FRIGHT FEST COMMENCES WITH THE RAVEN

 Hello, and welcome to FRIGHT FEST. This year, we start things off right by entering the world of Edgar Allan Poe with The Raven.

In The Raven, we catch up with a washed-up, alcohol loving Poe (John Cusack) during the final weeks of his life. He is madly in love with the beautiful Emily Hamilton (Alice Eve), and plans on marrying her  Her father, Capt. Charles Hamilton (Brandon Gleeson) does not approve. Unfortunately for all involved, a gruesome rash of murders have been cropping up in Baltimore, and each seems to be modeled after a famed story by Poe. Inspector Emmet Fields (Luke Evans) and Poe team up in an attempt to catch the culprit. When Emily is kidnapped by the killer, the search to end the madness intensifies as it's only a matter of time until she becomes the next victim. 

An interesting mix of fact and fiction. The real draw is seeing Poe's classic stories brought to grisly life (and the film is quite grotesque at times despite a good deal of CGI being utilized) and getting to spend some time with the master himself. Unfortunately, the story that ties everything together isn't as strong as it should be, and the mystery at the heart of The Raven isn't really engaging or all that good.

Cusack is committed to his role as Poe and is great (though the film does play up his alcoholism a lot...sometimes for laughs, which doesn't sit well with me). Luke Evans is equally great as Inspector Emmet Fields, the determined and driven lead detective on the case. Oliver Jackson-Cohen (who most recently starred in The Haunting of Hill House and The Invisible Man) also pops up in a supporting role as John Cantrell, a cop assisting with the investigation.

The Raven does try to be meta at times, and while the effort is appreciated it never quite works. It is also frivolous and almost disrespectful in how it handles Poe's death (this definitely didn't sit well with me). The Raven is longer than it needs to be at an hour and fifty minutes, and it does drag at times but overall it's still a mostly entertaining, fun, cool little flick.

2.5 STARS