Two Evil Eyes (1990)
Storyline
Two horror segments based on Edgar Allan Poe stories set in and around the city of Pittsburgh. "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" concerns a cheating wife who is trying to scam her dying husband out of millions by having her doctor/hypnotist lover hypnotize the geezer into signing his dough over to her. The old man dies while under hypnosis and is stuck in the limbo between the here and the hereafter. The door to the physical world is opened and the undead attempt to enter it. "Black Cat" is the story of Rodd Usher, an alcoholic photographer/artist, who descends into madness after he kills a stray cat that his live-in girlfriend Annabelle brings home. One murder leads to another, and the complex cover-ups begin.
Directors
Cast
Trailer
Reviews
70
Two Evil Eyes could give youngsters nightmares and is absolutely not for the squeamish--special effects maestro Tom Savini supplies the grisliness--but Romero and Argento fans are not likely to be disappointed by these tales of the supernatural.
60
IGN
Two Evil Eyes is a flawed project. Romero's segment doesn't pull its own weight. While it is creepy in spots, the majority of the story is overlong and ho-hum in the execution. On the other hand, Argento's entry is strong work that clearly demonstrates a love for Poe's writing. It's not your typical Argento, but many of the standard elements that make the director's work so beautiful and compelling are present here.
60
Where Romero goes for the cheap, linear approach, Argento's storytelling is painfully poetic, with ever-shifting points of view and asides. It's not unusual for him to drop a Middle Ages dream sequence in the middle of things, rely on the unpredictability of a cat to advance the plot, or resort to pure shock that's no less shocking because it's expected: There's a madness in Argento's method and it's always appropriate.
50
While far from the worst adaptation of Poe's work (there are so many candidates for that dubious honor it's hard to know where to start), Two Evil Eyes breaks no new ground.
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