Reviews
The Guardian
Peter Bradshaw
“It's a nice touch to give Baltimore a serial killer over a century before Dr Hannibal Lecter was employed by the Johns Hopkins Medical Centre in that city. It runs out of steam in the final 10 minutes, but there's some gruesome drama and Cusack is on decent form.”
08/03/2012
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The Independent on Sunday
Jonathan Romney
“he screenplay, by Hannah Shakespeare and Ben Livingston, is one of the better things here. There's much ripe dialogue, especially in the mouth of Poe, played by Cusack as a manic proto-hipster (with a snazzy goatee, rather than the real Poe's merely functional 'tache). His voice an impassioned rasp, his face usually fixed in wild-eyed bafflement, Cusack comes on like a true melodrama barnstormer – especially when ranting at all comers about his overlooked genius ... The rest, however, just fills in the gaps in a routine way ...”
11/03/2012
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The Observer
Philip French
“It's a moderately entertaining thriller that (contrary to the claims of its writers and director) throws little light on Poe's character and none on the mystery surrounding his death. ”
11/03/2012
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Screen
Mark Adams
“Director James McTeigue favours bombastic direction and an unsuitable rock soundtrack though is not aided by a rather unfocussed script that seems to be aiming for a period version of Se7en but feels more like ‘CSI Baltimore’ circa 1849.”
09/03/2012
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Empire Magazine
Kim Newman
“From the first crashing chords of the disastrously inappropriate rock score to the frankly dumb punchline, this consistently misses the mark – mostly thanks to haphazard scriptwriting which suggests a wikipedia level of Poe scholarship and a failure to grasp the concept of the whodunit.”
05/03/2012
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Time Out
Tom Huddleston
“Take a dash of ‘Theatre of Blood’, a splash of Seven and a fistful of From Hell, give it a good shake, drain out all the juice and you’ve got The Raven a bizarre, deeply unsatisfying fictionalised account of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe.”
06/03/2012
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The Times
Wendy Ide
“McTeigue figures that periodically chucking a crow at the camera and shrouding the set in dry ice will do to create a Poe-ish atmosphere. But he’s just burying the film with baroque set dressing and manufactured tension. ”
09/03/2012
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Total Film
Neil Smith
“As implausible as the stars’ gleaming choppers. Who knew they had such great dentistry in 1840s Baltimore?”
05/03/2012
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The Sunday Times
Cosmo Landesman
“There’s a downside of literary fame for you: being travestied in hack work such as this. ”
11/03/2012
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The Financial Times
Nigel Andrews
“Poor Edgar Allan Poe. For years he groomed that personality-defining black moustache sitting like a mournful raven on his upper lip. Then along comes John Cusack in The Raven wearing a full-order goatee. Can’t Hollywood get anything right? ”
08/03/2012
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The Daily Telegraph
Robbie Collin
“Edgar Allan Poe’s acidic wit and flair for brevity are both in perilously short supply in this torpid, rackety whodunit.”
08/03/2012
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The Daily Mail
Chris Tookey
“Cusack has been publicising the film with the revelation that he suffered dreadful sleeping problems while making it. No such difficulties are likely to be experienced by the audience. The title echoes Poe’s most famous poem - and the only sensible response is a horrified cry of ‘Nevermore!’”
09/03/2012
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