Now that the critical dust has settled on John McTeigue’s fictional account of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe perhaps it’s time to welcome The Raven onto DVD and Blu-ray with a soupçon of reappraisal?
I wasn’t too kind to the film on its release. What ground there was to build a dark and unsettling murder mystery inspired, as the film’s serial killer was, by Poe’s work was lost early on to a desire to stay completely within the genre conventions and drained the film of its soul.
I’ll hopefully be taking a look at the film on Blu-ray soon and part of the reason I’m keen to go back is John Cusack’s performance as Poe. I had the chance to sit down with the actor earlier in the year and his explanation of his take on the man painted a far brighter picture than my experience with the film allowed.
You can read that interview here, and check out the clip below which gives a good indication of Cusack’s Poe.
