The Raven Review

Rated R (Bloody Violence and Grisly Images)

Running Time: 1 Hour & 51 Minutes

Cast-

John Cusack-Edgar Allan Poe

Luke Evans-Detective Emmett Fields

Alice Eve-Emily Hamilton

Brendan Gleeson-Captain Hamilton

Kevin McNally-Maddux

Oliver Jackson-Cohen-John Cantrell

Sam Hazeldine-Ivan Reynolds

Jimmy Yuill-Captain Eldridge

Directed by James McTeigue

Edgar Allan Poe...action hero!

‘And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting / On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door / And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming / And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor / And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor / Shall be lifted—nevermore!’ The following is the last stanza of The Raven, a narrative poem written 167 years ago in 1845 by Edgar Allen Poe, an American author and poet who is now famous for his macabre tales of mystery and is considered by many to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre. Poe is one of my favorite authors to read in literature class as I find the darkly violent tone that his short stories exude to be incredibly compelling. Although Poe became an instant household name thanks to the success of The Raven, the poem failed to bring him any significant financial success and the author continued to spend much of his life barely scraping by to make a living. He also passed away at the early age of 40 on October 7, 1849 with the cause of death remaining a total mystery even to this day. Whatever happened does not matter because Poe is now widely considered to be one of the most important figures in American literature, a status I believe that he would be proud of. You can also add ‘amateur detective’ to that mix thanks to the release of director James McTeigue’s “The Raven”, a film that has absolutely nothing to do with the poem its named after but is actually a fictionalized account of the final days of Poe’s life. Besides the endless barrage of sequels, prequels, and remakes, Hollywood has now taken to re-imagining historical figures for the masses, a trend that continues in this summer’s “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” from Timur Bekmambetov and producer Tim Burton. While there are some guilty pleasures to be had with “The Raven” thanks to its dark gothic visuals and bloody violence, the film ultimately collapses under the weight of its clunky script with a climax that proves to be unsatisfactory. 

Taking place in nineteenth century Maryland ten days before the sudden death of Edgar Allen Poe (John Cusack), Inspector Emmett Fields (Luke Evans) arrives in Baltimore to investigate a gruesome double murder and discovers the crime bears a resemblance to Poe’s 1841 short story The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Meanwhile, a nearly penniless Poe bursts into a tavern to have a drink but the owner throws him out when he refuses to pay and causes a loud disturbance. The author’s stories and poems have not been published for some time, leaving him with no source of income. Poe has also fallen in love with the beautiful Emily Hamilton (Alice Eve) but her wealthy father (Brendan Gleeson) loathes his presence so much that he threatens the eccentric author with violence if he does not stop harassing his daughter. The serial killer strikes again sometime later and murders a literary critic named Griswold by slicing his body in half with a large swinging blade based upon The Pit and the Pendulum. Fields has Poe brought to his office and after determining that he cannot be the murderer, proposes that he volunteers his services to solve the mystery. Intrigued by the killer and having nothing better to do, Poe agrees to lend his assistance to the police. At the crime scene where Griswold was killed, Fields recovers a demonic red mask, a reference to The Masque of the Red Death, and Poe deduces that the murderer will strike again at the upcoming masquerade ball that happens to be held by Captain Hamilton. Despite the presence of Field’s undercover officers, the killer manages to kidnap Emily at the ball and issues a challenge: using clues left at each crime scene, Poe will write a new story that will blend fact with fiction in a warped attempt to be the author’s muse. Left with no choice, Poe agrees to do this while Fields races against time to bring the killer to justice and rescue Emily. 

As mentioned before, Poe is one of my favorite American authors and I approached “The Raven” with a cautious optimism. I enjoyed McTeigue’s directorial debut film “V for Vendetta” in 2006, based upon the late-1980’s comic book mini-series of the same name written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd but unfortunately, his latest film failed to meet my modest expectations. The script written by Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare is cobbled together from other (better) thrillers and desperately tries to be like a nineteenth century version of “Se7en” with its Jack the Ripper-like serial killer but the entire affair lacks any sense of imagination or even passion from McTeigue, whose style is workmanlike. Still, the film held my interest as I enjoyed all the references to Poe’s work, some of it obscure, although the stories chosen appear to be randomly cherry-picked by the writers without any thought to thematic coherence. However, “The Raven” collapses during the climax and the identity of the serial killer proves to be severely underwhelming as the character just pops up randomly in one scene and is revealed to be the murderer five minutes later. The idea of a thriller with Poe at the center has potential but the writers never take advantage of this and settle for conventionality. There are a few bright spots in the film such as McTeigue’s attention to detail in bringing nineteenth century Baltimore to life. The dark gothic visuals seemed to have leaped out of the pages of a Poe short story, although the numerous CG ravens flying about tend to be a bit much. There’s also plenty of blood and gore as we’re treated to extreme close-ups of severed heads and stuffed corpses. The pendulum scene is extremely grotesque yet visceral but this is ultimately blood for blood’s sake as it adds nothing significant to the film. 

As Edgar Allen Poe, John Cusack takes a page out of Nicholas Cage and Robert Downey Jr. that flip-flops from twitchy eccentricity to off-the-rails psychotic. Cusack often flies into scenery-chewing mode but he strangely remains compelling as the tortured artist who just wants some recognition despite the fact that this is a paycheck role for him. The writers also saw filled Poe’s dialogue with complex vocabulary but like the blood and gore, it once again adds little to the proceedings. Luke Evans is fine as the grim inspector but the rest of the cast play one-note characters that function as little more than mouth-pieces for plot exposition. The beautiful Alice Eve spends much of the film trapped in a coffin while Brendan Gleeson and Kevin McNally are underutilized. 

“The Raven” was released on April 27, 2012 to largely negative reviews with 21% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics derided it as ‘thinly scripted, unevenly acted, and overall preposterous, [the film] disgraces the legacy of Edgar Allen Poe with a rote murder mystery that's more silly than scary.’ It was originally set to be released back in March but was pushed forward to April, probably to avoid competition from “The Hunger Games.” However, opening the film just one week before the highly-anticipated “The Avengers” proved to be a mistake as it flopped at the box office with a paltry $7.3 million in seventh place during opening weekend. Fortunately, the production budget was only $26 million and Relativity Media purchased the rights for $4 million so it should recoup its costs but profit should not be expected. While “The Raven” is not as bad as the critics made it out to be, the film remains an underwhelming experience that liberally borrows from better thrillers and the workmanlike approach only makes it worse. Edgar Allen Poe would be shouting ‘NEVERMORE!’ as he rolls around in his grave.

Final Rating: 2.5 out of 5

“No matter how this ends I will kill him.”