A diverting take on Edgar Allen Poe’s source for his macabre tales, literary period horror Raven’s Hollow mixes monster thrills with supernatural musings, referencing much of Poe’s works along the way. It’s 1830 and West Point Cadet Poe, played with square-jawed morality by William Mosley, makes a ghastly discovery with his unit whilst patrolling in upstate New York: a man strapped to a tree, insides on the outside who mumbles the word ‘raven’ before dying.
Nearby is the town of Raven’s Hollow, to which Poe and his team return the body and discover its strange, austere inhabitants burying another. Elizabet (played by the always reliable Kate Dickie), the apparent matriarch of the village with her streak of white hair and blunt Scottish indifference, wants them on their way, but Poe is curious. What is going on here? There’s also the alluring Charlotte (Melanie Zanetti) and a mystery that this ambitious young soldier cannot leave behind.
Subsequent men are killed; fingers point to the axe-wielding yet gentle Usher (Oberon K.A. Adjebong) but there is more at play here. A raven itself – a supernatural force that demands sacrifice, that can shapeshift and eviscerate, and whom the village believes it can control – lies at the centre of it all. Can Poe find where and in whom it resides before it strikes again?
This is a mostly successful monster movie that manages to blend in Poe stories and poems with a sly wit, especially a reference to the short story The Tell-Tale Heart. It also offers up a reason why Poe was court-martialled from the military before plunging into the melancholia that would run throughout his work as a writer. Stylishly shot with a refreshingly surprising demon, this ladles on the atmosphere with some visceral moments amidst gloomy forests and graveyards and solid performances from the cast. Nevermore!
Dir: Christopher Hatton (15, 98 mins)
Raven’s Hollow is streaming on Shudder from Thurs 22 Sept
words KEIRON SELF