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The Raven Review

A passable Gothic biopic with a clunky script, and nothing more.
By Nigel Floyd

In this handsomely mounted, confusingly scripted Gothic thriller, Edgar Allan Poe - the 19th century writer often credited with inventing the modern detective story - becomes embroiled in a criminal mystery of his own. "My writing has become the inspiration for an actual killer," exclaims the drink-addled Poe (John Cusack), as he realises that a string of gruesome murders are aping the plots of his short stories. Are these killings the work of his Number One Fan, or is someone with a vested interest trying to blemish his reputation or galvanise his attention? This fictional speculation about the moribund Poe's last five days of coffin-dodging neatly incorporates elements from The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Masque of the Red Death and – following the abduction of his secret fiance, Emily (Alice Eve) - The Cask of Amontillado. Horror aficionados will enjoy ticking off the references to Poe's work, as well as some other in-jokes dropped in for their benefit: an early murder involves a mask with spikes on the inside, a nod to Italian director Mario Bava's Black Sunday (aka La maschera del demonio).

With the killer on the loose on the fog-shrouded streets of mid-19th century Baltimore, and the public fascinated by his themed murders, Poe's editor, Henry Maddox (Kevin McNally), encourages him to cure his writer's block by documenting the unfolding events. But Poe switches from passive chronicler to active pursuer when Emily's abduction from a birthday ball given by her disapproving father, Col. Charles Hamilton (Brendan Gleeson), transforms a grisly game of cat-and-mouse into a desperate race against time. The cruel murderer teases both Poe and Detective Emmett Fields (Luke Evans from Immortals) with clues as to Emily's whereabouts, yet somehow manages to keep his identity a secret.


It is at this point that The Raven careens out of control: Poe's increasingly deranged behaviour, Cusack's uncontrolled performance and some violent shifts of tone, leave us feeling like helpless passengers bouncing around in a runaway horse and carriage. As his roles in Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, the Stephen King adaptation 1408 and Roland Emmerich's eco-disaster epic 2012 have proved, John Cusack is a talented, versatile actor. So why does his skilfully modulated performance in the early scenes, in which he succeeds in presenting Poe as a likeable and beguiling drunk, suddenly give way to the absurd, alienating over-acting that ruins the film's climactic scenes.

Although V for Vendetta director James McTeigue doesn't seem know if he wants The Raven to be a classy Art Film or popcorn horror movie, he successfully avoids the pitfalls of a straight bio-pic, while capturing some of the Gothic atmosphere, grim ironies and puzzle-solving enigmas of Poe's best work. Nevertheless, he seems hamstrung by the modest budget, set-bound period detail and a clunky script by Hannah Shakespeare and Ben Livingston. As a result, the air of morbid melancholy and febrile sexuality that pervades Poe's writing is supplanted by a breathless, enervating hysteria.

The Raven (2012) Releases Apr. 27th, 2012