Today’s celebration of all things Baltimore or Ravens take us to Raven territory. More specifically, to two of the movies that name-check that glorious bird of prey, the Raven. Or, The Raven and The Raven.
Edgar Allan Poe’s arguably most famous poem has had four films use it’s title. A silent movie back in 1915, a straight-up horror piece starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in 1935, a Roger Corman send-up in 1963 and a thriller in 2012. Today’s Superbowl Celebration piece will focus on the last two, but if you’re interested in watching the silent film (and it’s really worth a look) check it out on Fandor, or you can grab all of the DVD’s on Netflix.
First off, The Raven (1963) starred Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff. To say it’s “loosely based” on Poe’s poem is a grand understatement, but with these three horror-fan favorites on the screen, who cares? And did I mention that it was directed by B-movie madman extraordinare, Roger Corman? Yeah baby, that’s the stuff right there. The Raven (1963) is a horror spoof, taking the grand names of the genre and getting them to poke fun at the gothic tropes that made ’em famous. The battle between wizards at the end is a rollicking good time. Oh, and is that a very young Jack Nicholson in a supporting role? You betcha.
The Raven gets another turn in 2012, with John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe. This go-round Poe is summoned to help a police investigator (Luke Evans) solve a series of murders that mimic the poet’s written words. Though it’s a far cry from historical accuracy — I’m guessing the real Poe was probably too debilitated in his final months on earth to ever be able to hunt down a killer — it’s a fun ride with tons of blood and mayhem before the final scene.
Ravens. Tough, beautiful creatures. And some pretty kick-ass films.
Read on for a bit of my original review of The Raven (2012)!
Movie Review: The Raven
“The Black Cat”. “Premature Burial”. “The Cask of Amontillado”. “The Raven”. And now, The Raven, starring Edgar Allan Poe? You betcha. If Poe was the father of the modern detective story, then The Raven is a film that does the old boy justice. It’s a horror film that feels like a police procedural with a love story thrown in. It isn’t the easiest movie to classify, but all the better. The Raven is fun thrill ride of a movie. Thrilling, edge-of-my-seat stuff, and it’s a movie I can heartily recommend.
It’s 1849 in Baltimore, Maryland. A woman and her young daughter are found viciously murdered…but the police are stumped when it’s found that all the doors and windows were locked from the inside. How was it done? One policeman decides that the murders echo those of a story he’d read by a Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. So Detective Fields, a man who is as close to forensics as one could be in 1849, decides to ask Poe for his “special knowledge” in the hopes that the murders can be solved. But these killings are only the beginning, and soon Fields, Poe and the whole of nineteenth century Baltimore are caught in the trap of a twisted but brilliant killer.
Atomic Fangirl 