The Horror of Misreading: Poe’s Literary Intent and the Problem of Contemporary Adaptation

This article reconsiders the problem of fidelity in adaptation by focusing on Edgar Allan Poe, a writer whose works present unique challenges for cinematic interpretation. Poe’s fiction is less about plot than about atmosphere, ambiguity, and the aesthetic principle he termed the “unity of effect.” His narratives demand a confrontation with mortality, madness, and existential dread, while deliberately resisting moral didacticism and ideological overlay. Through comparative case studies—Roger Corman’s The Masque of the Red Death (1964), Federico Fellini’s Toby Dammit in Spirits of the Dead (1968), and Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher (2023)—the article analyzes how filmmakers negotiate Poe’s intent. Corman’s gothic stylization and Fellini’s surrealist modernism preserve Poe’s existential and aesthetic core, while Flanagan’s reimagining reframes Poe’s stories as corporate morality tales imbued with controversial cultural ideology. This shift illustrates how contemporary adaptations risk transforming Poe into what he most resisted: a moralist. The argument is grounded in Linda Hutcheon’s and Robert Stam’s adaptation theory, Noël Carroll’s philosophy of horror, and Harold Bloom’s account of “misreading.” It contends that fidelity to Poe must be measured philosophically rather than textually: what matters is whether an adaptation sustains Poe’s confrontation with the uncanny and the inescapability of death. By reframing Poe within adaptation debates, the article demonstrates how fidelity, far from being an outdated criterion, remains essential for certain authors whose works are defined by an uncompromising philosophical core.