should've been more poetic. It was too plain for the character portrayed.

3) The Tell-Tale Heart segment is simply awesome. They take Bela Lugosi's original audio recording of his reading of the story (from the 1930s, I believe), complete with scratches and audio artifacts, layered over a modern musical score, and very noir-ish / Frank Miller-ish animation. It would've harmed the piece if they removed the scratches and audio artifacts from Lugosi's reading. I'm glad they didn't.

4) All stories in the film had narration and/or voice-overs, except for the final story, The Masque Of The Red Death. The only voice in the entire piece is Prince Prospero (Roger Corman) when he spots The Red Death. I believe it was a huge mistake to not narrate the story. It would've been much better to hear Poe's words while seeing the visual. Without the narration, it's almost more of a background piece than an actual story. Although the visual is still beautiful.

5) The fade-to-black, fade-to-zero decibel bumpers/dividers between stories and wraparound pieces created too much of a division between sections. They should've run together better. It was almost as if it was 5 separate episodes, instead of a continuous anthology, as was intended.

I would definitely recommend it for any fan of Poe. Or even as an introduction to Poe for anybody who hasn't yet become a fan of his.