“I cannot, for my soul, remember how, when, or even precisely where, I first became acquainted with the lady Ligeia. Long years have since elapsed, and my memory is feeble through much suffering. Or, perhaps, I cannot now bring these ...
Read More »An Englishman’s Guide to Italian Gothic: Castle of Blood (1964)
*Contains spoilers* “Of all the melancholy themes, the one universally recognised by mankind as the saddest of all is the most obvious one: Death. And that most melancholy theme becomes the most poetic of all, when coupled with the theme ...
Read More »Fear Before Fiction: Premature Burial
The nature and success of horror fiction lies in its ability to take our most innate fears and turn them into reality. It provides a controlled, safe environment in which we can explore our darkest curiosities and vulnerabilities without ever ...
Read More »‘POE 4: The Black Cat’ (2017) [Movie Review]
The POE (Poetry of Eerie) series of anthology films date back to 2011 and over the past seven years and three installments have taken familiar Edgar Allen Poe tales into, quite often, unfamiliar territory. And this fourth installment is no ...
Read More »13 Fascinating Facts About Edgar Allan Poe
In honor of Edgar Allan Poe’s 209th birthday, I have amassed this list of 13 (spooky!) facts about Poe’s life and death that may be unfamiliar to you. Odds are, most genuine Poe enthusiasts are familiar with some of these, ...
Read More »Kinski haunts “Web of the Spider” (1971) [blu-ray review]
The oddly mis-spelled words flash on screen: “Klaus Kinsky as Edgar Allan Poe.” He stumbles through a tomb, dressed in 19th century period garb, lit candle in hand. A score by Riz Ortolani indicating a European B-movie of the 1970’s ...
Read More »Garagehouse Pictures to release Antonio Margheriti’s Web of the Spider (1971) on Blue-ray
Garagehouse Pictures to bring WEB OF THE SPIDER, the classic Italian gothic horror ghost story directed by Antonio Margheriti to Blu-ray in October! Edgar Allan Poe invites you to spend one night in the WEB OF THE SPIDER! An intrepid ...
Read More »Love and Woe Nevermore: The Women in Edgar Allan Poe’s Life
Known today as a master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe was a remarkable writer whose gruesome poems and stories have fascinated and haunted readers for over 160 years. Annabel Lee, The Oval Portrait, Berenice, The Fall of the House ...
Read More »“For what use are all these melodramatic gestures?”: Edgar G. Ulmer’s The Black Cat (1934)
Peter: Aren’t you hungry? Joan: No darling, are you? Peter: Of course not. Joan: Are you sure? Above is the first exchange of dialog in Edgar G. Ulmer’s The Black Cat (1934). A newlywed couple, Peter (David Manners) and Joan ...
Read More »Such Perfection of Treachery: Malignance and Lunacy in Corman’s Poe Cycle (Part One)
No American Gothic series would be complete without Edgar Allan Poe, and if we are talking about cinematic adaptations, Roger Corman’s famous “Poe Cycle” deserves a big piece of the spotlight — a series of eight films, made between 1960-1964(5); ...
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