"The only thing he's ever killed is a bottle of brandy."
Thus is the alibi for Edgar Allan Poe in the atmospheric thriller, The Raven. John Cusack plays the embattled writer, who solves a series of Baltimore murders based on his own gruesome tales in the fictional last days of his life. What begins as Poe working to prove innocence in the situation cumulates in a highly personal endeavor when his love interest Emily Hamilton, played by Alice Eve, becomes next-in-line for the Poe treatment.
"This is a smart pop culture take on Poe's death," Cusack said in a roundtable with North by Northwestern. "Poe is a highbrow guy doing the most esoteric poetry in the world and writing this pulp Saturday morning thriller stuff." This feeds into the modern fascination regarding the legend of Poe and the plot of The Raven, although there are many more reasons why the poet's story continues to draw interest.
The troubled genius
People tend to be fascinated with those who, despite their substance abuse problems, have made an impact on the world. This is why people are so into Kurt Cobain, Johnny Cash and Lou Reed, and it's also why Poe is of special interest. Such a tortured life often produces works of genius, such as Poe's masterpieces "Annabel Lee" and "The Masque of the Red Death."
Cusack went to great lengths to embody the alcoholic writer. "I got as gaunt as I could," he said. "I got down to about 190 pounds, which is below what I was at in high school. And then I didn't sleep much. It just felt like I was on a bender for eight weeks." In his appearance and tone of speech throughout the movie, Cusack manages to convey the insane desperation of Poe as he witnesses the effects of the work of his tormented mind.
The terrifying stories
In preparation for his role, Cusack extensively studied Poe's work. Although he cites his favorite poem as "The Raven" and admires Poe's psychological study of doing the forbidden in "The Imp of the Perverse," he said he enjoys all of the "underworld artistic substance" of Poe's tales and poems.
"Poe is sort of a journeyer into the subconscious," Cusack said. "He's like Orpheus descending. He's straddling both worlds and sort of exploring through it and using all the sorrow in his life as an alchemist to turn it into all this cool stuff."
Poe delves into the differences between life, death, waking and dreaming in his more supernatural stories, but he has a slasher side as well. This is featured in The Raven through a scene involving a murder in the style of "The Pit and the Pendulum."
The Raven successfully blends the subtle differences in Poe's canon in a way that crosses subtle, otherworldly feelings of the unknown with overt gore. It isn't a movie for the faint of heart. The seasoned horror movie aficionado will be delighted at the nuances present in the movie's murders and kidnapping. At the same time, the production team did a very convincing job with the blood and guts in certain scenes. Most modern horror movies can't manage to successfully blend psychological horror and gore, but The Raven does so in a way that would make Poe proud.
The myths and legends surrounding Poe
Aside from reflecting the different genres Poe used, The Raven also manages to reflect its audience's fascination with the mysteries of Poe's life and death. The film has many references to reality, including Poe's attendance at West Point and his athleticism, but its most creative moves take these facts and weave the film's fictional storyline around them.
A notable plot device includes proxy characters taking the place of real people in Poe's life. Poe's constant letter writing allows much of his correspondence to survive to this day. The writers of The Raven used his real interactions with female love interests and fellow male writers and editors to craft much of the dialogue used in the film.
The circumstances of Poe's death are arguably the most enticing aspect of the Poe legend. The film formulates its own explanation of the details of Poe's last days, such as his delirious state, wearing of clothes that weren't his and repetition of the name "Reynolds." It also gives him an explicit cause of death: Although, since he died in 1849, there have been several explanations, ranging from rabies (he has a pet raccoon in the movie) to delirium tremens.
Cusack and many others believe Poe died of cooping, which was the practice of taking drunk or drugged men and disguising them in different outfits in order to send them to vote several times for a certain candidate or political party in elections.
The verdict
Although The Raven tends to be unbelievable in its explanations of Poe's life and death, and is sometimes reminiscent of National Treasure, the quality of its acting and writing make it a movie worth watching. It's clear that Cusack and the rest of the creators of The Raven cared about keeping Poe's characterization and details real despite the detective story plot. Cusack's portrayal of Poe goes to great lengths to convey all of his sides, from the manic drunk to the lovesick writer, and the supporting characters all mirror Poe effectively, while keeping the true murderer a mystery to the end. There is a particularly memorable moment in the end that uses heavy camera blur and an extremely unsteady scene to pull the audience into the shoes of Poe, which is an experience both novel and disturbing, but mostly quite the cinema-borne trip.
The literary fanatic will get the most from the movie because of the allusions to Poe that have been hidden throughout the scenes, like Poe's interactions with rival editors, the murder scenes mirroring his grotesque tales and even non-murder scenes mirroring more of his stories. ("The Cask of Amontillado" anybody? You'll get it when you see it.) But everyone will enjoy the exhilaration of gothic adventure by ordeal.