Two Evil Eyes (1991)

Picked a horror something out of my Prime que, proved to be one of those serendipity things, dovetailing nicely with Netflix's recent 'Fall of the House of Usher' limited series, is 1991's 'Two Evil Eyes', an anthology film based on works by Edgar Allen Poe.

In segment one George Romero adapts and directs 'The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar". Trophy wife Adrienne Barbeau and her doctor lover Remy Zada, try to cover up the death of her elderly rich husband for a couple of weeks so some checks can clear; this is complicated by Valdemar's (Bingo O'Malley) continuing to talk after his death. Pretty standard much of the way, but the creepy supernatural pay off worked for me. How on Earth is Detective Robert Atkins going to write that up in his report?

Segment two 'The Black Cat', directed and co-adapted by Dario Argento (I'd wanted to work something of his in this October). Photographer (of rather gruesome crime scenes) Harvey Keitel's music teacher girlfriend's (Madaline Porter, she's intriguing but dosen't have much of a filmography) cat murderously does not like him and the feelings mutual. This one goes rather WTF about 20 minutes in, does a real good job with the tension.

Both segments are set in Pittsburgh. I thought Romero's segment was all right, but I really liked Argento's. So segment 1 gets **1/2 and segment 2 gets ***1/2. Collectively I give this ***