Director: Lorenzo Zanoni, Donatello Della Pepa, Paolo Gaudio, Angelo Capasso, Giuseppe Capasso, Mirko Virgili, Alessandro Redaelli, Domiziano Cristopharo, Alberto Viavattene, Giuliano Giacomelli
Year: 2022
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
A series of short stories from Italian directors adapting the work of Edgar Allen Poe.
Review:
The Tell-Tale Heart-Haunted by his actions in life, a prisoner melts under the weight of his actions while contemplating what led to his situation. Overall, this was a pretty solid idea but it's much too short to mean anything. The melting effects are effectively gory and goopy but with all the context of everything stuck in a narration that doesn't seem to tie into the main story, it's all that goes on here.
The Pit and The Pendulum-Awaking trapped inside a blank room, the lack of stimulus or explanation for anything slowly drives him insane. Another somewhat too short entry but this one goes for the psychological route of seeing the victim's torment be undone by the challenging situation he finds himself in as the twist reveal of the entire purpose adds quite a lot to like here.
The Black Cat-A man becomes convinced that he will die at the claws of a malicious black cat that haunts his life. The main selling point here is the creation through an impressive set of stop-motion animation that comes off incredibly well providing some solid visuals and concepts throughout here. Beyond that, there's not much going on here so your mileage of the segment depends solely on your reaction to that.
Alone-Held captive by a long-time rival, a man is tortured and tormented to repay back a loan that's been squandered. The idea for this one could've been fun but the concept is tired and overdone, the constant bantering between them goes on much longer than it should so the few bits of gore don't have any impact here. The point is also kept quite vague until the end which again lowers this one.
Never Bet The Devil Your Head-Eager to expand his digital empire, a man famous for creating extreme viral videos gets his comeuppance when a famous saying comes back to bite him. This was a generally fun story that allows the old-school story to get a pleasing modern-day update, the fine effects-work present manages to generate some goopy visuals, and the demonic twist works nicely given the classic story setup.
King Pest-Trying to get out of their debts, a pair of scoundrels try to do whatever they can to get by in life without encountering trouble. There's so little about this one that's interesting it's almost hard to justify its presence. From the stage-play setup to the lack of genre thrills and an overall uninteresting main group we're following for way too long, there's almost no point to this one beyond a creepy image or two.
Silence (A Poetry)-Attempting to quell a medical condition, a man is tormented in his home by a strange presence that's about to exacerbate his condition. This was a waste as the lack of dialogue makes this so confusing it's hard to make any effort to care about what's going on, a severe sense of atmosphere with the setup shown here manages to be wasted with no big reveal and really serves no point being here
The Black Cat-Wanting to move their relationship, she discovers something unsavory about her beau that puts them in danger with a vicious foe. Overall, this was a disappointment more than anything as this doesn't seem to be following the short-story version too much as this story of duplicity and blackmail seems to be its own story which has no real tie-in to what the main purpose of the project is. It's also way too long and takes forever to get to the sleazy goods at the end which is full of graphic excess that's generally fun enough.
Murders in the Rue Morgue-Living for their next drug fix, a woman and her friends find their euphoric existence threatened by a horny, malicious monkey. This one was pretty good when it sticks to the slasher-style sequences here with the vicious attacks and randy atmosphere providing some great gory ambushes alongside some sleazy antics. There's no real explanation for anything so it feels like stumbling upon a lived-in universe but is generally fine overall.
The Premature Burial-Finding himself trapped in a box, a desperate man tries whatever he can to make it out of the situation. This one could've been a lot of fun had it not relied on a series of formulaic approaches to the material which makes it feel very familiar with how he goes through understanding what has happened and trying to get out. The atmosphere of the setup and the situation itself adds a nice suspenseful air to this one as reality sets in, but again it's much too familiar to be anything more than that.
Overview: **.5/5
A mainly fun anthology project let down by some problematic segments, there's at least enough to like here despite those detrimental segments that it is decent enough for what it is. Those that appreciate this kind of extreme genre approach or are fans of the creative crew will be the main audience here while most others should heed caution with this one in favor of other entries.
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