The Oval Portrait (band) The Oval Portrait (band) The Oval Portrait was an American rock band from West Paterson, New Jersey active in the early-to-mid-2000s. Their name was taken from a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. They released the LP "Life In Death" on Eyeball Records in 2003. The band's musical style contained an eclectic mix of influences ranging from post-hardcore and post-punk to psychedelic rock and experimental metal. The lyrical imagery on many songs contained bleak, unsettling subject matter and numerous literary references. "Life In Death" featured guest performances by Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance on the songs "Barnabus Collins Has
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971 film) hired to direct the film. Hessler says he felt the story was so familiar it needed to be changed, so he and writer Christopher Wicking decided to do it as a play-within-a-play, with a mystery happening around a theatre that was putting on a production of "Murder in the Rue Morgue". The new storyline owned a lot to "Phantom of the Opera". Hessler said Vincent Price "was very upset that he wasn't in" the film "but I had nothing to with that." He thought Price was having contractual fights with AIP at the time. Hessler says AIP hired Jason Robard