Baltimore, 19th century. Two corpses are found brutally mutilated with razor cuts in a room locked from the inside. Shortly after, a man is found dead, cut in half by a pendulum in a diabolical trap. Detective Emmett Fields notices a strange similarity between the murders and two stories by writer Edgar Allan Poe, so he summons him as a suspect. Once it is established that Poe, who is in a severe creative crisis at the time, is not the author of the crimes, Detective Fields asks the writer to collaborate with the investigation. Initially reluctant, Poe is forced to accept when the mysterious killer kidnaps his beloved Emily and threatens to kill her if the writer does not return to publishing his stories.
Edgar Allan Poe and cinema. Who knows if the brilliant American writer could have ever imagined enjoying so much attention more than 160 years after his death. When you leave a written testimony of your work, you certainly gain a bit of immortality, but surely Poe could never have predicted that his works would enjoy so much interest from a medium, cinema, that had not even been invented at the time. The interest of cinema in the American author was born precisely in the early years when the medium was spreading; as early as 1909, the Frenchman Henri Desfontaines directed a short film inspired by "The Pit and the Pendulum," then the consecration in 1928 with the feature "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Jean Epstein and a whole series of successful films directed by Roger Corman on the complete works of Poe. But a short film dated 1909 is rather curious: the title is "Edgar Allan Poe" and the famous writer is played by Herbert Yost under the direction of D. W. Griffith, anticipating the trend of inserting the author himself as the protagonist of his work. Later, many will use this device ("Danza Macabra" and "In the Grip of the Spider" by Margheriti, up to the recent "Twixt" by Coppola and the anthology "P.O.E. - Poetry of Eerie") to arrive at "The Raven" dated 2012, which places Edgar Allan Poe as the protagonist of a curious story that involves him.
Despite the title, "The Raven" directed by James McTeigue is not the visual adaptation of the famous poem by the writer, or rather, not only, since the director of "V for Vendetta" and "Ninja Assassins" brings to the screen a beautiful period crime thriller that blends many of Poe's works into a story that transposes the highlights while still being quite original.
The starting idea was to create an American-style thriller with Edgar Allan Poe as the protagonist, and what better choice than turning the crimes described on paper by the writer into reality? The result is a sort of "Seven" set in the 19th century, with an elusive serial killer challenging the police in the manner of "Zodiac" (with provocative letters) and instead of drawing inspiration from the seven deadly sins, taking cues from Poe's works, emulating the murders with meticulous attention to detail. Obviously, the involvement of Poe himself could not remain limited to mere consultation for the investigation, so screenwriters Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare thought of hitting the protagonist more personally, placing the woman he loves in the killer's clutches.
The portrayal of the writer offered by the film is convincing to a degree. Although John Cusack physically is not well-suited to portray Poe (too tall, robust, and handsome), he nevertheless has the right charisma to support a character not exactly easy to embody. The choice to show Poe at a difficult time in his life seemed almost obligatory and is nevertheless functional in immersing the character in a situation that is equally critical. What is not convincing is the swagger with which the character is described and which somewhat clashes with the atmosphere and personal situation of Poe as told. It seems that the production aimed to make the character likable, trying to take a lesson from Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock Holmes, obviously never descending into comedic tones as in Guy Ritchie's saga, on the contrary the dramatic tone of "The Raven" is continuously perceivable even in order to a very bitter announced ending, but the exuberance and the quick wit of this Poe sometimes seem like poor choices.
Excellent is the staging of the murders, which readers of Poe will find faithfully captivating precisely because they are able to do justice to the descriptions of the writer. Among all, the scene at the masquerade ball stands out the most, inspired by the climactic point of "The Masque of the Red Death," and there is also room for a good dose of splatter in the murder taken from "The Pit and the Pendulum" that reminds a bit in the staging of the torture of "Saw V" and in Poe's filmography is second only to the intro of "The Black Cat" by Argento for "Two Evil Eyes."
In addition to Cusack, the cast includes Luke Evans ("Immortals"), who plays Detective Fields, Alice Eve ("ATM - Trapped"), who is Emily, Poe's beloved, and Brendan Gleeson ("The Bouncer") who plays Emily's father.
McTeigue has a fairly comic-book style even here where there are no comics. Dark tones (very beautiful the leaden and bluish photography of Danny Ruhlmann), care for the sets and well-choreographed action scenes not exempt from some pop exaggeration. The image that closes the film, however, is not convincing; ending one minute earlier would have benefited the final product.
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