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Araceli Nunez

24 May 2017

Mrs. Terry

U.S. History, B3

The Raven. Dir. James McTeigue. Perf. John Cusack, Luke Evans, Alice Eve, Brendan Gleeson.
Eagle pictures, 2012. Online movie database. The Raven . GoMovies . Web. 23 May 2017.
In the motion picture The Raven, directed by James McTeigue, John Cusack plays the

role of the slight alcoholic and pity inducing Edgar Allan Poe. Poes lover, Emily Hamilton is

played by Alice Eve and her father Charles Hamilton by, Brendan Gleeson. The movie begins

with a murder in a hotel, calling to the attention of Emmett Fields, played by Luke Evans. The

relatively young American poet Edgar Allan Poes poems are being used in a case of serial

murders. Poe is brought along with investigators when they find the pattern to the killings and

soon his fiancees life is being threatened. The heightened level of mystery surrounds both Poes

death in real life and the deaths of those in the movie. The movie is a great portrayal of the

mystery and drama that surrounded the life of the great macabre author that was Edgar Allan

Poe.

Setting the background of the movie, it begins in a Baltimore hotel where a womans

desperate shrieks for help can be heard. A police squad arrive and attempt to unlock door

however the door is being locked from the inside as they attempt to open it, pushing them to

resort to breaking the door down. By the time they enter the room, there is nothing but a females

corpse to be found at first look. After a deeper inspection of the room, they come to two

conclusions. Firstly, a daughter and mother have been murdered in the room, said daughter being

stuffed in the chimney. Secondly, the murderer somehow escaped the room without opening the
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window, leaving through the door or climbing the chimney. These findings require them to call in

a detective by the name of Emmett Fields. He is quick to find similarities in the murder to a short

story from author Edgar Allan Poe, The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Edgar is called in for questioning by Fields and is shocked to hear of the murder and its

similarities to his story. He is then asked to help figure out the case because of his influential and

helpful perspective. Shortly after this development, there is another murder. This time it is

someone Poe knows and dislikes, his literary critic of a rival named Griswold whose death was

the result of a giant axe like tool that swung like a pendulum in what appears to be a warehouse.

He dies from being cut in half and blood loss. Once again, the case shares similarities with

another of Poes works, this time his short story, The Pit and the Pendulum. Fields and Poe

quickly realize the parallels linking the literary works and homicides are more than coincidences

and instead clues for the next homicide. After coming to this realization, they figure out the next

move will be at Mr. Hamiltons annual masquerade ball and persuade Hamilton to allow police in

disguise to on alert at the ball. Meanwhile, Emily pushes Edgar for more and the two become

engaged.

At the masquerade, Edgar tells Emily about the criminals next suspected move at the ball

and implores for her to announce their engagement at a later date. They await the figure which is

to resemble death and finally a figure in a skeletal costume on a dark horse enters the

masquerade, getting shot by Mr. Hamilton. The man turns out to be a distraction and carries a

note from the assassin which demands that Poe write and publish a new story or he will kill

Emily and leaves more clues. At this point, everyone realizes Emily has been kidnapped. Mr.

Hamilton is outraged at the police force for not catching the man and Poe is distressed. The next

day, as the panic and worry settle in, a group of medical students are about to embark in a lesson
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about the human body with a corpse. As their instructor is speaking, the coffin shakes and the

students look on with wonder. Opening the coffin, a raven flies out and the corpse of a woman

dressed in stage clothes with blood all over her hands and face is revealed. After a look at the

scene, Poe is quick to realize the scene aligns with another of his short stories - The Mystery of

Marie Rogt. When the womans stage clothes are identified to be the costume for a character in

a play, the investigation is taken to the theatre in which she worked. Fields estimates the size of

the hand which harmed the woman and uses the information to look at the stagehands hand

sizes. During his search among the stagehands, it becomes apparent that there is only one person

missing and they chase a figure in the ropes of the theatre but the figure escapes, leaving them to

research the missing stagehand. Shortly it is discovered that the missing stagehand was a sailor

who was on leave in Baltimore. As they ponder how and why he relates to the killings, Fields

notes the ship he arrived on was named Fortunato which helps Poe to figure out which storys

similarities they should search for. They begin looking in the citys tunnels (the clue went along

with the story The Cask of Amontillado) for Emily however, they only find the missing sailor

along with two clues that lead to her supposed location.

The clues lead them to a church where a grave with Emilys name is found but she is not

in it. In the midst of the hunt for Emily, Poe slowly starts losing faith that she is alive and writes

a new column in the newspaper in which he offers his life in exchange for the release of Emily. It

is printed and when he arrives at the house, the maid gives him a note which she says was

delivered before the newspaper but the note contains information the killer would only know if

he read the column. Poe then discerns who he thinks the killer is and rushes to the newspapers

office. Before the audience is shown the arrival, the movie switches back to Field resting in bed

after having a bullet removed from his chest, a result from the spar at the church. During his
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search for his gun, he knocks over ink which falls near the magnet used to extract his bullet and

realizes each note from the killer is written in magnetic ink which only printing places use. The

movie switches back to Edgar as he runs into the newspapers office accusing his editor, Henry.

Henry is dead and his hands are cut off, next to him lays another note, proclaiming the closing

gap between the assassin and Poe.

Finally, Poe finds the assassin who turns out to be no other than his typesetter Ivan. Ivan

admits to missing Edgars works so much that he decided to make his own and act it out in order

for Edgar to write about it. Edgar Allan Poe is about to shoot Ivan until he is reminded of Emily

and is prompted to drink poison. As the poison begins taking effect, Ivan spills his plans to do the

same scheme again to some French poet and that he will go under the alias of Reynolds. Before

leaving Poe alone, Ivan references The Telltale Heart as his final clue and Poe realizes that

Emily is buried under where he's sitting. The police and paramedics arrive, taking Emily with

them. Meanwhile, Poe walks off to a bench and lies down, as he lies a stranger recognizes him

and Poe is so out of it that he can only say "tell Fields his name is Reynolds". He is announced

dead at hospital and the doctor mentions that Poes last words were of no sense and repeats the

phrase said in the park. The movie ends with Ivans arrival to France and the sound of a shot

going off.

Edgar Allan Poes life was shrouded in mystery and sadness, few knew pieces of what

really happened at the end of Poes life and the film greatly gave more insight to what possibly

could have occurred. This fictionalized telling of his life was not greatly based off of facts and

for that reason it is not a reliable tool for analyzing American history. Themes such as the rise of

the macabre genre, modern detective mystery and thriller literature helped shape what would

become classic American literature. Cinematically speaking, the movie receives a 6 out of 10.
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There was really no surprising turn of events, the plot had minor holes and focused a bit much on

the chase of catching the murderer rather than Poes life as an author. I fail to recommend this to

anyone truly hoping to dig deeper into the mind of one of Americas most renowned classical

authors.
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Works Cited
The Raven. Dir. Janes McTeigue. Perf. John Cusack, Luke Evans, Alice Eve, Brendan Gleeson. Eagle

pictures, 2012. Online movie database. The Raven . GoMovies . Web. 23 May 2017.

"The Raven (2012)." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 26 May 2017.