The Raven

Sometime this year Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter will be coming out. In the meantime, if you’ve got an itch for a gory fictionalised tale regarding one of the US’s most famous men, then The Raven is here to scratch it. Firstly, if you’re already sceptical of yet another film regarding Poe’s most famous poem the title is mis-leading, as what we have is a story that takes a number of elements of Poe’s various works and weaves them into a somewhat grisly screenplay. Starting with the murder of a mother and daughter in Baltimore, Detective Emmett Fields (Luke Evans) discovers that the crime resembles a story by local writer Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack). Poe is under suspicion for a while, but even though more horrors occur based on Poe’s writings, himself and Fields soon team up in order to catch the serial killer. What this is, in effect, is a sort of 19th century Saw movie as a number of people are done in via various nasty methods. Though it sounds intriguing (in a ridiculous way) the actual storyline isn’t as quite as smart as it thinks it is and this is no more than standard thriller fare (with an additional sharp edge) at the end of the day. James McTeigue grabs the bullhorn here and does a fair job moving the average material along, though there are a number of duff scenes and there’s a worry that the skills he displayed with V For Vendetta were maybe just a one off. Cusack and Evans aren’t bad and give the story a bit of emotion and gravitas by playing it straight. Though a bit more care could have been taken regarding the exteriors as 19th century “Baltimore” looks suspiciously like 21st century Belgrade and Budapest, i.e. where this was filmed.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Worth catching for its oddity status, but it’s a one watch production only. Rating: 6/10.