The Raven is a unique and engaging Edgar Allan Poe inspired thriller

One of my favorite authors of all time is Edgar Allan Poe. This should come as no surprise to my longtime readers and friends given shis particular style of writing and themes presented in his stories. However, I surprisingly enough never watched this twisted little mystery thriller directed by James McTeigue (who directed Dark City, one of my favorite films of all time, as well as the adaptation of the graphic novel V for Vendetta and even worked on shows like Marco Polo and Sense8) and written by Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare (those are some very interesting surnames if I'm honest).

I was supposed to watch the film with my best friend as she's quite the Poe fan herself, but we kept delaying it and one warm quiet evening the Croatian network HRT1 was airing the film so I decided not to miss out on this opportunity and gave it a watch alongside my dad, who, whilst not a fan of Poe's works decided to join me in order to keep me company.

I first heard of this film whilst watching a series of videos by a youtuber named Maven of the Eventide, who discussed her collection of gothic books and merchandise one of which being a DVD of this film. She described it as following:

It's not great, but it's gothic, it's Poe and we love Poe.

Whilst I disagree that it's not great (this is one of the best films I've seen in a long time), I have to agree that I do in fact love anything gothic and Poe related.

However, I was pretty sad to hear that the movie got mostly negative reviews from critics and audiences, but this isn't the first time I enjoyed something that wasn't well recieved. So, without further addue, let's look at what works about ingenious take on the legacy of one of the best and most influential authors of all time.

(1) The Writing

I thought the end product was exceptionally written.

My favorite aspect were undubtedley the references to all of Poe's works scattered throught it. Now, there's two ways one could with this.

The first is setting the story in a fictional universe where all of his works were actual events and Poe just so happened to describe them. Think something in the vein of the comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but with an author protagonist. However, the film takes the second approach; having the murders be reenactments of Poe's works, which is an ingenious move on the writer's part.

Now, having a serial killer thriller where the death are tied to literature is nothing new. This idea was presented to us many times, from David Fincher's Se7en (1995) to the Italian miniseries Homicide Squad (2004) (which I haven't seen as it's seemingly impossible to find with English subtitles).

The film primarily takes inspiration from Poe's more well known works: Murders at Rue Morgue, The Masque of the Red Death, Cask of Amontillado, The Tell-Tale Heart and even his two most well known poems (The Raven and Annabel Lee) which is perfectly understandable as, if one wants commericial appeal it's best to go with something well known. Granted I would have loved if some of his lesser known works got a shoutout, but, one cannot have their cake and eat it too if they want a good script (the lesson the writers of Netflix's Daredevil desperately needed).

I feel like the main reason as to why I loved the film as much as I did was the fact that, whilst it is very cliche at points (granted, if you've seen and read as many pieces of media in this genre as I have EVERYTHING in it will eventually end up coming across as cliche), it tries it's best to put it's own unique spin on the elements we've seen presented to us time and time again. We know exactly where the story's gonna go, but every time a pay off happens, it's extremely satisfying because it's well executed and the people involved in it geniunely care. The film's style of writing is very reminiscent of that of Hammer horror. I'm not sure if that was the intention or not, but regardless, as a fan of that particular style of filmmaking, I was quite the fan of this.

For the unenitiated, Hammer horror is a term that reffers to the style of filmmaking applied in the movies and TV shows of the eponymous British film studio Hammer, who primarily adapted classic works of literature or created sequels to them, with the majority of their films achieving a cult status and launching the careers of several prominent actors, such as Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. It's a style that involves unrealistic violence, wide camera angles, slightly cheesy scripts, stylistic set designs and lighting and incredibly over the top performances of the cast. It remained impecably influential for many years to come and has even remained prominent in many modern examples of the horror genre, with the most prominent arguably being Tim Burton's 1999 adaptation of Washington Irving's Sleepy Hollow (one of my favorite films of all time).

Anyways, back to the movie at hand.

Along with adapting the stories of the master of the macabre, the film also tries to offer up an explanation for his mysterious passing and the events that preceeded it.

