The Horror genre of film is all too often written off as using gimmickry rather than insightful storytelling to gain an audience. This notion does not apply to Ligeia which made its festival run earlier this year. A modern film adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic classic, Ligeia possesses the darkness which fans of the iconic author crave while being imbued with a thread of modern feminism. This unique approach is rooted in the union of director Viola Mai and producer Li Zhiyan. The duo felt Poe’s classic tale offered them the opportunity to portray this female-centered revenge plot in a way seldom seen. Full of stylish period sets and frightful revelations, Ligeia possesses an abundance of attraction for literary enthusiasts, horror fans, and general film goers. The industry confirmed its enthusiasm for this film with widespread acclaim and status as an official selection of festivals like the LA Shorts International Film Festival, an Oscar, BAFTA, and Canadian Screen Award-qualifying showcase, renowned for its competitiveness and influence. Producer Li Zhiyan received the Best Producer award at the IndieX Film Festival for her work on Ligeia.
It’s no simple task to reinterpret the work of someone as revered as Edgar Allen Poe but Ligeia the film maintains the essence of this beloved literary work while delivering it from the perspective of the story’s namesake rather than Poe’s original vantage of her husband. This simple twist completely alters how the story is communicated and how it is delivered. It’s clearly evident that Producer Zhiyan was scrutinizing on a molecular level to ensure that the sets are so authentic in their Victorian aesthetic that the telling of the events from Ligeia’s perspective are more readily acceptable by those familiar with the story. The claustrophobic bedroom where the dying female protagonist receives a final kiss from her husband feels like a welcoming tomb where betrayal is uncovered. More frenetic moments, such as when Paloma is confronted by Ligeia as both discover she is a ghost, demanded equal attention from a production standpoint. Li divulges, “As a producer, one of the scarcest resources we have is time. Efficiency and creativity must come to an agreement. For the scene where Ligeia comes to the revelation that she is in fact dead, we wanted to use practical makeup rather than VFX, but this is quite time consuming. I organized the schedule so we could maximize the work being done by other departments to allow for this time needed by the makeup department; it’s all a part of the teamwork that is filmmaking. We were all very pleased with the results.” One of the most gratifying moments of Ligeia is when the murderous husband receives his karmic compensation. This is a moment when the cast and crew are perfectly coordinated in performance, stunt coordination, and practical effects to elicit the catharsis that Ligeia and the audience yearn for.
From the first seconds of Ligeia, it’s obvious that this film is unlike any other iteration of Poe’s work. Producer Li Zhiyan professes that this was the intent from the outset. She notes, “Viola Mai and I engaged in extensive conversations about women, cinema, and the ways female voices are represented on screen. Those discussions built a foundation of mutual trust. Viola and I share a belief that stories about women—especially those drawn from gothic or experimental traditions—must be told with both emotional honesty and bold cinematic language. One of the deepest sources of our shared artistic vocabulary is the French New Wave. Both Viola and I are deeply inspired by that movement’s daring experiments with form, its willingness to collapse the boundary between filmmaker and audience, and its insistence that cinema should provoke thought rather than merely comfort. Those influences shaped how I approached Ligeia. The film’s recurring direct-to-camera address—Ligeia speaking directly to the audience, breaking the fourth wall with biting wit—is not just a stylistic flourish; it is a deliberate echo of that New Wave spirit. From our earliest conversations, Viola emphasized that she needed a producer who understood this grammar, and she trusted me because I shared both her references and her conviction that those creative risks had to survive production pressures.” Li Zhiyan refers to Ligeia as one of the highlights of her professional career. It’s a film which addresses history and horror in an illuminating manner; shocking while still being cheeky. Ligeia the film is a welcome addition to the Poe legacy.
Punit