Plot Summary

"The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar": Gold-digger Jessica Valdemar and her lover Dr. Robert Hoffman plot to take the money of her old and terminal husband Ernest Valdemar. Robert has hypnotized Valdemar to give his money to Jessica. Out of the blue, Valdemar dies while hypnotized and is stranded between the world of the living and the dead. Robert finds the experience fascinating and Valdemar asks him to take him out of the trance since other spirits are stalking him. However, Jessica shoots Valdemar's corpse twice, expecting to end his contact with the world of the living. But soon she learns that Valdemar had already been possessed by evil forces. "The Black Cat": In Pennsylvania, tabloid photographer Roderick Usher explores gruesome crime scenes where Detective Legrand is investigating. Rod has been living with his violinist girlfriend Annabel for four years. When she brings home a stray black cat, Rod immediately hates the animal. He takes photos torturing the cat for his book and the cat vanishes. When Annabel sees the photos of the cat in a bookstore, she concludes that Rod killed her cat and decides to leave him. Meanwhile Rod finds a stray cat in a bar identical to the one he killed and the owner Eleonora gives him the animal.a Annabel is leaving the house, but she overhears the cat and returns to her room. Rod kills her and builds a wall to hide her body behind a bookshelf and prepares a solid alibi. But the black cat dooms his fate.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil