I would normally give "The Tomb" about five stars, if only because it was made in a competent manner (i.e., you can hear everything, the editing is reasonable, shots are framed, etc.). But I have to deduct one star for being so blatantly derivative and one star for being an insult to Mr. Poe. No, wait...I'm taking another star away because everybody is just so BAD in this film.The story is only minimally based on Poe's short story. I can hear the producer's now..."What? No children in danger? Add one! No sex? Add some! How does she come back from the dead? Through strength of will alone? No good! Add some satanic rituals and symbols. While you're at it, go find out how much Michael Madsen and Eric Roberts want for small, crappy parts. Nobody else is hiring them, so we ought to be able to get them for a song." (Madsen and Roberts have two totally irrelevant and shoddy roles in this production, but I guess that Madsen has to buy black hair dye somehow.) What is more fatal to this film than anything else is that we just don't care about any of the characters. We don't hate any of them, we don't like or sympathize with any of them. They just sort of exist to deliver their lines.As far as excitement, forget it. There isn't any. No nudity (worth mentioning,) no gore, no mystery, no chases, no fights (of any length or quality,) no shocking or surprising moments. It's just drab.Overall, a very stinky film. Don't bother.

"We will never have to pay that price. We can live forever."I don't know why I watch movies like these. They're clearly going to be awful. All the reviews I read further reinforced the fact that it was going to be awful. But, I still felt compelled to see it, anyway. And yep, it was awful.The problems were myriad. The scares and horror aspect of The Tomb were surpassed by most of The Goosebumps books I read as a kid. The story was silly and bland. The attempt to appeal to the audience with sex fell flat with scenes that would hardly earn a PG-13 rating and had no chemistry between the participants.The absolute worst things about The Tomb, though were the acting and the script. The entire cast was uniformly wretched, especially Wes Bentley and Sofya Skya. Sofya is certainly a very beautiful woman, but she would be wise to reconsider this whole "actress" thing. And Bentley came close to achieving the feat of making me never want to see another movie that he's in, ever. As for the script, describing it as "amateur" would be an insult to everyone who has ever been an amateur at anything in the history of the world. The dialogue is abysmal, and I can't imagine that anyone spent more than a few hours writing this.I don't know what kind of dire financial situations are responsible for Eric Roberts and Michael Madsen being in this dreck, but I'm willing to offer money out of my own pockets to help them never have to be in anything this terrible, again. The only possible entertainment to be gained from The Tomb is from making fun of it. It's hilariously bad, but still too boring for me to recommend even for a laugh with your friends.

Some other comments tear this film apart completely. I just felt like someone (else) ought to do justice to some of the good sides.First, I was amazed after finishing watching "Ligeia" at it only being a little less than 90 minutes long -- felt more like an hour 45-50 to me! Now, don't think of the reason for that being a boring plot. The original story is by Edgar Allen Poe. More like the director really didn't waste any time dragging out the story at all. I believe, though, it would help if the sequence of events wasn't quite as rushed. More precisely, if in places there had been more room for emotion and human appearance of the characters. The parts of Ligeia and Rowena, the female antagonist and protagonist, were very well acted and a terrific choice of actresses. Michael Madson is also convincing doing his usual thing. For some reason, Wes Bentley comes across as very stiff and it's hard to read what's even going through his character's mind most of the time.But one thing I do believe really worked out great is the atmosphere. From the way the names in the opening cast turn into curls of smoke to the coloring (or reduction thereof) and lighting to the beautiful shots of the locations and sky ...I guess what's showing is just that it's the director's first serious movie. But the movie is worth watching, especially if you like the genre and an Edgar Allen Poe story drenched in a somewhat Gothic atmosphere with two truly talented and beautiful lead actresses.

OK ... So it tried not to be a typical worthless neu-horror failure ... But it fell for all the usual things ... Drained colour flashbacks ... Naff unnecessary quick cut editing ( at times ) ... Acting that would make the local drama group blush ... And a storyline that could ( possibly ) have been interesting if it hadn't been written like a bad soft porn movie I have a feeling the budget on this was actually bigger than it looked ... Some of the settings were quite grand for a low budget film ... Unfortunately the director didn't know what to do with any of them How on earth do these awful directors and script writers get to make these films ... They are just a waste of time and money ... Everyone involved with the production I presume got paid ... Because that is the only thing this sort of junk does ... Pay workers As long as the financiers don't expect people to pay money to watch this dross ... THAT WOULD BE GOING TO FAR