The Oval Portrait (1972)

After taking a day off to recover from the retirement ceremony, I decided to get back and finish off some of the flicks I watched last wee and never wrote up. The next film from the Pure Terror Collection that I will write on today is The Oval Portrait (loosely based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe) from 1972. Note: this one is also known as One Minute Before Death.

Plot/ This Civil War period film centers upon a young woman facing a struggle for her sanity. A portrait created by an insane painter appears to contain the soul of the woman depicted in it, the painter's wife. The young woman finds herself fighting off the portrait's spirit that wishes to escape from the painting by replacing the young woman's soul in her body and trapping her spirit in the portrait.

This film is definitely loosely (and I mean loosely) based on a story by Poe (which is usually the case). While there were some very bad moments with uneven acting (OK maybe poor would be a better way to describe it) and way too much lighting for a ghost story, there was also something interesting with it that made it at least somewhat tolerable (especially the ending which I did not see coming). In the end, there was nothing that was truly amazing with this film; it was just another strange Poe adaptation (albeit a loose one). I cannot truly recommend this one (unless you really have nothing else to watch).