Lucio Fulci has forged his name as a master of horror with his outlandish death sequences. He brings that style to this very loose adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe. It certainly does nothing for the classic tale.
An English town is plagued by gruesome deaths. Present at the deaths is a black cat with a mesmerizing stare. He belongs to former professor turned psychic Robert Miles (Patrick Magee, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE). He claims he can communicate with the dead and tries to record their voices. Drawn into the investigation of the deaths are American photographer Jill Trevers (Mimsy Farmer, AUTOPSY) and Scotland Yard inspector Gorley (David Warback, THE BEYOND). The question they need to answer is whether Miles controls the cat or if it's the other way around.
Like so many of Fulci's films, the plot seems like a distraction to him. While this production is less aimless than his other efforts, in some ways that is a bad thing. The story is a simple murder investigation used to string gruesome kill scenes together. And for gorehounds these kills are rehashes of things Fulci had done before like setting people on fire as we watch their flesh melt. Some of the kills are outright clichés. People falling on spikes, oh boy.
Add to this boring characters and the film has little to compel our interest. Jill is the horror film dumb blonde. Would you just go into someone's house you think is involved in gruesome deaths and just turn on stereo equipment to listen? Kind of ruins the element of surprise. Gorley is nothing more than the cop on the beat. He exists pretty much to uncover the ending, which so ineptly grafts Poe's short story ending onto the conclusion of the film.
As for Miles, he is the most interesting character, but is robbed of pathos by being relegated to the role of creepy villain. Magee makes him unbalanced, but does so in a way that leaves no doubt he is involved in the deaths. One wonders why this kook wasn’t arrested after the first death. In Poe, the equivalent character was the tormented hero, which made the ending poignant. Here it's one more random event in a series of loosely connected events.
Bravo included three Fulci films on its scariest movie moments list -- this one, ZOMBIE and THE BEYOND. All make me wonder why. Nothing is scary, maybe cringe inducing, but not scary. Zero dimension characters in plots that create no suspense are not what I think of when I think of the best in horror.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
