In Baltimore in 1849, a series of gruesome murders closely resemble those in the works of macabre writer Edgar Allan Poe. Detective Fields turns to the notorious author for help in discovering who is behind these dastardly deeds ...
The essence of Edgar Allan Poe's masterful poetry and prose is difficult to translate to the screen for many reasons, but prime amongst them is simply the words themselves. In his feverish writing, it is the characters' mental states and the nervous desperation he evokes with such disturbing intensity which drives the reader to shudder with gloom. As soon as you visualise his work it becomes a conflict between adherence to costume drama and the ultra-dark interiors present here, with modern dialogue and horror movie clichés. Having said that, it's a great central idea and an enjoyably gruesome story. Despite the title, the plot doesn't really have much to do with Poe's masterful 1845 poem The Raven; instead it starts with the killings from The Murders In The Rue Morgue, moves on to The Pit And The Pendulum through The Cask of Amontillado and culminates in The Tell-Tale Heart, with references to several other stories and poems. The performances are good, if a little histrionic (and confusingly Gleeson and McNally look almost identical), but the tone is too uneven - one minute Poe is a washed-up egotistical drunk and the next a chivalrous and dashing saviour. The film is at its best in the rare moments where it is slow and quiet, such as the soliloquy Poe gives about his (real life) wife Virginia's tragic protracted death from tuberculosis - "I often thought I could hear the sound of darkness as it stole across the horizon, rushing towards me. But here I was overwhelmed by a sorrow so poignant. Once she finally died I felt in all candour a great release, but it was soon supplanted by the return of that dark and morbid melancholy that has followed me like a black dog all my life ... ". The film is handsomely mounted - shot in Serbia and Hungary - with terrific sets and an elegant masked ball centrepiece - but in the end this is neither a dramatically fulfilling biopic of Poe or an exciting adaption of his work, so for me it falls a little flat. An enjoyable evening's entertainment though, but for better quality Poe fare, you still can't beat the sixties Roger Corman adaptations - my favourite of which is the 1961 The Pit And The Pendulum, but 1963's overtly comic The Raven is very funny/scary, and both were scripted by the brilliant science-fiction/horror author Richard Matheson. The writers of this movie could do well to study his work.
The essence of Edgar Allan Poe's masterful poetry and prose is difficult to translate to the screen for many reasons, but prime amongst them is simply the words themselves. In his feverish writing, it is the characters' mental states and the nervous desperation he evokes with such disturbing intensity which drives the reader to shudder with gloom. As soon as you visualise his work it becomes a conflict between adherence to costume drama and the ultra-dark interiors present here, with modern dialogue and horror movie clichés. Having said that, it's a great central idea and an enjoyably gruesome story. Despite the title, the plot doesn't really have much to do with Poe's masterful 1845 poem The Raven; instead it starts with the killings from The Murders In The Rue Morgue, moves on to The Pit And The Pendulum through The Cask of Amontillado and culminates in The Tell-Tale Heart, with references to several other stories and poems. The performances are good, if a little histrionic (and confusingly Gleeson and McNally look almost identical), but the tone is too uneven - one minute Poe is a washed-up egotistical drunk and the next a chivalrous and dashing saviour. The film is at its best in the rare moments where it is slow and quiet, such as the soliloquy Poe gives about his (real life) wife Virginia's tragic protracted death from tuberculosis - "I often thought I could hear the sound of darkness as it stole across the horizon, rushing towards me. But here I was overwhelmed by a sorrow so poignant. Once she finally died I felt in all candour a great release, but it was soon supplanted by the return of that dark and morbid melancholy that has followed me like a black dog all my life ... ". The film is handsomely mounted - shot in Serbia and Hungary - with terrific sets and an elegant masked ball centrepiece - but in the end this is neither a dramatically fulfilling biopic of Poe or an exciting adaption of his work, so for me it falls a little flat. An enjoyable evening's entertainment though, but for better quality Poe fare, you still can't beat the sixties Roger Corman adaptations - my favourite of which is the 1961 The Pit And The Pendulum, but 1963's overtly comic The Raven is very funny/scary, and both were scripted by the brilliant science-fiction/horror author Richard Matheson. The writers of this movie could do well to study his work.