根据侦探小说鼻祖美国大作家爱伦坡的著名小说改编。江湖棋人带着他的“机械棋手”走遍整个欧洲与人下棋，他们来到马埃泽尔，一农场主留住了他们摆开了棋场，“机械棋手”百战百胜。然而在与农场主妻子苏菲下棋时，却把苏菲颈部抓伤。原来机械棋人并非机械的智慧，而是藏在机械底下的小矮人所为，小矮人把秘密都告诉了苏菲，苏菲对长期被关在箱子里的小矮人表示同情。农场主请来一位将军与“机械棋手”下棋，不料“机械棋手”掏出手枪将美丽的苏菲和自己的主人江湖棋人打死，小矮人也同归于尽。

雷·米兰饰演的主人公因父亲僵硬症假死被活埋的心理阴影始终挥之不去，自造了一座号称充分防错的活人墓地。这场戏就是向妻子、医生介绍自己的完美计划。而更有趣的是，此计划陈述的形式氛围以及雷米兰陈述过程中所展示玩世自负神情都如同他自己在《电话谋杀案》中向杀手陈述谋杀计划的翻版。唯一的差别：那片是在完美谋杀，而这片却在完美防被杀，被活埋！

我所看过根据爱伦坡小说改编的电影中最超现实的一部。影像很怪诞的一部电视电影。茱莉泰摩是美国著名的女玩偶制作家。
Eerie,strange and beautiful adaptation of great Poe story
I accidently caught this strange and beautiful tv movie when it first aired in the early 90's, while I was on a ski trip. With its weird and eerie and incredibly beautiful fairy tale atmosphere it is very reminiscent of Jim Henson's "Storyteller", and it's a shame that it only seems to have aired once and never rerun. I have no idea whether it's available on video or not, but if you can find it, I highly recommend watching it, and reading the Edgar Allen Poe story(titled "Hopfrog") it is based on as well.

A witch is put to death in Colonial America, leaving her husband and infant daughter behind. Seventeen years later, the daughter has grown up and stands to inherit money set up by her mother’s family. Now that the stage is set, the mother wants to return to life by taking over her daughter’s body.

A man is sitting in a padded cell. He remembers how he got there. Munich in the run-up to Christmas: The loner roams the city, has abnormal ideas when looking at the most harmless things and wants to turn his perverse fantasies into reality. To do this, he chooses an old man whom he happens to see in a shop. He perfectly plans a perfidious, cruel murder.

A man is sitting in a padded cell. He remembers how he got there. Munich in the run-up to Christmas: The loner roams the city, has abnormal ideas when looking at the most harmless things and wants to turn his perverse fantasies into reality. To do this, he chooses an old man whom he happens to see in a shop. He perfectly plans a perfidious, cruel murder.