Serial Killer Thriller – The Raven

The Raven is a gruesome thriller set in the 19th century, about the last days of famous poet Edgar Allan Poe.

In this film Poe, (John Cusack) is approached by Baltimore police to help catch a serial killer who takes inspiration from his macabre stories.

The plot follows the twists and turns in the case with Poe’s beloved Emily, (Alice Eve) being captured by the killer. He joins forces with Detective Emmett Fields (Luke Evans) to try and rescue her.

This film received mostly negative reviews from critics who seemed to blame in particular the director, James McTeigue, whose previous work includes V for Vendetta and The Matrix. But, I found this film quite enjoyable.

I felt it was a film which relied largely on the atmosphere created through costume, setting and colour. McTeigue created a convincingly gritty and menacing 19th century Baltimore which seemed the perfect place for a murder to be committed.

The dark costumes and drab setting seemed to portray what the city would have been like at that time. It was mostly dark colours used throughout and the only light ones were very pale adding to the threatening atmosphere. Sitting in the audience, the atmosphere felt very oppressive and powerful to the extent I realised I had been holding my breath a little throughout the film.

The acting  in “The Raven” was noticeably well done. There were a lot of semi-famous faces throughout the film but the two main actors, Cusack and Evans, were very convincing. Overall, the acting was the best part of this film in my opinion.

The only aspect of this film which I felt let it down was its gore. In particular the scene from Poe’s story, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, in which a man is chopped in half by a swinging axe. This scene was drawn out with the audience watching an inhuman amount of blood splattering across the room as he was dissected.

I found myself looking away at these parts in the film. My friend who watched them all said she felt “physically sick” when a man’s throat was slit and the blood pulsed out of his neck.

These parts seemed more Tarantino dark humour than serious murder movie as they were so over-the-top and exaggerated. I felt that they only reminded the viewer that an otherwise convincing film that rely drew them in, was indeed a work of fiction.

The Raven is a movie which sheds a lot of light on the type of man Edgar Allan Poe was but none on the circumstances of his death. But what scriptwriter, Hannah Shakespeare, has come up with is an intriguing plot full of twists and turns which keep the audience guessing right to the end. It is like a Sherlock Holmes but with a more enjoyable plot. Although it does have much more gore and is definitely not one for the squeamish.

I would recommend this film for anyone who enjoys thrillers and horrors. In most
British cinemas it seems to only be showing at the weekend as it was released in
the UK on March 9. Catch it while you still can!