If you were unaware, after a lenghty disappearence Poe was found on a park bench on the morning of October 7th 1849, in a drunken and delirious state, dying soon after. To this day the exact reason behind his mental state at that point hasn't recieved an explanation, althought many literary historians, psychologysts, authors and just general conspiracy theorists tried to provide us with a suitable explanation behind this bizzare incident, however, it still remains unsolved, leaving us with a huge palette of possible hypotheses in the coming years.

The film's explanation of Poe's death and prior disappearence is obviously far fetched and far from the actual events, however, I do believe that the subject matter was handled very respectfully and with the upmost care of presenting some elements of his life and death as accurately as possible. This gives the final product a more grounded tone and style, thus making viewers like me appreciate it for not trying to stray away too far off from the obvious real world inspiration and making his story more accesible to casual audiences who come in wishing for a good time. I think my personal favorite aspect of it is how Poe was indeed hired by the Baltimore police force in order to assist them in crime solving, despite the reason for it being different than what is shown in the film. This level of attention to detail shows us that the writers really payed enough attention whilst doing their research, proving that just because something is fictional it shouldn't stop being grounded.

Another thing I enjoyed about this film is the portrayal of the romance between Poe and Emily Hamilton, the mayor's daughter and Poe's fioncee. Usually, as I mentioned before, I'm not a fan of most romance media (with a couple of exceptions). Now, yes, in reality Poe married his cousin Virginia Eliza Clemm when she was just 13 years old, which, whilst yes, is incredibly disgusting, but was a very common practice at the time. Thus, I applaud the movie for trying to change this specific section of the narrative in order to make the film more palatible for average audiences, even though I dislike when films usually deviate from their real world inspirations (althought, to be fair, this movie vears off from it's inspiration on so many occassions that this aspect feels secondary in comparasin).

Anyways, why did I like the romance?

Well, I enjoyed for the simple fact that it was written in a very wholesome and organic way. Now, as I had never dated myself (and no, it wasn's a personal choice, mind you), I have no idea how couples act and what actions of theirs substitute as cheesy or unrealistic, but I thought the way the romance between the two and the lenghts Poe goes to in order to save his future bride were both done in a very authentic way, even making me tear up a couple of times.

(2) The Atmosphere and the Aspects that Contribute to It

One thing that really works well in this film is the gothic atmosphere of old Baltimore. Now, even though I have a friend living there I've never actually visited it, so most of my knowledge comes either from books or movies and shows, with the majority of those being set within the present day version of that city.

It's appropriatley gothic, spooky and grizzly for a Poe adaptation with heavy shadows, slimy taverns, misty forests and cemetaries and dimly lit alleyways, all inhabited by an equally spooky populus of drunken sailors, corrupted politicians, hard working journalists and, arguably the most important aspect, cold blooded killers.

A lot of this is helped out by the stunning and period accurate costume work (done by Carlo Poggioli of The Brothers Grimm, Divergent, The Mists of Avalon and Doom fame), with my particular favorite pieces including the many outfits worn by Poe, Emily and detective Emmet Fields throught the film, as well as the costume of the film's antagonist (very cliche as far as villain outfits go, but I think it fits the narrative well) and the Baltimore FD uniforms.

And you simply can't avoid dicussing any period film without mentioning it's set design, can you now?

Well luckily this film nails this too, but, given the fact that it was filmed in the historic sections of Serbia's capital of Belgrade and the Hungarian capital Budapest who retain the look and feel of the era the story takes place in, I'd say they that it nails the job to a T. Granted I had only passed through these cities once so my opinion on them might not be complete, but I feel like I'm on the right track.

The whole look and art direction of the film actually reminded me of another murder mystery period piece filmed in the old sections of Belgrade, that being the Serbian noir thriller television series Balkan Shadows (Senke nad Balkanom), which I couldn't get into (despite it being hugely succesful), but I thought the visual style and overall atmosphere were downright phenomenal.

