My second viewing was actually a group of short films put together by Lurker Films, as the first volume in "The Edgar Allan Poe Collection" under the title "Annabel Lee."
"Annabel Lee" uses both stop-motion and marionette puppets to translate Poe's story of loss, and love's ability to overcome loss, even death. Set mostly in a nightmarish world filled with half rats, decay, and various skeleton abominations, "Annabel Lee" is a visually impressive interpretation of Poe's story.
Paul Naschy, the one-man horror film industry of Spain, stars in the next short, a very loose adaptation of "The Tell-Tale Heart." which was filmed mostly in a private library I wish were mine. My only wish is that this film were longer.
A generally excellant adaptation of "The Raven" rounds out the shorts, with perfect voice narration, nice acting, and a really cool raven puppet. This may have been my favorite film on this disc, which also contains numerous bonus features including an interview with Poe expert Paul Clemens, who some of you old readers of Famous Monsters may remember as being the kid who looked a lot like Ernie on "My Three Sons" and who made up Forrest J Ackerman to look like Vincent Price. Clemens was also the star of "The Beast Within" (1982) which was recently released to DVD.
A worthy addition to your DVD library.
You can order directly from Lurker Films. Be sure to tell them I sent you.
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