Call thriller a thriller

It was way back in elementary when we first heard of Edgar Allan Poe, his love for a lass in this kingdom by the sea with the name of Anabel Lee; and still another love the angels named Leonore, of whom the Raven sadly quoted Nevermore. There was little we understood as a child, but was drawn to the musicality and rhythm of his lines that always seemed to speak of a love he had lost.

Later as we found ourselves in the company of The Ravens, we got to appreciate poetry more. These literary barkadas of the ’50s were composed of Adrian Cristobal, Virgie Moreno, Alex Hufana, Andy Cristobal Cruz, Larry Francia and others. We often wondered why they chose Poe and Raven for their group, but never dared to ask.   

This is principally why we felt we had to watch the thriller, the most recent of several of the same title utilizing reference to Poe’s most famous poem The Raven. It is a largely fictional account of Poe’s mysterious last days where he was found wandering around the streets, delirious and incoherent. Poe has been described as a drunkard, depraved, penniless and a bane to society so it is easy to conjecture that his sins had caught up with him. He was also known to be a lover of beautiful women, who had all died of illness, said to be a cause for his desolation.   

The 2012 film directed by James McTeigue, with screenplay by Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare, is basically a whodunit with a twist where John Cusack as the brilliant but misunderstood Poe and Luke Evans as the young Baltimore detective Emmett Fields get together to solve a series of gruesome murders based on Poe’s stories. It is hardly the film that would dig into the symbolisms of his creations, nothing as highfalutin. It is a cut-and-dried thriller and should be taken as simply that. Its contribution to the viewing public is that it familiarizes the moviegoers with a literary giant they may initially not be interested in.

Critics were not favorable in their comments but then that is to be expected. Rotten Tomatoes described it as “Thinly scripted, unevenly acted, and overall preposterous… more silly than scary.”

As a thriller, however, we were more than satisfied as were the countless others at the Trinoma where we watched. When a grisly murder occurs that resembles a crime from The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Poe, Fields asks him to help catch the killer and he agrees. This is opposed by the military father of the beautiful Emily Hamilton (played by Alice Eve) who has fallen in love with Poe. As murder upon murder occurs, all inspired by the works of Poe (The Pit and the Pendulum, The Mystery of Marie Roget, The Premature Burial, The Cask of Amontillado, The Black Cat, Telltale Heart), the role of Poe in tracking down the killer obviously becomes the most important element.

The search reaches its height when the traditional masked ball held by Emily’s dad Captain Hamilton appears to be the scene of the next crime inspired by Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death. Fields and the Baltimore Police penetrate the ball where Emily is kidnapped and a masked man on horseback leaves a note telling Poe he will continue with his murders while leaving clues to Emily’s location. From this point on, it is Poe against the unknown assassin who now appears more depraved than Poe ever could be. The last clue brings him to the solution of the crime and the answer to why he ended up incoherent and near death in Baltimore.

In Poe’s biography, it is stated that Poe was found delirious by Joseph W. Walker who brought him to the Washington College Hospital where he died, 5 a.m. on Oct. 7, 1849. “Poe was never coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in his dire condition and oddly, was wearing clothes that were not his own. Poe is said to have repeatedly called out the name ‘Reynolds’ on the night before his death, though it is unclear to whom he was referring.”   

In the thriller, naturally, Fields tracks down the serial killer Reynolds.

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