The Raven

Taking the collected works of America’s original master of horror and drawing on their most gruesome murders as the inspiration for something resembling the love child of Saw and Sleepy Hollow might have seemed like a good idea to director James McTeigue. After all, the former protege of the Wachowski brothers had directed V For Vendetta and Ninja Assassin, films that strain to commodify and stylize bloody violence into some semblance of a meaningful story. Having all the murders already written for you by an American literary icon must have seemed like quite the head start. Unfortunately, the only thing...  read more