Chiller/ The Tell-Tale Heart (DVD, 2006)

Double y/our horror . . . beginning with this 1960 screenplay writers Brian Clemens & Eldon Howard adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's horror story about the fate of an aristocratic but under-socialized man (also) named Edgar (Laurence Payne). Edgar's best friend, Carl Loomis (Dermot Walsh), is quite an outgoing socialite to whom Edgar goes for advice about how to woo a new neighbor woman, Betty Clare (Adrienne Corri). Edgar pursues Betty like a teen boy clutz who's had no experience. Eager to please her, since he's shy & doesn't have much to talk about on dinner dates, Edgar insists time & again that Carl join them to make it a party of 3. All the while, Betty is falling for Carl instead of Edgar, without Edgar noticing.

One night Edgar sees, from his window through hers across the street, Betty having passionate sex with Carl. That sets off a chain of Edgar's psychopathological reactions that I won't spoil.

The DVD is in black & white; lasts 75 mins & is in stereo. Ernest Morris directs a good rendition of Poe's famous story.

Wes Craven's (director) "Chiller," screenplay by J.D. Feigelson, was released as a horror film in 1985. As their story goes, a corporate executive, Miles Creighton (Michael Beck), is cryogenically frozen with the egocentric hope that as modern science advances one day he'll be revived. His hope proves prophetic when, after 10 years frozen, he's brought back to life. However . . . Miles is not exactly "the man he used to be." Something's missing. No more hints or it wouldn't be a "Chiller." It's a campy, color, 104 mins, English "Frozen Man Production."

I find these older horror flix more enjoyable than the newer ones because they deal more with the psychopathological inner human conflict rather than the horrific acts of blood & guts violence that can be grotesque.