Due occhi diabolici (1990)

Directors:

Dario Argento
George A. Romero

Writers:

Dario Argento (segment)
Franco Ferrini (segment)

Release Date:

25 October 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

When I Wake You...You'll Be Dead.

Plot:

Two horror tales based on short stories by Edgar Allan Poe directed by two famous horror directors, George A. Romero and Dario Argento.

Plot Keywords:

Cat | Black Cat | Alcoholic | Photographer | Hypnosis

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Adrienne Barbeau	...	Jessica Valdemar (segment "The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar")
Ramy Zada	...	Dr. Robert Hoffman (segment "The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar")
Bingo O'Malley	...	Ernest Valdemar (segment "The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar")
Jeff Howell	...	Policeman (segment "The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar")
E.G. Marshall	...	Steven Pike (segment "The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar")
Harvey Keitel	...	Roderick Usher (segment "The Black Cat")
Madeleine Potter	...	Annabel (segment "The Black Cat")
John Amos	...	Det. Legrand (segment "The Black Cat")
Sally Kirkland	...	Eleonora ("The Black Cat")
Kim Hunter	...	Mrs. Pym (segment "The Black Cat")
Holter Graham	...	Christian (segment "The Black Cat") (as Holter Ford Graham)
Martin Balsam	...	Mr. Pym (segment "The Black Cat")
Chuck Aber	...	Mr. Pratt (segment "The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar")
Jonathan Adams	...	Hammer (segment "The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar")
Tom Atkins	...	Det. Grogan (segment "The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar")

Also Known As:

Edgar Allan Poe (USA) (working title)
Two Evil Eyes (USA)

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

Italy | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Italy:VM14 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Australia:R | France:-16 | Germany:18 | Norway:18 (video premiere) | UK:18 | USA:R | Spain:18 | Australia:MA (DVD rating) | Argentina:18 | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Company:

ADC Films

Trivia:

Dario Argento's daughter, Asia Argento, dubbed many of the female voices into Italian for the Italy release, including Julie Benz's voice.

Quotes:

Policeman: We found blood in the freezer down in the cellar.
Det. Grogan: Christ! Rich people... Sick stuff always turns out to be rich people.

Movie Connections:

References Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Double Whammy! Two Greats in one film!

Title: Two Evil Eyes (1991)

Directors: George Romero, Dario Argento

Cast: Harvey Keitel, Adrienne Barbeau

Review:

Two great horror masters Dario Argento and George Romero unite their creative juices to create a homage to the stories of Edgar Allan Poe.

First off, we have George Romeros The Facts of the Case of M. Valdermar. In it Adrienne Barbeau and her lover hypnotize her old rich husband and make him sign over his fortune to them against his will. Then all they have to do is let him die and all the money goes to them. A very cool story, but one that I must admit sounds a bit repetitive specially since Romero has tackeled similar subject manner a few times in the past. For example in Creepshow we have the story of the vengeful father who comes back for his "Fathers Day" cake...and in the same movie we have two lovers who are drowned by the jealous husband only to have them come back from the dead to kill him.

On Romeros half of Two Evil Eyes the premise for his short film seems redundant. It has a "been there done that" feel to it if you have already seen most of Romeros films. Still the story managed to add a few twists that make it new enough for you not to loose interest. For example the whole angle of hypnotism and the final effects of using it! Wow! What a scene! I loved every second of this little story. It was perfectly spooky at times....all leading to a really cool zombie filled conclusion.

The make up effects are great on this story since they were handled by another master of disaster, the one and only Tom Savini. The zombie make up is excellent! Kudos to you Savini. I was also impressed with how much style Romero infused his short film with. Normally Romero doesn't concern himself with style. His main focus is to just tell the story with his camera. Yet here, there's little shots here and there that I was really amazed with....specially towards the end. Romero using visual effects? Unheard off! Yet here they are and done in a perfectly eerie and subtle fashion. Kudos to George, I for one really liked his story and have to admit that maybe Romeros use of stylish shots might have been influenced by hanging out with Dario during the pre-production phase of this film. Who knows.

As for Darios spooky tale The Black Cat, I must say it had all the things we come to expect from an Argento tale. First off and right off the bat we get a gruesome shot of the gruesome remains of a Pendulum slicing a woman in half. You see in this film Harvey Keitel is a photographer and he takes pictures of dead people at crime scenes. We meet him taking pictures of this gruesome site and you feel like you just walked into the middle of a movie you wished you had seen. I mean just the set alone with that huge Pendulum was awesome! And to top it all off in typical Argento style, the director puts the camera on the Pendulum giving us a Pendulums eye view as it slashes back and forth on the dead body. Awesome shot! Right away I knew I was going to love this film.

Argento does his usual exploration of ancient myths and legends giving us a little insight as to why Black Cats are considered bad luck and why they burned witches in the past. I was like "this is just like Argento to teach us a little something before blowing our brains out with the Gore!" And right I was! There's plenty of goodies in this story once it gets going. It has little homages to many of Poes short stories like "The Pit and the Pendulum" "The Black Cat" and "The Cask of Amontillado". It seems like Argento is the most enamored with Poe of the two directors.

Argentos short film is infused with all the style, gore and story that were used to get from Argento but in short controlled bursts. I like the fact that these two short films have to be fast paced due to the time constraint. It forced Argento to show us strictly what was needed to make the story move along and he doesn't play around with unnecessary plot lines like in some of his other films. Here its just wham! Bam! Lets go! Not only that but we get a great performance from Keitel. The man is pure evil in this film! There was only one thing I didn't like in the whole film....and it was in Darios half. There's this scene in which a body is hanging from a rope and for some reason which I cannot comprehend Dario decided to use reverse photography to make it look like the body was moving back and forth as it hanged. Why Dario? Why? It just came off as sloppy or maybe even lazy. But thats really the only negative thing I can say about this great flick.

As you can see from most of my review I was greatly pleased with this film and cant recommend it enough to Romero/Argento lovers out there. It was a once in a life time type of deal and the fruits of their labor paid off. Great work guys! The extras on this special edition double disc DVD are really great! There's a tour through Tom Savinis mask infested home with hundreads of masks and props from all the movies that he has worked on! Interviews with Argento, Romero and Asia. Great stuff. Worth the money.

Rating: 41/2 out of 5