User Reviews

Jonathan Merrick (Wes Bentley) has it all: a beautiful girlfriend, a successful writing career, the respect of his colleagues. All of this is put on the line, however, when he unwillingly becomes entangled with a student, Ligeia (Sofya Skya), who has become unhealthily interested with him through his lectures on the macabre. Unbeknownst to Jonathan, his returned infatuation with Ligeia comes not from her Eastern European beauty or sexy accent, but from the black magic which she practices in order to seek the immortality that her ancestors before her could not attain.

In recent years, there have been a huge number of indie straight-to-video adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories & poems, including literally a dozen versions of 'The Tell-Tale Heart.' Poe's story 'Ligeia' has only been the source material for a few adaptations, though, with the most well known being the Roger Corman/Vincent Price matchup 'The Tomb of Ligeia' (1964). There are reasons why 'Ligeia' is not as popular to adapt as other Poe pieces like 'The Fall of the House of Usher' or 'The Raven.' For one, it's not as popular a story as some of those others. But, the real reason is that it's simply just a difficult story to adapt. The original source material does not spread far with plot and it's told, like much of Poe's work, within the head of our narrator. Therefore, there are a lot of additions that a screenwriter would have to make to be able to make this an interesting and entertaining film. Unfortunately, writer John Shirley ('The Crow') did not succeed there in the slightest.

To be memorable in the independent sector of horror, a film must either be very bad or very good. There are hundreds of horror films released each year and the wide majority of those will go unseen by even the most dedicated horror fan. This is why mediocrity is just about the worst curse for a horror film that wishes to be appreciated, or even remembered. For rookie director Michael Staininger, the graveyard of mediocrity is sadly where his first film will be laid to rest. This is because nearly every aspect of 'Ligeia' falls in the ranges of unimpressive or subpar. The acting is bland and boring, even from typically dependable actors like Michael Madsen, Eric Roberts, and Wes Bentley, who has performed well in the past with films like 'American Beauty' and 'P2' (though, his recovery from drug abuse may be a cause of this downfall). There is very little creativity with cinematography, even though the crew did have quite a few excellent locations which would have played nicely with talent behind the camera. However, the real reason for the film's lackluster quality is, without a doubt, the main creative components: the script & the directing. It's sad to see John Shirley, who started his film career with a bang penning the cult classic 'The Crow' in the '90s, sunk to the level of straight-to-video boredom like this film. Also, the rookie director's lack of ability to properly execute anything special with the mundane material also crippled the film's chances. These two components, as they would for any film, killed all opportunity 'Ligeia' had from ever reaching anything worthwhile.

To sum up, other than the intriguing concept and the various settings, there isn't much to see with this film. It's poorly executed, boring, and boasts some truly disappointing performances by a usually impressive cast.

Final Verdict: 4/10. Not a good start to the Fright Fest.

-AP3-

Well respected author and professor, Jonathan Merrik (Wes Bentley) is drawn to the allure of exotic grad student( into the occult, her family alchemists), Ligeia(Sofya Skya), who has almost perfected the process of "seizing souls", extracting the lifeforce of victims so she can retain her youth and vitality. Young and rich (both his parents are deceased), Jonathan is engaged to a lovely young woman named Rowena(Kaitlin Doubleday), whose father is a pathetic drunk (Michael Madsen). Dark and brooding, Ligeia captivates Jonathan; he's overwhelmed by her haunting beauty and decadent nature. Rowena is an understudy singer who is charming, with a bright wattage smile, the perfect mate for a successful young professor with the world as his oyster, yet Jonathan has his doubts (he's further complicated by how smitten he is with Ligeia). Seductively capturing Jonathan by addressing the darkness inside him, Ligeia will not only attain his hand in marriage but convince him to purchase her old family's manor. Ligeia needs to find a means to keep her illness from overtaking her and this will drive and motivate by whatever methods are necessary. Meanwhile Rowena pines for Jonathan and will hope to win back his heart once Ligeia's true self emerges once and for all revealing to him that he had made a mistake choosing her as his bride. When Ligeia hurls herself from atop the manor to the sidewalk, Jonathan attempts to move on and does so with Rowena. But, Merrik hasn't heard the last of Ligeia who plans to take control of Rowena's body so she can continue to live on, absent a weakened fleshly vessel, but he will fight to win his second bride back. With Eric Roberts wasted in a nothing minuscule part as the manor's Russian caretaker and the vacuous Makenzi Rosman as his troubled niece who live near Jonathan and Ligeia. Ligeia will use Rosman and get rid of Roberts so she can get close to Rowena. Merrik will seek Rosman's help once Rowena has been possessed by Ligeia. In the silly plot of THE TOMB, the spirits are sucked from the bodies of victims, contained in little jars and held in a cabinet by Ligeia, who later stores them for safe keeping hoping they will assist in her experiments for immortality. The spirits of those robbed of their lifeforce appear in a green tinted mist(the face shown as an image within this mist). Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa has a small role as the University Chancellor who Ligeia must destroy in order to keep his knowledge of her diabolical experiments a secret. Bentley barely registers a pulse in his performance leaving Doubleday the task of garnering sympathy from the viewer. Skya is quite easy on the eyes and Doubleday's no slouch(and her transformation once Skya takes over is actually quite convincing)helping to give this movie some much needed juice.

I bought this DVD years ago a now out-of-business movie store (Blockbuster? Movie Stop? One of those.) I don't remember how much I paid, but even if it was two bucks, it was far too much.

Unlike a lot of reviewers, I think the acting was okay. Not Oscar-worthy, but okay. I'm used to subpar to mediocre acting in horror films. What I think hurt this movie more than anything were the post-production edits. Too much "tense" music, too many weird jump-cuts to things that don't matter, unfinished and unresolved scenes, weird lighting effects...it just completely spoiled the movie.

I was even more convinced of this after seeing the cut scenes, which didn't have any of these kinds of edits in them. It made me realize that the acting and story would have been pretty good, if they had been allowed to take center-stage instead of the "special" effects. (The effects weren't very special..)

I also watched the original trailer, as is my wont to do after seeing a movie like this on DVD, and there were a couple of scenes in it I would have LOVED to see in the movie that weren't even granted cut scene space! Things like Ligea (sp?) dancing on the castle roof, and the dad going crazy in the kitchen.

All in all, there was a good movie in there somewhere, but overuse of effects - both visual and sound - and bad directing kind of ruined all of it. (It's surprising to me that this movie promotes the "writer and producer of The Crow". Where?! Because I couldn't see it..)

I would love to see a version of this movie without the weird effects. I would love to see a more vulnerable and "human" version of Ligea (sp?) that was presented in the cut scenes. The story of a desperate but witchy woman who is ill, and is terrified of death. That would have been a great story on its own. It didn't need all the other weirdness. Maybe some deeper build-up between her and the main dude, and a better break-up between him and his blonde fiancee before the movie forgets her entirely for like an hour.

These are the most frustrating kinds of movies: Ones that COULD have been good, but failed because reasons.

The film opens with the losing of a spirit in Romanova Manor. It jumps to the present as Professor Jonathan Merrick (Wes Bentley) gives lectures on 19th century literature. He is engage (Kaitlin Doubleday) but his eye roams to the exotic looking Ligeia (Sofya Skya) and before long he is no longer engaged, drinking absinthe and buying a castle for our antagonist soul stealer.

The film moved rather quickly, never allowing for character build up. Indeed, I found myself rooting for evil, because that was the only personality in the film. The dialogue and acting were bland. This is one of the lesser offerings of Fangoria. with killer Bees, Michael Madsen and Eric Roberts.

Parental Guide: F-bomb, sex, and nudity.