'The Pit and the Pendulum,' 'The Purloined Letter' & 'The Fall of the House of Usher'

Edgar Allen Poe probably gets underhyped by me because he's so overhyped by everyone else.

Well, not everyone. Mostly goth types and folks who think he's a good writer because the stories are so suspenseful.

Fact is, there is an entire money-making genre of films that plays to the need for terror and suspense, but it doesn't make those directors good. It makes for good entertainment.

Poe does one thing right: He captures the terror of death and the moments of pure turmoil in the human psyche maybe better than anyone.

Others could capture the inadequacy of a failed marriage or the death of a child better. But Poe captured the feelings of a man about to die a most horrendous death maybe better than most.

But to call his career "limited" is an understatement.