Sadly Over-hyped

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

For having a relatively low budget, the film's style and overall art direction are immensely impressive.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

In all honesty, Federico Fellini, whose directing and style I greatly admire, was one of two main attractions to Histoires Extraordinaries in the first place. The other was Edgar Allan Poe. And his segment is the best of the three for me. True, it is more Fellini than Poe with the protagonist like watching 8 1/2 or La Dolce Vita and the dream sequences and the quality of the art direction like 8 1/2 and Juliet of the Spirits, but I love that he adapted a story and put his own style into it. As ever it is beautifully filmed, with a nice score, is superbly directed by Fellini with his sense of nostalgia and themes interesting and boasts a mesmerising performance from Terrence Stamp. Louis Malle's segment is perhaps the most true to Poe's writing. It is straightforward storytelling but chillingly effective at it. It is handsomely filmed also, and Alain Delon as well as good-looking is very convincing. Sadly, the segment directed by Roger Vadim is a mess. It is nice to look at and Jane Fonda is always watchable, but the pace is dull, the direction is all over the place, the story never knows whether it wants to be a drama or a Gothic tale and Peter Fonda is simply wasted. Overall though it is a good and interesting film. And who can go wrong with the great Vincent Price narrating? I cannot see where you can personally. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Three Poe stories; three directors; three failures.Simply put, this movie is not entertaining. Using Poe's name, and labeling the stories as interpretations by famous directors does not cover the poor performance and overall boring conclusion.The viewer, very possibly a fan of Poe, keeps hoping for something to develop, but it never does. Jane Fonda never removes her clothes. Peter Fonda is a again outperformed by a bird. The beautiful scenery and castles are fantastic. Hells bells ring loud and clear. But the movie never turns into an entertaining event.The Night Gallery TV series had many good stories and many duds. The adaptations of Poe stories in the film Spirits of the Dead would never have been used in the most desperate space-filler needs of television.There are several good film adaptations of Poe stories, but Spirits of the Dead is not worth watching.

Those 5 out of 10 stars go only to the Fellini piece which is the last of the three.The first tale directed by Vadim starring both Jane & Peter Fonda is the cheapest looking of the three. Maybe Fellini actually made his part first and used up most of the budget for this flick. Who knows! Anyway, this first part is really only worthwhile to see Ms. Fonda looking gorgeous at the height of her beauty. Other than that, it's a total snoozer. Literally will put you to sleep. Not much dialoug even, just lots of scenes with Jane riding around on a horse.The second part directed by Louis Malle starring Alain Delon is more straight forward in narrative but tells a boring story. Bridget Bardot is totally wasted in her part of the movie as a gorgeous heavily eye-lined courtesan playing a game of cards with the star. Mr. Delon is a boring as hell actor and Mr. Malle's boring direction only makes matters worse.Finally when you think this movie couldn't get any worse, you're right and in comes Mr. Fellini with his third of the movie. Immediately your taken by surprise at the production values and are amazed at how expensive the movie looks and you realize HERE is the grade A production you've been waiting for! Now to be honest, the story really didn't grab me and frankly, Mr. Fellini is not one for subtlety when he's trying to make a point, but he is a master at creating fun visuals to simply look at and enjoy. And the best performance in the movie goes to the great Terrance Stamp who doesn't fail to impress us here. I think if you just showed this last third of the movie at a college it would get a great response.If you never catch this flick, don't worry about it. But if you're one of those die hard movie fans who like to be able to cross unseen movies off their list, well then, give it a go I guess.

"Metzengerstein": the bored and corrupt medieval countess Frederica (Jane Fonda) spends her futile life in orgies and cruelties. When she moves with her friends to one of her castles nearby the lands of her poor cousin Baron Wilhelm (Peter Fonda), she desires him but is not corresponded. When one of her minions burns the stable, Wilhelm dies trying to rescues his stallion and Federica is haunted by her lost cousin.This erotic female version of Caligula shows the delicious Jane Fonda, who was married to Roger Vadim at that time, wearing sexy costumes very similar to "Barbarella" (of the same year). But the story is weak. My vote is five."William Wilson": the sadistic and cruel soldier of the Austrian army William Wilson (Alain Delon) confesses to a priest the cruelties he committed along his sinful life and the participation of his double also called William Wilson in specific moments of his dreadful life.This short directed by Louis Malle is the certainly the best segment of these adaptations, showing the fight between the dark side and the human part of the same character. Brigitte Bardot is very different with black hair. My vote is six."Toby Dammit": the cynical alcoholic and decadent English actor Toby Dammit (Terence Stamp) travels to Rome to make a Catholic Western, but only interested in receiving the Ferrari promised by the production.This messy segment directed by Federico Fellini uses stylish images and a great performance of Terence Stamp, but the story is confused and the boring conclusion is too long. My vote is four.My global vote for these adaptations is five.Title (Brazil): "Histórias Extraordinárias" ("Extraordinaries Stories")