DVD Review: Masters of Horror - The Black Cat

Stuart Gordon usually takes on the works of H.P. Lovecraft but this time he takes on the true master of horror – Edgar Allan Poe. Longtime collaborator Jeffrey Combs gets to put on the fake nose and play the tortured storyteller.

Stuart Gordon usually is more associated with the works of H.P. Lovecraft, but for his second Masters of Horror contribution he turned to Edgar Allan Poe. He, and regular collaborator Dennis Paoli, takes biographical facts from the life of Poe and crafts them into this tale of terror.

Poe (Jeffrey Combs) is having troubles making ends meet since he’s suffering from writers block. He’s also more apt to pick up the bottle instead of putting quill to paper. He’s married to his cousin Virginia (Elyse Levesque) and she starts to show signs of tuberculosis and dramatically coughs up blood while playing the piano. They were trying to sell the piano to pay some bills at the time and as you can imagine seeing the person playing it cough blood up all over it ruins the sale. So now Poe has to sit down and write another of his “fantastic” tales that the public loves so much so he can get some cash to pay the doctor (who refuses to treat Virginia since Poe hasn’t paid him for the last time, and you thought your HMO was bad). However, Virginia’s black cat Pluto starts to prey on the shattered nerves of Mr. Poe and you can see what his next tale is going to be about. Jeffrey Combs does a fine job as the tortured poet, but I just couldn’t quit focusing on his false nose. When the tale gets going there are some really gruesome acts of gore that is really well done. Don’t worry, no cats were harmed in the making of this feature, but some CGI pixels surely bought it.

Even with my zooming in on Combs’ nose, I still thought that he gave a great performance as Poe. This was a fine change of pace for Gordon and was my favorite of all the second season Masters that I’ve seen so far. The Black Cat is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary track by director/co-writer Stuart Gordon and Jeffrey Combs. It’s a good commentary and comes off as a chat between two old friends. The 14 minute “The Tell-Tale Cat: Making of the Black Cat” interviews Gordon, executive producer Mick Garris, Combs, Elyse Levesque, Aron Tager (“George Graham”), editor Marshall Harvey, and animal coordinator Bonnie Judd. The 5 minute “Brining down the Ax: A Look behind the FX of the Black Cat” interviews visual effects supervisor Lee Wilson and make-up supervisors Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero and explains how they did the gruesome set pieces in the film. There’s also a photo gallery, a Stuart Gordon biography, and the film’s script on DVD-ROM. I really liked the Black Cat and thought that both Combs and Gordon did a grand job bringing the pesky feline to the small screen. Nevermore will you look at a black cat the same way again.

Masters of Horror - The Black Cat is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.