EDGAR ALLAN POE'S HORROR TALES INSPIRE REAL MURDERS IN “THE RAVEN”
The macabre and lurid tales of Edgar
Allan Poe are vividly brought to life – and death – in Intrepid Pictures' new
stylish, gothic thriller “The Raven” starring John Cusack as the infamous author. The film will be shown
soon exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas (Glorietta 4, Greenbelt 3 and Trinoma).
When
a madman begins committing horrific murders inspired by Poe’s darkest works, a
young Baltimore detective (Luke Evans) joins forces with Poe in a quest to get
inside the killer’s mind in order to stop him from making every one of Poe’s
brutal stories a blood chilling reality. A deadly game of cat and mouse ensues,
which escalates when Poe’s love (Alice Eve) becomes the next target.
Also
starring Brendan Gleeson and Oliver Jackson-Cohen, “The Raven” is directed by
James McTeigue (“V For Vendetta”) from a screenplay by Hannah Shakespeare &
Ben Livingston.
When
a mother and daughter are found brutally murdered in 19th century Baltimore,
Detective Emmett Fields makes a startling discovery: the crime resembles a
fictional murder described in gory detail in the local newspaper—part of a
collection of stories penned by struggling writer and social pariah Edgar Allan
Poe. But even as Poe is questioned by police, another grisly murder occurs,
also inspired by a popular Poe story.
Realizing
a serial killer is on the loose using Poe’s writings as the backdrop for his
bloody rampage, Fields enlists the author’s help in stopping the attacks. But
when it appears someone close to Poe may become the murderer’s next victim, the
stakes become even higher and the inventor of the detective story calls on his
own powers of deduction to try to solve the case before it’s too late.
James
McTeigue immediately gravitated towards “The Raven's” script when it was
brought to him by producer Aaron Ryder who previously worked on similar
psychological thrillers as “Memento,” “The Prestige” and “Donnie Darko.” “I
knew a little about Edgar Allan Poe, but not massive amounts. I really dug the
concept, which was a melding of fact and fiction, with Poe in the middle of his
own story. The conceit of the movie is what really attracted me to it.”
The
director adds, “We've always the desire to humanize Poe. You don’t want an
unsympathetic lead character because then no one can get into the film. Having
said that, I didn’t want him to be a choirboy either. Part of the reason to
cast John Cusack in it, was because he has a great empathy with audiences. I
thought we could show the less desirable aspects of Poe, but still not have the
audiences turned off. You can’t really make a film about Poe and not show these
demons, which ultimately created all of the great work that he did.
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