 Although advertised as being "based on the story Night of the Living  Dead by Edgar Allan Poe", there is no such actual story by  Edgar Allan Poe (qv) concerning the events in the film. Like the  classic _Black Cat, The (1934)_ (qv) with Boris Karloff (qv) and  Bela Lugosi (qv), this film (and 1964s  _Danza macabra (1964)_ (qv)), scriptwriters Bruno Corbucci (qv)  and Giovanni Grimaldi (I) (qv) drew from Poes literary traditions  rather than a specific text. The most direct use of Poes writings  was the presence of an actor playing the writer and having him  recite one of Poes actual stories 