The Cat's Meow

Horror, at its plainest, triggers an emotional symptom people like to call fear. Even in the cradle of humanity, man used to look up the stars with little understanding. As he is frightened by the searing lights in the dark skies. He doesn’t have the weapon of reason to conquer those dreadful feelings.

In some ways, in modern periods, man still has much to learn about the hunger of fear. It paralyzes a human being, brings him to his knees before the black cloud of fate. The only comfort he seeks can be insanity.

Which brings us to the latest episode of Masters of Horror called The Black Cat based off of Edgar Allan Poe.

I have always been a big fan of Poe, having immense admiration of for his excellent prose. I like his short stories far better than his poetry, though part of it is due to the interest of the macabre. As a writer of horror stories myself, I owe my debt to him with a knowing nod. I also managed to see his lowly cottage tucked away in the Bronx area during a visit to New York City during a rainy week in October.

I was met with a curator in the museum piece that was the Poe cottage, looking very much like the old horror scribe with his thick mustache and wavy hair. I could almost mistake him for the actual writer himself.

I can say the same thing about Jeffrey Combs who fits the part of playing Poe in The Black Cat. It’s hard to get over how much he looks like the writer. Combs is one of this generation of horror actors who returns to the field of the macabre to stretch his acting skills. He’s well utilized in this particular episode as he drowns himself in drunken stupors, winces at every shadow that jumps at him.

You might’ve seen Combs in other horror films such as the Re-Animator and From Beyond from the 1980s, both of them excursions into H.P. Lovecraft territory… another writer who is considered one of the horror fiction greats. But here in the Black Cat story Combs is able to explore psychological downfall of a man who has stepped off the ledge of sanity. And into whatever waits for him in the abyss.

This story is tremendous in 1800s period details and searches the fragile relationship between Poe and his dying wife Virginia played wonderfully by Elyse Levesque. He is already a weakened man. He is a drunk, he gambles. He shirks at the ignorance of people who does not appreciate artistry. “Are you a literary man?” he often asks. He finds the cemetery silence of empty streets to be a soothing thing for him as he staggers home in a drunken heap.

But the focus of the story is the black cat. The feline beast that utters a distressful shriek every time the author comes near him. And this creature, like a dark ball of terror, spurs the author into what could be the destruction of his sanity… or one of his greatest inspirations for writing the well known story The Black Cat.

It’s great to see how the author’s mind draws a blank until he finally gets to write down the title of the story on the black page. In inky penmanship.

There are definitely some grotesque portions of the story. What good would be a horror story without heartless violence nagging at the reader? There are plenty of scenes not for the squeamish. Especially if the viewer is a cat lover.

A few howlers about how the author jabs, kicks and hangs the cat up out of sheer anger. The cat drives him to the nutter house in the process. There’s a grisly scene with the man snapping the cat’s left eye out with a penknife and later steps on it like it was a grape. If you have a sick sense of humor like I do, you’ll laugh your head off. Others beware.

Of course, there’s tons of blood and blood mostly having to do with the wife’s sickness. There’s a sea of redness, splashing like tidal waves, that paints some of the horrifying scenes of his wife going down a beaten path to final oblivion.

And the little bloodsucking cat is there stealing her breath away like a four legged vampire.

There’s plenty of sharp direction from Stuart Gordon who is good enough to give us a foray into Poe territory with his immutable style, unflinching interest in grand grand guignol and driving a story mostly on psychological terror. It’s one of his best efforts. And it’s a very cool thing for him to take a break from his familiar territory of Lovecraft to do something based on Poe. A worthy attempt by the director. And it’s a real treat for horror fans everywhere.

This one is one of the best in the series. The acting, directing and story are all on top of the line. Horror has rarely been this good. A literary triumph for the careful adaptation of a most beloved Poe story.