Filmikaze!

By: Michael Staininger (director), John Shirley (screenplay), Edgar Allan Poe (story)

Starring: Wes Bentley, Kaitlin Doubleday, Sofya Skya, Michael Madsen, Eric Roberts

Successful writer and scholar Jonathan Merrick falls under the spell of the irresistible, bewitchingly beautiful Ligeia. She’s fighting a fatal illness and she will stop at nothing to defeat death, her one true enemy. She steals other people’s souls and on her quest to immortality she tricks Jonathan into supporting her work, breaking him apart from his fiancé Rowena and pulling him into her dark, mysterious world. They settle down in an old manor by the Black Sea where Ligeia’s everlasting presence slowly drives Jonathan to madness…

From the “Where Are They Now?” files: If you’ve been wondering whatever happened to Wes Bentley, the answer appears to be that he’s been turning Edgar Allan Poe stories into truly terrible movies. Once upon a time I really liked Wes Bentley, but there is nothing positive I can say about this film. It’s god-awful, full stop. It’s tepid, cliche and unconvincing, with bad direction and worse acting. If, by some miracle, you actually come across it at your local video store, do not convince yourself it may be better than the cover makes it look. It’s worse.