Review of The Raven (2012) by Dean W — 01 Jan 2013

While full of welcome gore and blood spatter, it's bankrupt of any creative spark. Director James McTeigue was much more successful capturing graphic novelist Alan Moore's mood in "V for Vendetta" than he is conjuring the bone-chilling suspense of Poe. But viewed as simply another Hollywood thriller, The Raven builds up a decent head of steam as time runs out for our hero's imperiled fiancee. A grimly preposterous serial-killer thriller set in 19th-century Baltimore, this riff on the final days of the author of "The Tell-Tale Heart" and other masterpieces of the macabre might qualify as literary desecration if it weren't so silly. This wannabe Sherlockian thriller is like a night spent at Madame Tussauds, watching mannequins strangle other mannequins. It's neither grand nor grisly enough to seriously satisfy Poe-ish cravings for murder, mystery and literary allusions. It lingers intolerably on some inessential scenes, rushes through others, and fails to provide any motivation either for Poe's devoted (albeit fictional) love, or the film's archvillain.

VERDICT: "Not So Hot" - [Negative Reaction] These films are truly terrible films. They are not the worst things ever made, but they are definitely awful and should not be seen by anyone. (Films that are rated 1.5 or 2 stars).