First off...with names like Fred Olen Ray, Brinke Stevens and Jan-Michael Vincent, plus distributors like "Rhino" and "Troma" on the video box, you know what you're getting into with this one. B movie mania! If you're actually expecting to see a thriller "based on Edgar Allan Poe," then forget it and head straight for the excellent series of Roger Corman 60s Poe films. This is pure, unadulterated sleaze (with just a pedestrian attempt at a plot similar to "The Premature Burial"), complete with lots of R-rated, ready-for-video sex and nudity. However, it's certainly entertaining...

Brinke plays rich, traumatized, insomniac housewife Victoria Monroe, whose father was buried alive (and she has three nude scenes in the first 30 minutes). Her husband Terry (Jay Richardson) has racked up some serious gambling debt (owed to a gangster played by Robert Quarry) and, with help from his kinky, blonde, European-accented sexpot secretary Lisa (Delia Sheppard) plots to do away with Brinke for her money. Name-value actress Karen Black drops in shortly as a hypnotist (she's way too talented for a movie like this) and Michael Berryman shows up for a decent nightmare sequence performing an autopy on Vicki. And Jan-Michael Vincent mostly sits outside a house in his car making goo-goo eyes as Brinke enters and exits.

The plot has been done a million times, the ending is an unintentional laugh riot and whoever created the awful stabbed face and decapitated head FX for this release needs to retire. The only really surprising thing is how good Delia Sheppard is in her role, easily eclipsing everyone else, stealing scenes and giving the sole standout performance.