John Cusack’s The Raven

I am a huge Edgar Allan Poe fan, and the other day I came across the movie “The Raven” starring John Cusack who played the role of the famous Edgar Allan Poe. I thought the plot of the story was extremely interesting and it was a nice twist/interpretation of the last days of Poe’s life. So the story basically goes that someone in town is committing murders using inspiration from Poe’s famous works. The stories that are used are “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” and “The Mystery of Marie Roget.” The detective on the case enlists Poe to help him solve these murders and Poe finally figures out who it is and of course it’s someone who no one expects and then the movie ends with a scene that is documented in history that says that the “Poe was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore…He 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. Some sources say that Poe’s final words were ‘Lord help my poor soul.’” This is basically how the movie ends and we see Poe in the morgue, nobody knowing exactly his cause of death. I really enjoyed the movie for a couple of reasons. One, I really am a big Poe fan so I thought this was an interesting perspective to take with the movie. Two, this movie made me want to read more Poe. For example, I’ve never read the story “The Mystery of Marie Roget” but just from watching this it made me want to read it. You should check it out if you love mystery, thriller, and Poe.