What do director Stuart Gordon, writer Dennis Paoli and star
Jeffrey Combs have in common? Well, besides collaborating on the 1985
horror classic Re-Animator, they now have another shared credit
— this time lifted from a short story of one of America’s most revered
and mysterious writers.

King of the Ants), co-written by Gordon and Paoli (Dagon, Castle Freak) and starring horror icon Combs, The Black Cat is the latest entry in the Emmy-winning Masters of Horror anthology series, and it dives headlong into the unchartered waters of biographic speculation, mixing the telling of the same-named story with elements of Poe’s actual life, much like Shakespeare in Love or the forthcoming Becoming Jane, I suppose.

As gorgeously shot (by Jon Joffin) as it is grisly, the brisk, hour-long movie stars Combs as Edgar Allan Poe. Suffering from crippling writer’s block, he’s deep in debt and in love with the bottle. When not nursing his own woes, Poe cares for his loving wife Virginia (Elyse Levesque), who’s been struck down with consumption. He tends to her, burdened with the knowledge that he cannot save her, especially when the doctor helping to treat her refuses to continue with his care unless Poe can make good on his overdue bills. But is it his wife’s slow, agonizing death and other real-world troubles, or her ever-present black cat that is steadily driving Poe insane? Unsure if he’s been condemned to a living hell of illusion and insanity, the writer sets out on a dark, inner voyage to create one of the more famous early horror stories ever written.

While the source material in all honesty isn’t really the best of Poe, the filmmakers get around this by tricking it out a bit and refracting it through Poe’s life, and the general stylishness with which they accomplish this carries much weight in terms of the project’s watchability. Film fans who abhor navel-gazing and referentiality — in horror or any other genre — will likely not find this among the best Masters of Horror entries, on par with such delightful works as Family and Deer Woman, which are more streamlined and fun. Still, if the means are obviously limited, these restrictions feed a certain imagination, and the film’s execution (no pun intended) is solid.

Presented in 1.78:1 widescreen and enhanced for 16×9 televisions, The Black Cat, like other Masters of Horror titles on DVD, comes housed in a cardboard slipcover, and accompanied by a litter of bonus features. An amiable audio commentary track with Gordon and Combs kicks things off, and much time is rightfully devoted to a discussion about the look of the movie. Running nearly 20 minutes, The Tell-Tale Cat gives a nice overview of the making of the movie, while a separate featurette, Bringing Down the Axe, shines a light on the special effects used herein, and how CGI and practical latex work were combined. Rounding out the disc are a brief biography and filmography on Gordon, a photo gallery from the movie and a DVD-ROM version of its screenplay. B- (Movie) B+ (Disc)