*. The 1935 Universal horror film The Raven starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff had little to do with the poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Nor did Roger Corman’s 1963 movie with the same title. In fact, most movies “based on” or “inspired by” Poe, as with movies based on H. P. Lovecraft’s work, have little to do with their authors.
*. The Raven doesn’t have much to do with “The Raven” either, but that’s because it goes in a different direction. The premise here has it that the historical Edgar Allan Poe, played by John Cusack, is being stalked by a serial killer who is using Poe’s stories as inspiration. Cutting his victims in two with giant pendulums, burying them alive, that sort of thing.
*. This made me think of a couple of movies not Poe related. The first is Theater of Blood (1971), where Vincent Price plays a Shakespearean actor who kills off his critics in ways borrowed from the Bard’s plays. The second is Steven Soderbergh’s Kafka (1991), which has Jeremy Irons playing Franz Kafka getting caught up in a Kafkaesque adventure.
*. Unfortunately, it isn’t as good as either of those pictures. Perhaps it was the paradoxical way that Poe’s tales of the weird and uncanny are made to fit into an altogether more predictable twenty-first century horror plot, complete with a kidnapped love interest and background police procedural. Even the locations have a familiar feel to them, and I don’t mean Baltimore. It was shot in Budapest and Belgrade, Eastern Europe being a place where it’s always sometime before 1900.
*. The big problem with The Raven though is that the killer turns out to be a total yawn. In most movies like this the killer isn’t a large role. He may only have a few lines, or none at all. But he has to be a larger-than-life presence, or at least be of some interest. Here he’s an anonymous figure of a clichéd type without any motivation that feels compelling enough to explain his crimes. The thing is, we’ve been down this road so many times before with the thematic and theatrical serial killer — from modern exemplars like Se7en and Saw, all the way back to The Abominable Dr. Phibes or even Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None — that any movie wanting to go here again has its work cut out for it. The Raven isn’t up to the task.
*. Add to this a downbeat ending — these are the final days of Poe’s life — and you have a movie that didn’t satisfy critics or audiences. Cusack is actually quite good, but this is one that just left me wondering why they even bothered when they had so little that was new to bring to the table.
Alex on Film 
Saw this one opening day and can remember nothing about it apart from it was boring.
So is this a Poe season?
I don’t think I’ll be remembering much of this a week from now.
I did Tell-Tale Heart movies a while back. This wraps Poe up for the moment. I’m not saying Nevermore, but on to other things.
What about Kung Fu Panda?
I have not seen Kung Fu Panda. Didn’t they make two of them? Haven’t seen either.
Sigh. Main character is called Po.
I’m assuming he is a panda . . .
In Kung Fu Panda? It’s a massive leap, but you’ve got it in one. Did someone not buy you a Kung Fu Panda coloring book? Anyway, the panda is called Po, so you could have done that film as part of your Poe season. hahaha
There was a coloring book? I wouldn’t have thought pandas needed a lot of coloring.
Sigh. Po has colourful advantures with his friends. I went to see the pandas at the zoo, and it’s SO outdated to think of them in terms of black and white; there’s so much more to them.
Does he wear a purple vest and hat like Top Cat?
No, so you won’t get purple pen all over your face this time.
Wasn’t purple pen. I was eating a grape popsicle.
Is this the Top Cat thread or the erotic cinema one? I’m getting confused…
Top Cat was a player.
No-one knows that better than me. I am the authority on TC. Get the bins sorted.
I named my cat T.C. I suppose a lot of people did.
Was he the indisputable leader of the gang?
She was the indisputable leader of having a gang bang before I got her spayed.
Yikes, I’m sorry I asked.
Pussies galore.
STOIP!
Wut??
No more details about your cat’s sex life, please.
Spoilsport.
Haven’t seen this but Theatre of Blood was fun.
I would stick with Vincent Price. This isn’t as good. Or as good as Saw or any of the other movies in the genre.
I am not keen on the genre at all, will never see a Saw movie unless I’m kidnapped and tied up with my eyes sewn open in front of a screen showing it. But Vincent Price, I’d watch him any time, mad eyebrows.
I would actually recommend the first Saw movie. There’s not much gore because it was done on the cheap and they couldn’t afford it, but it moves really well and has lots of weird changes of direction. It’s actually very clever and you might like it. I’d pass on the rest of the series unless you’re into seeing people getting sliced and diced in imaginative and improbable ways.
I’ll think about it.
I’ll look forward to your review!
Haha don’t hold your breath!
Well this sounds boring. It’s a defiant no from me. But we did find out about Fraggle’s cat’s sex life, so it wasn’t all bad.
She was spayed!
The shock! I bet Top Cat wasn’t too pleased about that – or was she? Sex without consequences, right? I don’t really know the exact details of spaying.
I’m not sure how it works either. Removes the ovaries. But do they still go in heat? Have to ask Fraggle. It’s her cat. Plus she’s a doctor. Or something.
Don’t get into the particulars. We don’t want to scare you.