The Raven (2012)

The Raven is a 2012 American mystery thriller film directed by James McTeigue and based on a screenplay by Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare. It stars John Cusack, Alice Eve, Brendan Gleeson and Luke Evans. It was released March 9, 2012 in Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States on April 27, 2012.

Set in 1849, it is a fictionalized account of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe's life, in which the poet and author pursues a serial killer whose murders mirror those in Poe's stories. While the plot of the film is fictional, the writers based it on some accounts of real situations surrounding Edgar Allan Poe's mysterious death. Poe is said to have repeatedly called out the name "Reynolds" on the night before his death, though it is unclear to whom he was referring. The title derives from Poe's poem "The Raven", in the similar manner of the earlier unrelated 1935 and 1963 films.

Receiving mixed to negative reviews from critics, the film just made back its budget. The visual effects garnered praise, as did the musical score by Lucas Vidal, but reviewers criticized the various twists and turns of the plot-lines, as well as the performances.

Synopsis

In 19th-century Baltimore, Maryland, several policemen discover a murdered woman sprawled on the floor of her apartment, which was locked from the inside. While police search for the killer's means of escape, they discover a second corpse in the chimney, later identified as the 12-year-old daughter of the first victim. A celebrated detective, Emmett Fields, is called to assist in the investigation and discovers that the crime resembles a fictional murder in the short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" that he had once read.

Actors