Let's see, am I forgetting something?

Ah yes, the kickass soundtrack.

It works for the majority of the film, but the one specific piece I love wass the Zorro-esque ending theme. Coupled with the exclenet and abstract CGI visuals, it seems more fitting for a swaschbuckling adeventure than a serial killer themed thriller, but nevertheless, the whole sequence is downright epic.

(3) The Performances

I have to admit, John Cussack wouldn't be my first choice for the role of Poe, and apparently he wasn''t the director's choice either, given that, prior to filming, Joaquin Phoenix was approached, but declined the proposition. As sad as that news may be, I'd still say Cussack delivered on the proposed material.

At first I had a very hard time seeing him in the role, but, as the film progressed, I got more and more invested in him as a character and eventually he fully grew on me.

Luke Evans is one of those actors who, whilst not one of my faves, is still one I enjoy seeing in anything he's in as he can try his best even with a bad script. His perfromacnes are never spectacular or Oscar worthy. His performance as inspector Emmet Fields is definetely one of his better ones if you ask me. Evans does a good job of portraying what I like to call the "rough intelectual" trope, combining within him the neccesary intelectual skills as well as pure brawn in case of hand to hand combat and gunfighting.

Emily Hamilton is played by the ever talented Alice Eve, who doesn't get many roles (I remember her from movies like Night at the Museum 3, MIB 3, Replicas and shows such as Belgravia, Black Mirror, Iron Fist and Poirot), but I enjoyed her in every single one of those she was offered. Like Evans, she isn't really a favorite, but she does the role of a gentle damsel who isn't afraid to fight back and make her own choices impecably well. As I mentioned before, her and Cussack's chemistry was incredible and made the romance aspect impecably believeable and actually a tad sweet.

And, finally, one more role I'd like to single out is Sam Hazeldine's as Ivan Reynolds. This man has had quite a career in both movies (I've previously seen him in stuff the 2010 remake of The Wolfman, The Huntsman: Winter's War, The Hitman's Bodyguard and The Last Duel amongst others) and TV shows (like Life on Mars, Robin Hood, Midsommer Murders, Ripper Street, Knightfall, The Innocents and The Witcher, just to name a few, and I really do mean it when I say few). He plays the role of the manipulative serial killer who takes pleasure in his love of literature and domineering his victims and brings on full creep mode. Every time he would speak chills would run down my spine, almost as if I was staring at the eyes of the snake. And, given the fact that a villain is the most vital thing to any film in my opinion as a critic, I'd say he does a phenomenal job, resulting with what's probably my favorite performace in the film.

(4) The Effects

One of the aspects of the film that was equally enjoyed by genral audiences and critcs alike is the effects of the film, and I have to agree that they were exceptionally done.

The practical effects, like the pendulum axe execution scene was one of my favorite sequences in the whole flick given that it's the closest to the Hammer horror vibe I've already mentioned in this review (just without the overtly exaggerated and strikingly colorful blod spatter). The Murders at Rue Morgue inspired window opening mechanism discovered by inspector Fields is extremely book faithful as well as being very impressively constructed, given how it's one of the source material's hardest to film aspects.

However, not all of them are perfect.

The afframentioned pendulum scene is great, however, the CGI blood spatter looks extremely fake and outdated, even for 2012 standards. The raven in the morgue scene was quite the eye sore due to the godawful CGI as well. It didn't take me out of the whole experiance, mind you, but it looked far from good, with the minimal shots of it in the trailer actually doing it some favours. I know finding an animal trainer was probably too expensive, so I don't think I'll harp on the film too much for that reason.

So, would I reccomend this film and who would I reccomend it to?

I certainly would. If you're a fan of moody gothic period pieces, serial killer thrillers and especially if you're a big fan of Edgar Allan Poe and his works, this movie certianly doesn't dissapoint. It's incredibly well written, briskly paced and has a very engaging narrative. It's definetely best viewed around Haloween or even a great choice if you like starting your yearly spooky seasons early.

Trailers: