The short story, “Ligeia,” by Edgar Allan Poe, suggests that not only is life sustainable through the power of one's will, but a strong will could bring someone back from the dead. In both the classic story and in this film, a writer obsesses over the memories of his dead wife and longs to “restore her to the pathway she had abandoned.” Though this adaptation takes place in the modern world – and uses Poe's actual text as narration – this film looks, sounds and feels as though it could have been made long ago.