THE RAVEN: 2012: ++: Thriller: It's October which means that Halloween is on its way. What better way to get the fun started then by watching an interesting thriller based on the true master of suspense and the macabre, Edgar Allen Poe?
The Raven, not the Crow!!
So take a break from the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th marathons on television and catch this movie on Netflix. ( I have to admit to watching all the Fridays last Sunday on the ScyFy channel)
Not now Freddy, maybe later ok?
First off, thanks for the the 3,000th view! Last year this time I was on a horror movie binge of two months straight watching a horror movie every night. It definitely had an impact and I dare say changed the way I watch movies. It was like picking up the bottle again after years of sobriety. My addiction was rekindled and it spoiled some of my subsequent movie watching for awhile..
Horror movies...the addiction
With the cheesy ones I laughed and with the serious ones I cringed. Movies like The Last Exorcist, The Possession, and Exorcist IV left a permanent impression. This year I plan to do the same, but I'm going to have to start slowly. I don't want to go through withdrawals again.
John Cusack plays the role of Edgan Allen Poe rather well, feigning an accent that vacillates between British to Scottish to, I don't even know what it was, after awhile. Alice Eve played the role of Emily Hamilton, his love, with panache although it didn't seem like a very demanding role. There was decent chemistry between the two.
Alice Eve and Cusack performed well together.
Without giving away too much of the plot, the movie revolves around Poe's last days and is loosely based on the true events of his mysterious demise. There were two other movies with a similar premise released earlier, so this movie isn't entirely original, but it does have its strengths.
The original movie with Lugosi and Karloff. Technicolor..cool!
I admit that my standard for movies is high and I often stop watching movies that I don't find interesting so I was pleased that this movie had a full viewing. I was hungry for a little more gore befitting Poe's works of horror, but I had to be satiated by the few and far between shots of corpses. Hey, it's October I want to be scared!!
The Raven had light touches of gore and blood. Not enough!!
I did find myself interested in the plot twists and turns and I only checked my twitter account twice which is a victory in my book of OCD tendencies. The sets, costumes, and writing set the stage for the time period of mid 1800s in Baltimore exceedingly well. What really piqued my interest was the way in which Poe actually became a participant in his own stories which were being meticulously carried out by a serial killer.
I wrote it and now I'm IN IT!!
Highlights of the movie were the scenes in the ballroom during a masquerade party when the horseman breaks into the party and when they are searching for Emily in the sewers. I also liked how the clues were being slowly and deliberately laid out in front of Poe and the investigator, much to their dismay.
The ballroom scene was one of my favorites.
The twist at the end was a little abrupt and the movie just suddenly seemed to want to "wrap things up", kind of like this review. I wanted a little more out of this movie and while I recommend it, I definitely think it could have had a lot more bite to it.
Overall, not a bad way to start the festivities of October: 78%
Awww, he even had the Raven pose and everything!!
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