Fearless Film Society Review

By Phillip Wilcox

June 23, 2020

In 1843 author Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Tell-Tale Heart was published. I first read it in the 9th grade, and as being the angsty teenager I was, gravitated toward darker literary material. That is when I found the work of one Edgar Allan Poe.

I feel like the mainstream public would be mostly familiar with his story The Raven. But as his writings may mainly deal with grief, loss, tragedy and madness, The Tell-Tale Heart I felt was the most maddening of his works as it told the story in a first person narrative of a man whose sanity is unraveling whilst confessing to the murder in such grisly fashion of the Old Man that is under his care.

The Tell-Tale Heart is one that is filled with guilt…

First time director McClain Lindquist has captured and respectfully preserved the essence of Poe’s story, maintaining the original text for the narrator (played brilliantly and fearlessly by Sonny Grimsley), all the while injecting strikingly beautiful and brutal images to accompany the storytelling with such immaculately hypnotic and disorienting editing.

I dare not even think to go on without mentioning the Special Makeup FX Team and their work of such gorgeous grotesqueries on display. They really made those close up shots worth every second to be seen.

There have been other adaptations of this story. But this one stands out on its own, with a spotlight of its own, never thinking to share in anyone else’s. And I respect the hell out of that. Watching 20 some odd minutes of this story play out in the hands of this cast and crew was like breathing in new air.

Review can be found at: https://philthemovieguyreviews.wordpress.com/2020/06/23/the-tell-tale-heart-a-review/