Behind Them Are Greed and Madness: Two Evil Eyes (1990)

Two Evil Eyes (2 Occhi Diabolici) (Italy/ US, 1990)
Rating: ***1/2
Starring:  Adrienne Barbeau, Harvey Keitel, Ramy Zada, Madeleine Potter,Tom Savini

With two of horror's well-known directors collaborating with special effects wiz Tom Savini, Two Evil Eyes (1990) has George A. Romero and Dario Argento cooking up modern and brutal retellings of two literary scare classics from the master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe.

We first start off with Romero's entry, The Facts in the case of Mr. Valdermar; Adrienne Barbeau stars as a money-hungry wife who's conniving with her doctor ex-husband to steal a large sum of cash by, through means of hypnosis, persuading an elderly and dying Valdemar into inheriting all his money to her. But when the old man dies while still under the trance of hypnosis, the two try finding a way to keep everything as planned, only to find themselves in a haunting situation where Valdemar's soul appears to be speaking to them through his freezer-kept body, begging them to release him as the "others" are planning to use his body as a mean to exact maniacal violence.

Perhaps the strongest story between the two, Facts brought upon an interesting concept regarding hypnotism and the afterlife within its satire on consumerism and greed, all the while bringing horrors of both the greedy kind and those involving the supernatural. The direction of the plot goes quite well with the atmospheric tension, working our way into watching the two leads plan around their bizarre situation while keeping their heads straight; not only will the couple have to deal with the bank possibly wising up to their scheme, but they also now have to deal with murderous ghosts. Darkly comical, but played quite straight and even terrifying.

Some gorily detailed deaths and undead make-up also give this short a passable run. It didn't have much to go for character development however, but from beginning to end, it's quite a ride, making Facts one of Romero's better underrated efforts.

The second short is by Dario Argento, a bloodier take on Poe's The Black Cat; Harvey Keitel takes the role of a photographer who works on murders scenes, compiling them into a book. His publishers, while finding the collection quite good, do find the brutality of the deaths he captures quite concerning and would've like him to tone down on the grue. This coincides with his case against his girlfriend's new cat, who doesn't appear to like him very much, adding up to his pressure. Things finally escalates to an awry development when he murders the cat out of a sick need for art, and too offing his girlfriend after she tried to stop him from killing another animal.

Will he get away with it? Well, unless you hadn't read the original short, the ending might not be all that surprising.

It is in this short where the most bodycount comes in, enticing animal violence and Argento's keen eye on exploited violence, going perfectly with Savini's gore effects. Perhaps more psychological than methodic, The Black Cat is an interesting look into the effects of real life violence to one's personal life, as our anti-hero lives a life of morbid fascination and bomb wick temper that ends up in a brutal killing spree, thankfully played well with Keitel's intimidating performance as a maddened photographer with a lot going in his mind.

My only concern over this short is that, while the build-up to our lead's first human murder was a good, everything else that happened after that feels a bit tedious as it slugs its way to the grand finale, which in turn come off rather weak. I might be saying this because I'm already familiar with the story, so I try not to take this out on the film and do enjoy it nonetheless.

Some may find one and/or both of the stories hardly living up to the tone of the original shorts, or even to the reputation the directors have with their more well known movies. I beg to disagree, frankly, as Two Evil Eyes (1990) feels right at home with true horror fan for being simple and gory with a double bill-like plotting and direction. By all means, I think we can still pass this up as a fair film to have around and I  greatly recommend it!

Bodycount:
1 male suffers through heart seizure
1 female shot on the head
1 male gets an obelisk shoved into his chest
1 female found sliced in half with a bladed pendulum
1 cat strangled
1 male dropped and skewered on a stake (dream)
1 female found murdered, teeth removed
1 female hacked to death with meat cleaver
1 cat cut in half with wood saw
1 male hacked on the back with pickaxe
1 male hacked on the chest with pickaxe
1 male hanged
Total: 12