Two Evil Eyes

Director– George A. Romero/Dario Argento

Starring – Various

Released by: Blue Underground

Country of Origin - U.S./Italy

Number of Discs - 3

Reviewed by - Scott MacDonald

Date- 10/14/2019

    In the late 1980's Dario Argento and George Romero tried to work together to create an anthology horror film based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe.   Initially they were going to get 4 directors together, but ended up just making 2 short films at the length of one hour each between Romero and Argento.  Romero would adapt The Case of M. Valdemar a lesser known Poe story that was previously adapted by Roger Corman in his "Tales of Terror" Poe anthology, while The Black Cat was adapted by Argento for this film, and also has the distinction of being adapted by Corman for the same anthology.

    The Case of M. Valdemar stars Adrienne Barbeau as the wife of an older wealthy man. Valdemar. She is now waiting for him to die, and wants to get her hands on his fortune.   This is not guaranteed so she hires a counselor to hypnotize him into leaving his money behind. Unfortunately Valdemar dies while under hypnosis and becomes trapped between 2 worlds.  Out of the 2 parts of this anthology the Romero entry always seemed a little too long for the material present. On this rewatch I definitely got into it more than on prior revisits, and Romero does create a chilling, somewhat disturbing atmosphere. 

    Argento's The Black Cat follows a crime-scene photographer (Harvey Keitel) is having trouble with his girlfriend, one day he kills her, but her favorite black cat might do the confessing for him. Argento's is a narrative remix of the Black Cat, it hits the major and simple story beats of the piece, while at the same time hitting on major references to Poe and his work throughout down to the character names.  The film is more of a bizarre, and off-the-wall horror piece compared to the straight forward nature of the Romero entry.

    Blue Underground does another fantastic re-release with a new 4k scan of Two Evil Eyes. The film is presented 1:85:1 with a 1080p AVC encoded transfer preserving the OAR of the film. Everything looks natural, and well-detailed with nothing to really detract from the transfer. Audio is handled by a 7.1 HD audio track that has great sound separation and balance. Extras include a commentary by Troy Howarth, and a crazy amount of interviews with actors, crew, and so many more. There are some archival materials here, but so much new material that really goes into a crazy amount of depth. There is a also a CD soundtrack, and booklet with essay by Michael Gingold. Two Evil Eyes comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.