While the Edgar Allan Poe "adaptations" of the classic Universal horror era may kick some serious ass on their own with their peak Lugosi/Karloff-dynamic, when it comes to their "adaptation"-aspect... well, let me put it this way: The Black Cat has a black cat in it. The Raven has a raven and an E. A. Poe superfan obsessed with making Poe's murderous fantasies a reality. Murders in the Rue Morgue has both murders and a morgue. That's about it. The latter is also a shameless Cabinet of Dr. Caligari ripoff and overall the weakest of the trio.

So it feels a bit weird that the first bunch of somewhat faithful adaptations (in spirit, at least) of Poe's legacy i was gonna see were produced and directed by none other than the kinda unfairly labelled "King of Schlock", Roger Corman. Let's call him a visionary of genre cinema instead, okay? Because schlock, this certainly ain't. Made on a budget? Yeah, sure. Occasional use of stock footage, obvious matte paintings and only the most rudimentary of special effects are the telltale signs here. In retrospect that only adds a certain retro charme to this landmark of american gothic horror. Apart from these minor nitpicks, everything else is executed so fucking rock solid here, starting from a straightforward and tight script. Sometimes, just getting the basics right can get you a long way in filmmaking. Also, you can't ever go wrong with vintage Vincent Price, whose madman performance in this can genuinely scare the shit out of you.