TdSmth5 In the intro somewhere in Europe a little girl's mother dies. The mother gives her some necklace and when she dies, her ghost escapes out the window.Years later in the US Jonathan, a literature professor, is very successful in his lectures. A strange, dark, and attractive students follows him to wherever he gives a presentation. The dean tells him a little bit about her. At some point they meet. The girl, Ligeia, is seductive and interested in him. But he's engaged to another girl who's father is some good for nothing drunk. We learn that Jonathan is very wealthy.In the meantime, Ligeia, who's a religious studies major, does experiments in the morgue. She somehow captures the spirit of the dead in a container. The dean catches but she has leverage on him. Eventually she throws him off a building and he ends up in the hospital. Still, she manages to capture his soul as well.By now Ligeia has managed to make Jonathan fall for her. He dumps the other girl, marries Ligeia, buys her family's former estate in Russia, and moves there. Turns out she has some debilitating disease, sees the grim reaper, and faints repeatedly. But she also continues her experiments. She collects these containers with souls, transfers them into wine, and drinks the wine. Also, on the property live a caretaker and his daughter who also has condition.Ligeia ends up dying, and is interred on the property. But from the grave she manages to control things via the girl. Jonathan gets back together with his ex and brings her to Russia where Ligeia's spirit continues to be up to no good.The tomb has a lot going for it: the stunning Sofya Skya, the lovely Kaitlin Doubleday, Eric Roberts, Michael Madsen, Wes Bentley, good locations, a very good story that mixes ghost story with metaphysics. But the execution fails somehow. Obviously, this is a lower budget B movie. There's a lot going on, unlike most movies today were the story doesn't offer a whole lot. But somehow the filmmakers struggle with making the story sensible. The story advances is spurts leaving some pretty big gaps that no one bothers to explain. I'm still not clear what Ligeia was trying to accomplish with her experiments and exactly how she meant to achieve it. They could have lengthened the running time a bit to explain things, or instead of wasting time on repetitive exterior shots could have added more dialogue. This movie is worth watching for the girls and the story.

Kirpianuscus not the film. only presence of few actors with clear potential for decent work and the choice for Edgar Allan Poe. because it is one from many confuse films about nothing, who use a great piece of literature for a real ambiguous purpose. the good intentions are not enough in this case because it has not a start point and a finish line. it seems creepy and inspired by Gothic but without relevant result. the Ukrainean flag on a Russian palace is the best proof for an improvisation who remains only game with old clichés. bad detail is the fact than the film has not desire to convince the viewer. all is only a boring travel among stereotypes of genre, ignoring substance or a little dose of credibility. only a fake horror who use Wes Bentley, Eric Roberts and Michael Madsen only as hangers for poor characters.

innocuous I would normally give "The Tomb" about five stars, if only because it was made in a competent manner (i.e., you can hear everything, the editing is reasonable, shots are framed, etc.). But I have to deduct one star for being so blatantly derivative and one star for being an insult to Mr. Poe. No, wait...I'm taking another star away because everybody is just so BAD in this film.The story is only minimally based on Poe's short story. I can hear the producer's now..."What? No children in danger? Add one! No sex? Add some! How does she come back from the dead? Through strength of will alone? No good! Add some satanic rituals and symbols. While you're at it, go find out how much Michael Madsen and Eric Roberts want for small, crappy parts. Nobody else is hiring them, so we ought to be able to get them for a song." (Madsen and Roberts have two totally irrelevant and shoddy roles in this production, but I guess that Madsen has to buy black hair dye somehow.) What is more fatal to this film than anything else is that we just don't care about any of the characters. We don't hate any of them, we don't like or sympathize with any of them. They just sort of exist to deliver their lines.As far as excitement, forget it. There isn't any. No nudity (worth mentioning,) no gore, no mystery, no chases, no fights (of any length or quality,) no shocking or surprising moments. It's just drab.Overall, a very stinky film. Don't bother.

Anthony Pittore III (Shattered_Wake) Jonathan Merrick (Wes Bentley) has it all: a beautiful girlfriend, a successful writing career, the respect of his colleagues. All of this is put on the line, however, when he unwillingly becomes entangled with a student, Ligeia (Sofya Skya), who has become unhealthily interested with him through his lectures on the macabre. Unbeknownst to Jonathan, his returned infatuation with Ligeia comes not from her Eastern European beauty or sexy accent, but from the black magic which she practices in order to seek the immortality that her ancestors before her could not attain.In recent years, there have been a huge number of indie straight-to-video adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories & poems, including literally a dozen versions of 'The Tell-Tale Heart.' Poe's story 'Ligeia' has only been the source material for a few adaptations, though, with the most well known being the Roger Corman/Vincent Price matchup 'The Tomb of Ligeia' (1964). There are reasons why 'Ligeia' is not as popular to adapt as other Poe pieces like 'The Fall of the House of Usher' or 'The Raven.' For one, it's not as popular a story as some of those others. But, the real reason is that it's simply just a difficult story to adapt. The original source material does not spread far with plot and it's told, like much of Poe's work, within the head of our narrator. Therefore, there are a lot of additions that a screenwriter would have to make to be able to make this an interesting and entertaining film. Unfortunately, writer John Shirley ('The Crow') did not succeed there in the slightest.To be memorable in the independent sector of horror, a film must either be very bad or very good. There are hundreds of horror films released each year and the wide majority of those will go unseen by even the most dedicated horror fan. This is why mediocrity is just about the worst curse for a horror film that wishes to be appreciated, or even remembered. For rookie director Michael Staininger, the graveyard of mediocrity is sadly where his first film will be laid to rest. This is because nearly every aspect of 'Ligeia' falls in the ranges of unimpressive or subpar. The acting is bland and boring, even from typically dependable actors like Michael Madsen, Eric Roberts, and Wes Bentley, who has performed well in the past with films like 'American Beauty' and 'P2' (though, his recovery from drug abuse may be a cause of this downfall). There is very little creativity with cinematography, even though the crew did have quite a few excellent locations which would have played nicely with talent behind the camera. However, the real reason for the film's lackluster quality is, without a doubt, the main creative components: the script & the directing. It's sad to see John Shirley, who started his film career with a bang penning the cult classic 'The Crow' in the '90s, sunk to the level of straight-to-video boredom like this film. Also, the rookie director's lack of ability to properly execute anything special with the mundane material also crippled the film's chances. These two components, as they would for any film, killed all opportunity 'Ligeia' had from ever reaching anything worthwhile.To sum up, other than the intriguing concept and the various settings, there isn't much to see with this film. It's poorly executed, boring, and boasts some truly disappointing performances by a usually impressive cast.Final Verdict: 4/10. Not a good start to the Fright Fest.-AP3-