New horror movies roll off Hollywood's assembly line at a frightening rate. So why hasn't anyone been able to make a decent adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's work? The Baltimore Sun's Chris Kaltenbach looks at that issue, noting that it "would be hard to name a prominent literary figure worse served than the estimable Mr. Poe."

Among the possible reasons: Poe wrote short stories that are hard to adapt to a movie-length treatment (note to the directors of "Where the Wild Things Are").

In the Sun story, Mark Redfield, a Baltimore-based actor and director, also notes that Hollywood loves a winner, and the lack of great Poe movies discourages others from taking a chance. "Nobody is doing it because the other guy has not made a fortune doing it. That's the way Hollywood works....All filmmakers try to find their commercial niche, to make their money back and to reach an audience. But to do something that might be true to somebody like Poe...the risk-takers might be in TV, but it's not going to be in Hollywood."

For more on Poe-inspired movies, including The Tell-Tale Heart (show above), check out this photo gallery. And here's even mo' about Poe.