American poet and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe has had significant influence in television and film. Many are adaptations of Poe's work, others merely reference it.
Film
Adaptations
In the 1930s and 1940s, Universal Studios adapted several Poe stories—and used others as inspirational jump-off points—primarily starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. These films are usually treated as forming part of the early Universal Monster films, alongside Karloff's Frankenstein and Lugosi's Dracula et al. The educational film The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays, directed by Frank Capra in 1957, contains a brief scene in which Poe, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Charles Dickens appear as marionettes. Perhaps most well known are the films directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price such as House of Usher, the first in the series. The following movie, The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), was loosely inspired by the short story of the same name, mostly in the climax. The Premature Burial (1962, starred Ray Milland and Hazel Court, with Price notably absent for the only time in the unofficial "Corman-Poe Cycle". The Haunted Palace (1963) adopts the title of Poe's poem, but is more closely derived from the works of H. P. Lovecraft, in particular The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Corman hoped to remove himself from Poe adaptations and turned The Raven into a comedic effort. Likewise, the middle segment in Tales of Terror, based on "The Black Cat" and "The Cask of Amontillado", is intended to be humorous. The Masque of the Red Death (1964) was based on both that short story by Poe and "Hop-Frog". The Tomb of Ligeia (1964) closed the cycle out.
"The Black Cat" was translated to giallo film as Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (also known as Eye of the Black Cat). In 1973, Mexican director Juan López Moctezuma made The Mansion of Madness, also known as "La Mansión de la Locura", or "Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon". In 1981, Italian filmmaker Lucio Fulci directed The Black Cat, starring Patrick Magee and Mimsy Farmer. In 2005, Lurker Films released an Edgar Allan Poe film collection on DVD, including short film adaptations of "Annabel Lee" by director George Higham, "The Raven" by director Peter Bradley, and "The Tell-Tale Heart" by director Alfonso S. Suarez. The 2004 release of Hellboy on DVD contained a special 10-minute adaptation of "The Tell-Tale Heart" in the special features. Since 2004 New York animation producer Michael Sporn has been working on Poe, an animated feature about Poe's life and works. Independent Animation Artist John Schnall's lengthy short film adaptation The Fall of the House of Usher (1984) is entirely hand-drawn and rendered in wax crayon. The film successfully embodies an entirely Gothic spirit, down to the black rings around the characters' eyes. The adaptation was included on his 2025 Blu-ray collection Death Laughs Among Us: Films by John Schnall released by VHSHitfest. Czech Surrealist director and animator Jan Švankmajer has directed several Poe-related adaptations: The Fall of the House of Usher (1983), a short film based on the story of the same name, The Pit, the Pendulum and Hope (1983), another short film based on "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Poe and "A Torture by Hope" by Villiers de l'Isle Adam, and Lunacy (2005), a feature-length film based partially on motifs from "The Premature Burial" and "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether," as well as the life and writings of the Marquis de Sade. 2011 – Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado starring David JM Bielewicz and Frank Tirio, Jr., directed by Thad Ciechanowski, and produced by Joe Serkoch. Production Company DijitMedia, LLC/Orionvega. Winner of a 2013 Emmy Award. 2013 – Contos do Edgar (Edgar Tales) – A five-episode miniseries produced for FOX Brasil 2014 – "Terroir", starring Keith Carradine, is based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado". 2015 – Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven starring David JM Bielewicz, Dave Pettitt and Nicole Beattie. Directed by Thad Ciechanowski, produced by Joe Serkoch. Production Company DijitMedia, LLC/Orionvega. Winner of a 2015 Emmy Award. Extraordinary Tales, an animated anthology of five stories adapted from Poe ("The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", "The Pit and the Pendulum", and "The Masque of the Red Death"), released in October 2015. Each story is narrated by a different actor; the voice cast includes Christopher Lee ("Usher"), Bela Lugosi ("Tell-Tale Heart"), Julian Sands ("Valdemar"), Guillermo del Toro ("Pendulum"), and Roger Corman ("Masque"). Directed by Raul Garcia. "Edgar Allan Poe: Buried Alive" is a 90-minute PBS documentary that premiered on October 30, 2017. The film seeks to dispel myths about Poe and describes his actual life and writings, including his Eureka: A Prose Poem (1848), which anticipated the Big Bang theory of the universe. Huayi Brothers Media and CKF Pictures in China announced in 2017 plans to produce a film of Akira Kurosawa's posthumous screenplay of "The Mask of the Red Death" for 2020.Jordan Raup, "Unfilmed Akira Kurosawa script the mask of the black death will be produced in china" /
