Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Horror-tober 5: Extraordinary Tales


Animated tales from one of the masters of macabre and horror (the literary kind at least), Edgar Allen Poe.

This one is a series of animated shorts from all different Poe tales. The underlying story is that Poe is depicted as a raven talking to a statue that is actually Death as she takes him on a journey through his stories as part of his obsession with death. It also features a cast of great voices, like Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee. Each animation is a different style but each captures the darkness and creepiness of Poe's tales in their own way. The score also sets an atmospheric mood befitting of the tales. Watching this was reminiscent of when I was a teen and would listening to recordings of "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Pit and the Pendulum". I think my favorite of these depictions had to be "Heart", not only because of the nostalgia, but the narration from Bela Lugosi was just so perfectly timed. The animation of that tale was also my favorite. Dark, simple, and gloomy. I also enjoyed the watercolor like animation on "The Masque of the Red Death."



I enjoyed this one quite a bit although some of what is best about Poe is lost in these visual representations, at times not as dark and somber as Poe's words. However, if you like Poe give it a shot.


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