The Raven (1935)

As well as their famous Frankenstein and Dracula series of films, Universal also shot a number of one-off horror titles during the height of their horror sucesses in the 1930s and 1940s, this set brings together five of those starring their unique and distinctive leading man, Bela Lugosi. In four of the films he is also joined by frequent screen sparring partner, Boris Karloff.
The films range from the original and exciting Invisible Ray (1936) to the missed opportunities of Horror/Gangster fusion in Black Friday (1940). The Edgar Allan Poe based stories range from decent Black Cat (1934) to the average Raven (1935) and the dull Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932).

In the 19th century, a serial killer begins murdering victims using methods from Edgar Allan Poe's stories. Poe himself teams up with a young Baltimore detective to get inside the murder's mind and try and stop more of his fictional works becoming grisly fact. As the hunt intensifies, Poe's own love, Emily Hamilton, becomes a target for the killer.

The play The Bells (based on the French Le Juif Polonais) was brought to the screen in 1926. Lionel Barrymore plays a merchant who murders a Jewish entrepreneur and appropriates the dead man's fortune. Though no evidence exists to convict him, Barrymore cannot escape his own conscience due to the intervention of a mentalist. Whenever he hears the pealing of church bells, Barrymore is haunted by images of his crime and his victim. Of interest is the appearance of Boris Karloff, in Caligariesque makeup as the mesmerist.

Members of Total Control and Grass Widow converge a mannered, almost eldritch-tinted style of synth-pop crossing lines with Group Rhoda, John Foxx, Carla Dal Forno, HTRK.