Two Evil Eyes (1990)

Dir: George Romero/Dario Argento

A pair of 45 minute shorts from two masters of the genre, (very loosely) based on the writings of Edgar Allen Poe. This isn't perfect, but it's quite good fun and has been quite unfairly forgotten nowadays. Romero piece is an EC Comics style camp-fest with a cheating, money-grabbing wife getting her comeuppance from beyond the grave (with lots of anti-capitalist polemic thrown in for good measure, naturally). Argento's is a dark and spiteful tale of a crime photographer (Harvey Kietel playing his usual 'man on the edge' with aplomb) who goes completely batshit after killing his girlfriend's cat. It all gets very bloody and surreal from there (even including a gratuitous mediaeval interlude!) but, by Argento's standards, it's quite coherent and actually very suspenseful. Got some crackin' camera work too and the final shot is a corker. It's a damn shame Argento didn't do more work in this gritty, melancholy style. He could do a lot worse and indeed has. **1/2