Two Evil Eyes Review (Film, 1991) The Archives #31DaysofHorror

Horror giants George Romero and Dario Argento collaborated on a modern day adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories. Romero totally reset his take on “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” in the present, while Argento’s “The Black Cat” uses a little dream logic and unusual settings to aim for something more timeless.

Two Evil Eyes is, oddly enough, an anthology film with only two stories in it. The directors briefly pay tribute to Edgar Allan Poe’s final resting place before diving into Romero’s entry.

“The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” might be the greatest Poe adaptation committed to film. While it lacks the period beauty of Roger Corman’s Poe films, many of the same tricks are employed. The sprawling mansion is filled with hidden passageways and secrets. Much of the story is told through the interplay of costume and color, defining which characters are allies or rivals at any given time.

The simple fact is Romero chose well in adapting a lesser-known Poe story to film. “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” is strange by Poe’s standards, feeling more like an early precursor to H.P. Lovecraft’s obsession with dreams and entering the mind. The titular M. Valdemar is a man who is hypnotized right before his death and is therefore able to continue to communicate with the living.

Romero resets this in familiar thriller territory. A younger woman marries an older wealthy man for the money and teams up with the friendly neighborhood hypnotist to steal the money before he dies. The hypnotism allows the older man to sign legal paperwork and speak when commanded so the lawyer has no choice but to allow everything to go through. Just when the evil doers are in the clear, the old man dies. They have to wait at least three weeks for all the funds to clear, so they drag his body into the basement and freeze him to stop the natural decay of death.

The only bad thing I can say about “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” is that it is barely an hour long. Romero easily could have made this a stand alone feature film and have it unquestionably stand up as one of his best works.

The same cannot be said for Dario Argento’s collaboration with co-writer Franco Ferrini. Their “The Black Cat” is a mess. The paranoid cat owner from Poe’s story is now a crime scene photographer. Someone has been murdering beautiful women in the style of Poe’s more violent stories and he’s turning the photos into an art book. The cat becomes his greatest subject when he refuses to leave the frame of the shot.

There is really nothing to this adaptation. It’s the laziest way to go about adapting Poe. You take the constant presence of murderers in the stories and link them to each other. You never explain why they happen or how they’re connected. You just do it. Throw in a ton of blood and senseless gore Poe never would have supported and you have yourself a mediocre, at best, film.

Argento’s strength is not storytelling, at least not in a traditional way. He creates mood and interest with beautiful cinematography, color, and disturbing violence. “The Black Cat” is one of Poe’s more violent tales, but it’s not especially graphic. Argento takes the violence and just throws in a lot of blood and nudity. There’s no real artistry behind it; it just is.

Poe’s stories have survived as perennial favorites because of the intense psychology and clever wordplay. There’s violence and disturbing content, but it resonates because of the bizarre mental states explored in maddening detail.

Argento’s adaptation lacks that subtlety. It’s just another murder story with some Poe overtones. He’s certainly capable of far better work than this. One has to wonder if the choice to do the entire film in English rather than his typical dub for market technique had an impact on the less successful choices in the film. It’s, honestly, the most logical explanation for how something simultaneously feels like his work and nothing like it at all.

Two Evil Eyes is half of an amazing horror film. Romero’s short is beautiful and disturbing; Argento’s short is best saved for completists.