The obvious way to begin a review of The Raven would be to make a witty reference to "Nevermore," that most foreboding and memorable of raven quips made famous by Edgar Allan Poe. But getting right to the point: The Raven is not a good movie, disappointing for a lot of reasons but chiefly because it squanders a pretty good concept and fails to maximize the inherent macabre camp of its premise.
The Raven, directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta), fails in part because it takes itself so seriously. The film doesn't seem to recognize that its central plot contrivance—Poe (John Cusack) finds himself in a real-life murder mystery inspired by his own works of fiction—doesn't really lend itself to straightforward, "this could really happen" realism. The film tries to be a serial killer crime procedural in the mold of Se7en and Zodiac, when it would have been better off going the Tim Burton-and-Johnny-Depp quirky goth route (Sleepy Hollow, Sweeney Todd).
John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe
In any case, here's the life-imitating-and-intermingling-with-art concept: a series of grisly murders take place in 1849 Baltimore that appear to be modeled after Poe stories like "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Pit and the Pendulum." The lead investigator, Detective Fields (Luke Evans), recognizes the Poe connection and brings in the author himself to help get inside the mind of the killer. A cat-and-mouse psychological game ensues, as the killer continues his Poe-inspired murders and practically begs Poe to figure out how the story will end (and maybe even write it himself). The ante is upped when the killer kidnaps Poe's love interest, Baltimore debutante Emily Hamilton (Alice Eve), the "Annabel Lee" for whom Poe will do anything to save from a gruesome catacombs end.
Along the way, the film tries hard to work in as many Poe references as possible—masked balls ("The Masque of the Red Death"), crypts ("The Cask of Amontillado"), alcoholism, lots of fog, the literary rival Rufus Griswold, and of course, ravens that are pretty much in every scene. But though packed with Poe "references," the man himself isn't really explored. Cusack gives it a worthy shot, but the film is just too plot heavy to make room for much in the way of character development. There are a few moments where Poe's philosophy is explored—a scene at a poetry club allows Cusack to recite some Poe verse and comment on the inherent darkness in nature—but the majority of Poe's actions concern riding horses, shooting guns, and analyzing crime scenes, C.S.I.-style.
The film does get the creepy goth ambience mostly right, albeit with a decidedly modern-day horror film spin. There are tense scenes and jumpy moments aplenty, and bodies and blood galore. That may please contemporary audiences used to Saw-type savagery, but literary types more interested in the subtler manner in which Poe captured evil and existential dread may be disappointed. There are not many subtle moments in The Raven. Literary mystery and eloquence are replaced by splashier fare: severed tongues, throats spurting blood, a man being cut in half by a swinging pendulum of death. It's a 19th century costume drama with 21st century brutality.
Alice Eve as Emily Hamilton
That's the film's biggest problem. The Scream-esque serial killer behind The Raven's murders doesn't feel authentic to 1849. I doubt serial killers were as meta back then. The film should have gone extreme in one direction or the other: either the wildly anachronistic, Tarantino revisionism direction, or the restrained, "something that actually could have happened in Poe's day" direction. But The Raven slogs through somewhere in the middle, dabbling in "19th century-as-modern action film" aesthetics (the recent Sherlock Holmes movies with Robert Downey Jr. come to mind) while also trying to retain period authenticity and fidelity to the legacy of Poe. Then there are the convoluted meta-commentaries about horror fandom and the interplay between life and fiction—but the recently released The Cabin in the Woods covered all of that in an immensely more entertaining, insightful fashion.
Poe makes a point to Captain Hamilton (Brendan Gleeson)
The Raven does serve to make one hungry to re-read Poe's works, or at least hungry for a proper biopic—one focused on the man's character and neurosis rather than his crime-fighting skills. Would Poe have liked The Raven? Maybe. It's dark, macabre, thrilling. Yet I suspect that Poe is a bit classier, and certainly more complex, than this movie portrays him. And I wonder what Poe—a man of the page, the word, the mind—would have thought of the visceral brutality of death as depicted in moving images. I'm not sure he would recognize the spilt blood on screen as the same sort of horror he had in mind as he penned his stories. His was a horror more sweeping and romantic, infused with the terror and beauty of the cosmos, of nature, and the darkness within. Blood and guts are the least interesting part of it.
Talk About It
Discussion starters
Poe ends up making a very sacrificial decision in the end. What motivates him? Love for Emily or a desire for a "good story"?
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What does the film have to say about the purpose horror serves as fiction, if anything?
Poe seems to think that evil and darkness are inherent even in nature's design. Is he on to something?
The Family Corner
For parents to consider
The Raven is rated R for bloody violence and grisly images. It deserves the rating; it's quite violent, sometimes explicitly. We see all sorts of crime scene bodies in various disturbing states. We see people shot, throats slit (lots of blood gurgling and spurting out), a woman buried alive, a man's hands cut off, another's tongue removed. The worst scene happens early in the film when we see a man tied to a table where he is gradually sliced in two by a swinging pendulum, screaming in pain throughout it all. In addition to violence, there are also some outbursts of strong language that feel somewhat out of place, given the period.
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