David Farnor | On 24, Sep 2022

Director: Christopher Hatton
Cast: Melanie Zanetti, William Moseley, Kate Dickie, David Hayman, Callum Woodhouse
Certificate: TBC

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most interesting figures in literary history, whether it’s his beautiful turn of phrase, memorable taste for the macabre, invention of the detective genre or even his mysterious death. The idea of depicting him on screen as well as his tales has long held appeal, with recent outings including Twixt and The Raven. The latest to join the horde is Raven’s Hollow, a horror-tinged murder mystery that pits Poe as an unwitting detective in a spooky village.

So far, so promising, and writer-director Christopher Hatton has a lot of fun layering the premise with Poe references, teasing the inspiration for The Raven and other works in tiny details, character names and the odd line of dialogue. Poe himself (William Moseley) is here a West Point military cadet in the 1830s who is travelling with a group of fellow cadets when they stumble upon a gruesome sight and become drawn into a spate of strange deaths.

From the doctor (David Hayman) to the authority figures, there’s no end of suspects and secrets lurking in the remote community, and talk of a raven that looms over them sets the stage for something supernatural, a far more grounded culprit or a mix of both. Muddying the waters is Charlotte Ingram (Melanie Zanetti), a townswoman who seems to know more than she’s letting on and appears to take a shine to young cadet Poe.

The cast are suitably enigmatic and sinister, and the CGI is just the right side of B-movie cheese, but the enjoyable individual components are let down by an overly conventional script that doesn’t quite know what to do with them. Moseley’s Poe is a likeable seeker of truth, but the allusions to his work feel more surface-level than woven into the material, which leaves the final act resolving in a way that’s underwhelming rather than satisfying. There’s a darker or more playful version of this tale that leans into its literary character, but Raven’s Hollow lacks the beating heart to bring it to life.

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