Catholic News Service
The macabre musings of Edgar Allan Poe have been adapted for the screen numerous times. In the latest instance, Poe is not only the central character, he’s also credited with being the progenitor of the horror movie genre.
While the makers of “The Raven” articulate the latter idea near the end of the proceedings, and only in passing, they’re clearly banking on it animating their tale. Instead, casting Poe as the forerunner of, say, low-budget horror director Roger Corman only underscores our sense that the author’s oeuvre is being picked at and that the film is straining to bring gravitas and wit to its own workaday mayhem and melancholia.