Combs is just perfect. I don't have a clue, if that's how Poe looked like, but the portrayal that Combs gives to this man and the way it is handled by the director is just great. I really loved it (despite the fact, that the ending might kill some buzz for quite a few people, who might not like the way it concludes).This is how crazy people work you could say. And while I have seen quite a few attempts to capture the essence of Poes short stories, it seems refreshing to watch it from the point of Poe's view. While he was great writer, he also was human. And that is what Combs captures greatly with his performance. Every facade of him, even if most of it might not be entirely true (again, I'm not a Poe scholar or anything), this is highly entertaining. I can't account for any biographical mistakes that are being made here. But if you notice any, hopefully you won't mind too much, because although this is about Poe, it's also meant to be a fictional Masters of Horror episode. A good one at that ...

Like the early 1910s silent-era versions of The Raven, this version of The Black Cat blends a representation of Poe's life with his work. There's a tendency to represent horror authors as themselves as horrific as their work, capable of the same violence, or as insane as their characters. This seems to be particularly the case with Poe, the poison pen of Rufus Griswold having unfortunately secured the image of Poe as a drunken addict. Griswold appears in The Black Cat as a potential piano buyer, oddly.That issue aside, it's a pretty good episode of Masters of Horror. Combs is nicely made up as Poe and thus has now done two of the greats, having done Lovecraft in the anthology Necronomicon, where he wasn't a bad likeness either but not as good as Christopher Heyerdahl. The accent Combs gives Poe is a little hard to take, but for all I know it may be an accurate one. The work is gorier than I recall the story being, thanks to Stuart Gordon. One wishes the blood did not look so much like Karo syrup in some scenes. There's a scene with an ax that also was a little too blackly humorous, or attempted to be, in the vein of Reanimator. Anyhow, it's perhaps worth watching - if I seem too critical it's only because I noticed there were many positive comments already and thus didn't think I needed to write about its strengths.

Well, one more version of "The Black Cat". Let's see...Dario Argento has done it, Lucio Fulci has done it, Sergio Martino has done it and that's the ones I can think of right now. Others have adapted "The Black Cat" as well. But I'll be damned if this isn't the finest version I've seen so far.The aforementioned directors put a different spin on the story and that's the case here as well. The original story's writer, Edgar A. Poe, is the central character. Not only do you get the important elements from "The Black Cat", you also get a glimpse of the author's life as well. Poe, living in poverty with his sick wife, succumbs to drinking and fearing he may have lost the talent to write. But salvation appears in the form of that fateful black cat.We're used to seeing Stuart Gordon (and Jeffrey Combs, for that matter) in H.P. Lovecraft territory and those collaborations resulted in the gruesome twosome "Re-Animator" and "From Beyond", both excellent horror films. Gordon is no less skillful in adapting Poe to the screen and his "Black Cat" is a superb combination of tragedy and gruesome horror.The love story between Poe and his wife is wonderfully handled and the gruesome bits are masterfully executed as well, no small feat to achieve. This is also thanks to a wonderful central performance by Jeffrey Combs who's had a nearly flawless career in horror movies.The sets are great and the scenery wonderfully atmospheric. This is one of the best "Masters of Horror" episodes.Highly recommended.

I don't know (nor care) how much research went prior to writing the teleplay for "The Black Cat" and neither do I know to what extent the little details about Edgar Allan Poe's private life are truthful. Basically I just assume that it was Start Gordon's intention to illustrate how creative brilliance and mental madness are two inseparable qualities a horror novelist must dispose of. The tormented protagonist in this umpteenth adaptation of E.A. Poe's legendary tale of "The Black Cat" is no other than … E.A. Poe himself! "The Black Cat" also marks Stuart Gordon's second attempt at the narration of a Poe tale, after his straight-to-video version of "The Pit and the Pendulum" in the early 90's. As expected, this is one of the better episodes in the Masters of Horror's second season, though slightly more flawed than I initially expected … or hoped. Jeffrey Combs' performance is – as always – mesmerizing, the filming locations and costumes are downright exquisite and perfectly capture the depressingly harsh atmosphere of the 19th Century first half, but the script is slightly lackluster and even a bit tedious at times. Combs stars as (and creepily resembles) Edgar Allan Poe and the story takes place during an incredibly difficult period of his life. Poe is completely out of writing-inspiration, struggles with financial problems as well as alcoholism and his beloved young wife Virginia fell victim to a severe illness. Unable to deal with all of this, he develops a strange paranoid condition where he thinks the black house cat is some kind of immortal demon that gradually destroys his entire existence. Even though the episodes in the Master of Horror series barely last an hour, this almost seems to be long in this case and the lack of relevant subject matter inevitably leads to a couple of redundant padding sequences. The actual share of the titular black cat only begins halfway through the tale, and before that it's primarily Poe's own drinking abuse that dominates. There's only one gory part in "The Black Cat", but I assure it's one that counts! Oh yes, this one-hour film features – hands down – THE greatest axe murder ever depicted. Combs receives excellent support from Elyse Levesque as Virginia. I never heard of her before, but she's quite talented and extremely good-looking. With a number of episodes still waiting on my personal must-see list, "The Black Cat" ranks as the second best of series two so far, second to Brad Anderson's "Sounds Like".