George Romero and Dario Argento teamed up for this horror anthology comprised of two stories. The first was written and directed by Romero and starring Adrienne Barbeau as the wife of a rich old dude who she wants to kill for the inheritance money. Things naturally go off the rails and turn horrific as the dead body comes back to life to exact revenge. Except, there is nothing scary about it and by the time the climax comes, I was relieved to move on to the next story.

The second story with Harvey Keitel was a little better, but not because of the story, it was more due to Harvey Keitel and Dario Argento’s direction. The Harvey Keitel character is a photographer who takes pictures of grisly crime scenes, oh and also of himself strangling his girlfriend’s cat. As his crime against the feline is exposed, he continues doing more drastic things to cover up and slips deeper into psychotic tendencies. Keitel is brilliant in his unhinged performance that keeps getting louder. Keitel is great at shouting.

While I do like both these directors, this odd double-feature anthology thing just doesn’t work. It’s lacking too many things to even make it passable, let alone at the level of greatness of films like Romero’s Dawn of the Dead or Argento’s Suspiria. Not everything can be a masterpiece, but these dudes could have done way better.

Rating: