Joe Marzano adapted Edgar Allan Poe's famed short story more than once. After The Tell-Tale Heart (1958), he returned to the pages of Poe 28 years later for this remake: As in Poe's original 1843 story, a murderer (Marzano) buries a body beneath the floor of his room and thinks the heartbeats of his victim can be heard while the police are investigating. After he confesses, the sound is revealed to be the ticking of the victim's watch. In 1989, Marzano shot new scenes to increase the running time of this 1986 interpretation.