The Tell Tale Heart, Betrayed by Madness

The mad do have stories to tell. What great story tellers they are. These insaniacs have heightened senses that most of us can only wonder about. Their interpretations and metaphors are succinct and fostering and us schmucks would do well to take heed of them. After all, it is the norms set by us schmucks that make it difficult for these self-proclaimed geniuses to flourish. If only we'd understand them and admired them when we should...then they could get away with murder. Hence McClain Lindquists's 22 minute interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart."

Our mad man (Sonny Grimsley) is the caretaker of a very old and sick man. You know the story...perhaps you read it as a child, or in college, or heard an old radio adaptation of it. Haunting and horrific, the story easily causes us all nightmares. Our caretaker here is seemingly neat, tidy, careful, in full control of his faculties. He, of course, has just murdered and sliced up the man with the vulture eye (James C. Morris). His calmness and fastidiousness will surely convince the two cops (Mikah Olsen and Teren Turner) that their visit to the old man's home is a wasted endeavor.

As our caretaker attempts to assuage his police visitors, his heightened senses work to betray him. The concept of time and the realization that the old man's vulture eye was never his antagonist won't bode well for the fastidious insaniac. A hacksaw and a meat cleaver will supply some nice gore as Mr. Lindquist delivers a short film that Poe would have loved. Creepy, edgy, and claustrophobic, we have a mad man narrator just waiting to explode in insane desperation. The scenes are interspersed with great coordination as all the elements Poe wanted to deliver to us are ever present in this adaptation.

Where Hammer Films delivered us Poe stories in an almost comic-book and fun manner, Mr. Lindquist gives us an intense, fast-paced, gory, and mesmerizing version of "The Tell Tale Heart." Madness rules and plenty of gore and hacksaw images remind us that when the insane bluff their way into the lives of the sane...spurting blood will result. For a raucous and full-speed horror yarn, enjoy McClain Lindquist's "The Tell Tale Heart,"...E.A. Poe would have thoroughly enjoyed it.