本部作品集共收录了捷克电影和动画大师杨·史云梅耶创作的十四部超现实主义实验短片。在史云梅耶这令人不安的疯狂电影世界里，是无处不在的神秘主义和超现实色彩。他把人类最原始的欲望赤裸裸的剥离出来，为全世界奉上一次挑战视觉和心理极限的饕餮盛宴。
第一集收录了史云梅耶1965年至1981年的作品：1965年制作的《石头的游戏》（A Game with Stones）；1966年制作的《其他》（Et Cetera）与《棺材和天竺鼠》（Punch and Judy）；1968年制作的《公寓》（The Flat）与《与Weissmann一起野餐》（Picnic with Weissmann）；1969年制作的《屋中平静的一周》（A Quiet Week in the House）和1981年制作的《鄂榭府崩溃记》（Fall of the House of Usher）。
第二集收录了1982年至1993年的作品：1982年制作的《对话的维度》（Dimensions of Dialogue）；1983年制作的《去地牢》（Down to the Cellar）；1984年制作的《深坑、钟摆和希望》（The Pit, The Pendulum and The Hope）；1989年制作的《花神》（Flora）与《肉之恋》（Meat Love）；1990年制作的《斯大林主义在波西米亚的终结》（Death of Stalinism in Bohemia）和1993年制作的《食物》（Food）。

In a decaying castle surrounded by a dank, mirrored lake live the morbidly nervous Roderick Usher and his sickly twin sister, Madeline. Their tale is told and dimly comprehended by the unnamed narrator, a boyhood friend whom Roderick has summoned. When Madeline soon dies—or seems to die—they entomb her body. On a stormy night, "cracking and ripping" sounds and a "shriek" from below convince the panicky Roderick that "We have put her living into the tomb!" The shrouded, emaciated figure of Madeline appears at the door of Roderick's book-strewn study, falls upon him, "and in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse."

Five tales by Edgar Allan Poe come to life thanks to a pictorical style animation, five tales that exude madness, pestilence, murder and torture.

An Oxford Medical School graduate takes a position at a mental institution and soon becomes obsessed with a female mental patient, but he has no idea of a recent and horrifying staffing change.

1928 French film by Jean Epstein

Anthology film from three European directors based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe: a cruel countess haunted by a ghostly horse, a sadistic young man haunted by his double, and an alcoholic actor haunted by the Devil.

1964 horror film directed by Roger Corman

丹麦人斯特伦•赖伊在柏林导演了几部影片（如《一切罪恶都在地上》）之后，给德国电影制作了他的第一部重要作品《布拉格的大学生》。这部摄制费达两万马克的影片是根据小说家汉斯•埃弗斯所写的剧本、由摄影师基杜•齐佩尔在波希米亚拍摄的。它的主要演员是保罗•威格纳和丽第亚•沙尔莫诺瓦。保罗•威格纳当时是马克斯•莱因哈特手下最有名的一位演员。

England, 1645. The cruel civil war between Royalists and Parliamentarians that is ravaging the country causes an era of chaos and legal arbitrariness that allows unscrupulous men to profit by exploiting the absurd superstitions of the peasants; like Matthew Hopkins, a monster disguised as a man who wanders from town to town offering his services as a witch hunter.

A man takes up residence with a mysterious marquis and is soon persuaded to enter into an asylum for preventative therapy. Things are not what they seem, and the marquis may be even more sinister than what the young man might have predicted.