Poe Mania in Media - Animal Movies

Not to be overlooked is Poe’s influence on the movie industry. A few of Poe’s short stories, “House of Usher,” “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “Tell-Tale Heart” have made their mark on mainstream Hollywood productions over the last decade.

In the hands of a good producer, the particularly Gothic tinge to Poe’s dark, demented plots are easily transposed on screen.

A quick query of Poe on IMDB.com - widely recognized as the online encyclopedia for movies – returns a long list of Poe influenced movies produced as recently as this year, 2009, with the earliest productions dating back as far as a 1932 screenplay of “Murders in Rue Morgue.”

In keepings with the animalistic exploration of final my essays, I wanted to narrow in on a singular similarity between Hollywood movies that center the main plot on animals, or horrific beasts, and Poe’s short stories. Poe may not have directly influenced the writer or producer, but his contributions to this style of writing most certainly laid the original foundations for writers, producers, and artists to build upon.

"King Kong" and "Murders in the Rue Morgue"

Beyond the apparent similarities of the abnormally giant guerilla in King Kong and the large, mighty orangutan in “Rue Morgue,” similarity can be found in the usual gentle temperament of beasts and seeming innocence of them when not provoked. Just as Dupin educates the reader on the deadly, frenzied, ultimately deadly, change in behavior when the orangutan is faced with screaming, King Kong too becomes frenzied and focused merely on stopping the piercing screams of his victims.

“The screams and struggles of the old lady had the effect of changing the probably pacific purposes of the Ourang-Outang into those of wrath” (Poe, 430)

King Kong Trailer (1933)

References

Poe, Edgar A. Poe: Poetry, Tales & Selected Essays - Library of America College Edition. Library of America, 1 Oct. 1996.