It is almost impossible to faithfully adapt Edgar Allan Poe. His biography is overshadowed by vices and bad luck, and his work is so concisely ambivalent that it is difficult to stretch into a full-length film. Even so, that has never stopped anyone. Whether it is a challenge of adapting, or the flexibility around it, filmmakers and writers have been re-imagining the Poe canon since the 1920s. It takes only one implication or one biographical coincidence from Poe to stir the imagination. For Stuart Gordon, the fact that Poe had a family black cat was enough to inspire him to try to faithfully adapt one of horror’s best tales.
Released July 17 by Anchor Bay, Stuart Gordon’s THE BLACK CAT is the director’s second contribution to the MASTERS OF HORROR series. Renowned for his H.P. Lovecraft adaptation REANIMATOR, he presented another Lovecraft tale, DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE, for the series’ first season. For this season two installment, Gordon reunites with fellow REANIMATOR co-writer Dennis Paoli and actor Jeffrey Combs to fill in the gaps of the story with speculative biography.
Set in 1843, Poe has hit rock bottom. He is impoverished, taken for granted by his editors and drinking. To make things worse, he comes home to find his wife Virginia (Elyse Levesque) selling their piano. His pride insulted, he takes solace in hearing her play “one last time.” Sadly, it is her last time: she strangles on blood within the first few notes of her song; marked for death by tuberculosis. With doctor bills added to the roster of creditors, the pressure to write a saleable, "fantastic tale" rises. As Poe begins to fight writer's block, his life begins to interweave with the brainstorming of THE BLACK CAT.
Gordon showcases the story’s brutal perversion with an unflinching eye. He delivers the gore, lovingly utilizing Poe’s grotesque blueprint of axes and animal cruelty. Most impressive is how Gordon utilized the film’s limited time to mimic Poe's short story style. Filmed in subdued, antiquated colors, the movie's psychological pace is benchmarked by vibrant emphasis on creepy elements: a glass eye, the cat's green eye(s) and Virginia's fountains of bloody sputum—building the suspense up to what Poe would of called an “ultimate effect.”
As regards the biographical aspects, Gordon naturally took some factual liberties, but he did so sparingly. Combs’ Poe is a sloppy, simpering drunk who pounds his fists, jabbering about poetry and his family lineage. At first, the exaggeration of Poe's Virginian gentility and inebriated soliloquies turned me off, but as the action of the movie progressed, I saw Combs’ bungling Poe as a brilliant prestige to the film’s unveiling madness.
Stuart Gordon’s THE BLACK CAT is a fine addition to the ever-growing genre of fictional Poe biography, coming closer than most cinematic adaptations to date. The film will shockingly entertain those unfamiliar with Poe and his feline tale, while still pleasing skeptical Poepathists, like myself. 
MASTERS OF HORROR SEASON TWO:
STUART GORDON’S “THE BLACK CAT”
58 Minutes
Anchor Bay Entertainment, distributed by Starz Media, LLC.
