Edgar Allen Poe is a disturbed, brilliant, alcoholic author living in 1840s Baltimore. A serial murder kills his victims exactly as identified in many of Poe's stories. When the police figure this out, they enlist Poe to help them solve the crimes. The crimes become more personal when Poe's fiancee is kidnapped.
The plot is similar to an old Vincent Price film, Theatre of Blood. In that one, Price was the serial killer, and he murdered his victims in ways identical to those enacted in Shakespeare's plays. That wasn't a great movie, but Vincent Price helped make it very decent. Check out Catfreek's review in the Monster List. I was hoping JOhn Cusack would save this one. He didn't.
The premise is kind of neat, and the director does a great job of making this look, visually, like one would expect an Edgar Allen Poe story to look like. The biggest problem, surprisingly, is John Cusack. I really like John Cusack, but he doesn't play Poe as a disturbed, brilliant, tortured alcoholic. He mostly plays this one as a slower, angry Lloyd Dobbler. Can't you just picture this guy holding up a stereo playing Peter Gabriel?
6 comments:
I watched this at the theater when it came out, I liked it more than you did but I totally see your point about cusak, nice review.
I thought the movie was pretty good. Perhaps I enjoyed it because of the scenery... story itself was a little predictable.
I forgot that this film even existed! I tend to struggle with horror films set in the 1800's (yes I know that I am shallow). There's just something about the look that makes my eyes glaze over.
That surprises me because John Cusack often carries mediocre films to greatness.
I love Poe but I think I'd struggle with seeing John Cusack portray him (though I'm not counting it out).
If he's Lloyd Dobbler I hope he can open up some badass kickboxing moves.
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