Inspiration and allusions In the 1909 novel The Phantom of the Opera, as well as subsequent film and stage adaptations, the title character appears disguised as The Red Death at a ball. In Chapter 4 of the 1940 movie serial Drums of Fu Manchu, "The Pendulum of Doom", the hero Allan Parker is trapped in a "Pit and the Pendulum" peril (Fu Manchu actually states that the Poe story inspired this torture device). In 1994 film The Crow, Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) quotes an excerpt from "The Raven" while breaking into Gideon's Pawn Shop. In the 1966 Batman movie, Bruce Wayne (Adam West) quotes the last stanza from the poem, "To One in Paradise", but mistakes it as the first one. In François Truffaut's 1966 film Fahrenheit 451, based on Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, former fireman Guy Montag is shown choosing to save and memorize a collection titled Tales of Mystery & Imagination. Poe's poem "A Dream Within a Dream" is frequently alluded to in the film Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), directed by Peter Weir. In the 1983 film The Dead Zone, the character Chris Stuart reads excerpts from the second and sixteenth stanzas of "The Raven". In the 1989 horror film, I, Madman, insane novelist Malcolm Brand is the author of a novel called Much of Madness, More of Sin, a quote from Poe's poem "The Conqueror Worm". In the 1990 film The Krays, the schoolyard dominance of Ronnie and Reggie Kray as children is demonstrated in a scene featuring a reading of the poem "Alone". In the 1987 vampire film The Lost Boys, the two kid vampire hunters Edgar and Alan Frog, played by Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander, respectively, have names that are inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. The 1993 film The Mummy Lives, starring Tony Curtis with a screenplay by Nelson Gidding, was suggested by Poe's "Some Words with a Mummy" (1845). The concept of sealing someone alive behind a brick wall, "a la Poe" in "The Cask of Amontillado", was used in the September 22, 1971, episode of Rod Serling's TV series Night Gallery, titled "The Merciful". The episode included a short segment in which an old woman (Imogene Coca) is apparently sealing her husband (King Donavan), passively seated in an old chair, in the basement behind a brick wall she is building. She assures him it is "really much better this way," that she is "doing this for your own good." When she finishes the wall, the old man gets up and walks upstairs to the main floor of the house. His wife has sealed herself in. In the 2004 remake of The Ladykillers, the chief protagonist is a great admirer of Poe and frequently quotes from his poetry; a raven is also featured. In the 2008 horror film Saw V, Seth Baxter is placed in a trap which references The Pit and the Pendulum. Tell-Tale (2009) is inspired by "The Tell-Tale Heart". Directed by Michael Cuesta and stars Josh Lucas, Lena Headey, and Brian Cox.New One-Sheet: Tell-Tale In the animated feature "The Scapegoats" (2013) by Tor E. Steiro, on the wall of Snakebite Dana's bathroom, there is an Edgar Allan Poe poster, with a raven and a quote from the poem, as well as Poe's signature. The 2022 supernatural horror film Raven's Hollow, a Shudder original written and directed by Christopher Hatton, tells a fictional tale of five West Point cadets, one of them Edgar Allan Poe, who embark on a training exercise in upstate New York where they encounter a gruesome situation in a forgotten community. The 2022 thriller film The Pale Blue Eye features a fictionalized version of Edgar Allan Poe helping to solve a murder mystery.
Selected Poe-related films
Edgar Allen Poe (1909), directed by D. W. Griffith The Gold Bug (France, 1910) The Pit and the Pendulum (Italy, 1910) The Bells (1912) The Avenging Conscience or: 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' (1914) The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1914) The Raven (1915) – this film is more of a Poe biography; however, a brief segment of the film is indeed an abbreviated performance of the namesake poem. The Tell Tale Heart (1928) The Fall of the House of Usher (US, 1928) La Chute de la maison Usher (France, 1928) Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) The Black Cat (1934) Maniac (1934) – also adapts "The Black Cat" The Crime of Dr. Crespi (1935) from "The Premature Burial" The Raven (1935) The Tell-Tale Heart (1941) The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe (1942) (a movie biography of Poe) The Mystery of Marie Roget (1942) The Raven (1942) - Animated cartoon produced by Fleischer studio. The Tell-Tale Heart (1953), Animated cartoon produced by UPA Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1953) House of Usher (1960) The Tell-Tale Heart (1960) Pit and the Pendulum (1961) Premature Burial (1962) Tales of Terror (1962) – adapts "Morella", "The Black Cat", "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" The Raven (1963) The Masque of the Red Death (1964) Castle of Blood (1964) The Pit and the Pendulum (1964) The Tomb of Ligeia (1965) The Black Cat (1966) The Blood Demon (1967) Spirits of the Dead (Histoires extraordinaires), three segments: Metzengerstein by Roger Vadim, William Wilson by Louis Malle and Toby Dammit by Federico Fellini (France/Italy, 1968) Web of the Spider (1971) Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971) The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe (1974) – Directed by Mohy Quandour. With Robert Walker Jr., Cesar Romero, Tom Drake. The Gold Bug (1980) – an episode of the TV series ABC Weekend Special, directed by Robert Fuest. With Roberts Blossom, Geoffrey Holder and Anthony Michael Hall. Vincent (1982) – a short film by Tim Burton about a boy who is obsessed with Poe and Vincent Price Masque of the Red Death (1989) – Directed by Larry Brand and produced by Roger Corman. With Adrian Paul and Patrick Macnee. Fool's Fire (1992) – a short film written and directed by Julie Taymor and starring Michael J. Anderson, an adaptation of "Hop-Frog" The Raven...Nevermore (1999) The Raven (short film – 2003) The Death of Poe (2006) Nightmares from the Mind of Poe (2006) The Light-house (2008) Eureka: The Mind Of Edgar Allan Poe (2008) Edgar Allan Poe's Ligeia (2008) House of Usher (2008), a queer pastiche directed by David DeCoteau The Pit and the Pendulum (2009), a contemporary riff directed by David DeCoteau William Wilson (2011) – a short film directed by Michael Van Devere The Raven (2012) is a fictionalized account of the last days of Poe's life. Stonehearst Asylum (2014) is loosely based on "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether".