Directed by Christopher Hatton
Written by Christopher Hatton and Chuck Reeves
Starring Melanie Zanetti, William Moseley, and Kate Dickie
Unrated
Runtime: 98 Minutes
Streaming on Shudder on September 22

by Miguel Alejandro Marquez, Staff Writer

Raven’s Hollow is a horror film that follows an investigator uncovering grisly murders in a small, 19th century American town. Over time, the investigator becomes enraptured by the people and the horrors (both internal and external) which curse them. It takes the deaths of his fellow compatriots for him to believe that non-human, evil forces do exist, and that he too needs to be rid of them, before they make him a monster.

What is the driving force of Raven’s Hollow? This is all the account of acclaimed writer Edgar Allen Poe, played by William Moseley (The Royals).

Directed by Christopher Hatton and written by Hatton and Chuck Reeves, Raven’s Hollow tells the fictional accounts of Edgar Allen Poe’s time at Westpoint and the gruesome murders that inspired his poems and stories. The film invokes the poem The Raven and the short story The Tell Tale Heart. To properly review this movie, I must divorce the picture from the work of Poe and what one would come to expect of a film taking on the work of the cerebral scribe. When doing so, it is obvious that Raven’s Hollow is a husk of movie, quoting and referencing Poe’s work to a humorous degree, bordering on satire.

Aggravation is the first emotion that this film first elicits, not intrigue or dread. The film’s murder mystery becomes not an interesting puzzle that the film lays out to its audience, but that of a Rubik’s cube too frustrating to finish. Over time, and with great patience, the film unravels itself as a somewhat competent kino. It takes a refined pallet, a pallet used to slow-burn horror, to enjoy the weird dreamlike slasher scenes in this bizarre, otherworldly plot.

Through the chaos and murder, Raven’s Hollow provokes certain moments of true humanity through scenes of Poe’s increasing madness and his increasing love for Lenore (played by Melanie Zanetti), but the film only scratches the surface of Poe’s eldritch horror. The Master of the Macabre deserves a film of better quality than that of a typical slasher. That being said, when watching the film divorced from the legacy of Poe, some qualities can be truly enjoyed.

To point out aspects of the film holds some greatness: oneiric imagery is used throughout, especially during the film’s murder scenes. These dreamlike, Dadaist scenes invoke a primordial dread through their nonsensicalness. All of this is in order to show the monstrosity of the film’s intangible killer and reasoning for Poe’s eclectic writing. The film’s direction, especially with the usage of these artistic devices, is evidence that Hatton's future as a director holds promise. After these moments, the film eventually shifts into becoming a seesaw of mediocre camerawork and somewhat purposeful direction, all within the backdrop of a monotonous story. The film’s story, and the film’s digital effects, both of which are constant headaches that ruin the immersion of the film’s bland world.

Raven’s Hollow is an average, by-the-numbers horror film that holds some interesting storytelling points (like the film’s romantic aspect, and Poe’s increasing hysteria), but is eventually outweighed by its shockingly bland, pedestrian plot. I will remember this film nevermore.