Two Evil Eyes

Italian horror maestro Dario Argento and American zombie-daddy George A. Romero combining their forces and taking on the masterful Edgar Allan Poe oeuvre... This SHOULD have resulted in a perplexing project that tops every horror fan's favorite list! Oh well, maybe it's not the triumph everybody (or me exclusively?) hoped for, it still is a pretty good movie that easily crushes every other genre film made during the nineties. The problems already begin with a rather illogical structure and composition: we're presented to two stories of approximately an hour playtime each. Too short to bring the necessary depth and proper character drawings; too long to make it a successful anthology. From what I've learned, there are different DVD-versions available. The one I own opens with Romero's chapter which unquestionably is the weakest of the two. E.A. Poe definitely isn't to blame for this, as his "The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar" is an intriguing tale about human greed, made even more compelling by some supernatural twists and a large amount of morbidity. The script is fine (with the ingenious adding of the hypnosis-element), the special effects and make up art are quite gruesome and the set-pieces are effectively creepy. It's Romero's uninspired directing that disappoints! The camera moves through the Valdemar mansion very tame and lifeless, like he's shooting a boring costume drama instead of an unsettling horror film. Adrienne Barbeau (John Carpenter's "The Fog") doesn't really convince as the despicable wife who wishes to fasten her old husband's death struggle in order to get her hands on his fortune and the cool Tom Atkins ("Maniac Cop", "Night of the Creeps") only appears in a cameo role. Dario Argento's segment is superior in every possible way and I expected no less, actually, since he was the motive power behind the whole "Two Evil Eyes" project. His presentation of Poe's very best tale; the Black Cat; is spontaneously brought and truly exhilarating! It stars Harvey Keitel, in a great shape, as the aggressive and cat-hating photographer Rod Usher who kills his girlfriend Annabel during a fit of rage and tries to cover it by walling her corpse up in his house. Argento's segment has got great suspense and downright brilliant music! The most notable scene of this chapter (as well as of the entire movie, in fact) is the magnificent dream-sequence that takes Usher back to the Middle Ages where he's condemned to death for killing a black cat. I'd safely recommend "Two Evil Eyes" to every self-respecting horror fan if it were for this dream-sequence alone!! Following Argento habits, there also is a lot of vicious gore and some sick little fantasies on the side (to construction of a detailed Annabel-puppet to avoid suspicion). Overall, the film is a reasonably good waste of time in case you're an experienced horror fanatic. But, in case you want to learn more about Edgar Allan Poe beautiful work, it's probably better to purchase some of the movies Roger Corman made back in the 1960's, starring Vincent Price ("House of Usher", "The Masque of the Red Death", "The Pit and the Pendulum"...)

source: Two Evil Eyes

Due occhi diabolici

Two experts and veteran film makers, George Romero and Dario Argento, transform two unknown Edgar Allan Poe's stories in a powerful and authorial cinematography's experience.Argento directs the best episode, about a photographer whose specialty resides in deaths and murders, and who is becoming a psychopath due to the metropolitan brutality that he testifies (and Argento exaggerates in this scenes,as always:the beginning of the film is a truly punch in the stomach).Harvey Keitel is great in this role, the kind of acting that made him famous. Argento uses quick edition, complex and original camera movements (as in the moment in which Keitel kills two detectives), and an extremely gloomy and unpleasant photography to accentuate the morbid climate that permeates most of his films. Even being violent and quite slow, "Two Evil Eyes" will please the horror fans, for being a show of impressive visual.

Bearing in mind this is the remains of an aborted effort it is much better than might have been expected. I don't think I have ever seen it before and found the Romero contribution a bit overstretched and dull. It all seemed rather bland and although the frozen victim looks pretty good the 60 minute segment certainly overstays its welcome. We segue into Argento's part and everything changes. It would seem he must have taken all the production funds as whilst Romero's looks stuck on a poor studio set, this second film is a complete transformation with fabulous lighting, cinematography and directorial style. He takes liberties all over the place, introducing different Poe elements, managing an element of humour into the proceedings and milking the presence of Harvey Keitel to the hilt. Great fun and one of the director's great late films.

Collaborations - they are or rather can be quite the dream for fans. So seeing Dario Argento doing a movie with George Romero ... I can only guess how excited some were back in the day. But this is not one movie - it is is actually two movies or rather two stories. And as one may expect of me, I liked the Romero part better than the Argento part. That does not mean, I think the Argento second half of this is bad. Actually even the Romero "short" (if you can call a one hour segment that) is not up to other things that he did. Not sure what the background to this was, but as it is, the shorts are enjoyable. The acting is fine and the effects are also ok, for the time and budget they had