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.
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.