Dario Argento originally wanted the film to be a collaboration between four directors: him, George A. Romero, John Carpenter, and Wes Craven. Carpenter and Craven pulled out, so Argento and Romero decided to tackle the project as a two-part story, each directing his own segment separately.
The "Black Cat" segment contains several other Edgar Allan Poe tales and character names. Two of the crime scenes recorded by Rod Usher are "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "Berenice"; the Tom Savini character in the latter is made up and costumed to look like Poe himself (who wrote "Berenice" in the first person, about a man who opens the tomb of his cousin and removes her teeth). Poe did, in fact, marry his own cousin, who died at the age of twenty-five. Rod's wife's name is Annabel (neé Lee, one supposes); the bartender who returns the cat to him is named Eleonora; and the next-door neighbors are called Pym (first name, no doubt, Arthur Gordon).
Director Dario Argento originally planned a cable show based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. George A. Romero had agreed to direct the pilot hour "The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar", Michele Soavi was inked for "The Masque of the Red Death (which had been Romero's original choice) and Richard Stanley was up for "The Cask of Amontillado" (Michael Gambon had been cast as Fortunato and Jonathan Pryce as Montressor). Sadly Romero struck out, and only one further episode ("The Black Cat") written and directed by Argento was produced. The other scripts ended up on the shelf.
Dario Argento's daughter, Asia Argento, dubbed many of the female voices into Italian for the Italy release, including Julie Benz's voice.
E.G. Marshall mentions a "Mr. Pratt" at one point. In George Romero's Creepshow, he played a formidable millionaire named Mr. Pratt.