The Raven
Tags: revenge, murder

Plot synopsis:
"The Raven" follows an unnamed narrator on a dreary night in December who sits reading "forgotten lore" by a dying fire  as a way to forget the death of his beloved Lenore. A "tapping at [his] chamber door" reveals nothing, but excites his soul to "burning". The tapping is repeated, slightly louder, and he realizes it is coming from his window. When he goes to investigate, a raven flutters into his chamber. Paying no attention to the man, the raven perches on a bust of Pallas above the door.
Amused by the raven's comically serious disposition, the man asks that the bird tell him its name. The raven's only answer is "Nevermore". The narrator is surprised that the raven can talk, though at this point it has said nothing further. The narrator remarks to himself that his "friend" the raven will soon fly out of his life, just as "other friends have flown before" along with his previous hopes. As if answering, the raven responds again with "Nevermore". The narrator reasons that the bird learned the word "Nevermore" from some "unhappy master" and that it is the only word it knows.
Even so, the narrator pulls his chair directly in front of the raven, determined to learn more about it. He thinks for a moment in silence, and his mind wanders back to his lost Lenore. He thinks the air grows denser and feels the presence of angels, and wonders if God is sending him a sign that he is to forget Lenore. The bird again replies in the negative, suggesting that he can never be free of his memories. The narrator becomes angry, calling the raven a "thing of evil" and a "prophet". Finally, he asks the raven whether he will be reunited with Lenore in Heaven. When the raven responds with its typical "Nevermore", he is enraged, and, calling it a liar, commands the bird to return to the "Plutonian shore"—but it does not move. Presumably at the time of the poem's recitation by the narrator, the raven "still is sitting" on the bust of Pallas. The narrator's final admission is that his soul is trapped beneath the raven's shadow and shall be lifted "Nevermore".

Review: TV (non)Mystery movie. There was so much affectation in the acting and accents, I honestly couldn't wait for 'The Raven' to dispatch each of the characters. Why were these South African actors given an Australian dialogue coach to help them deliver English 'toff' accents? And I swear I heard a Welsh accent early on, why was it needed? It all kept me asking 'who are these people, why do they all seem to hate each other, and why are they having a party together? Were the disparate accents part of a master plan for a major international incident (with an end shot of The Raven stroking a fluffy white cat)?' The movie kept getting in the way of its story, and I lost interest pretty quickly. It wasn't fair to Poe's original story, but then there really wasn't much of the original Poe's 'The Raven' actually in this story, only nods and suggestions -- actually it may be closer to 'Mask of the Red Death', if anything. Oh, why was it called 'The Raven' then? I'll end with the sound of my toe tap, tap, tapping and think of this movie NEVERMORE.. Why does David DeCoteau feel like turning all of Edgar Allan Poe's novels into soft-core porn?. So far I've seen 6 movies directed by David DeCoteau and I'm starting to sense a pattern here... The movies that were loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's novels are pretty much soft-core porn and two out of three Puppet Master movies are an insult to the franchise. So the pattern here is that David DeCoteau sucks! His later works, "The Pit and the Pendulum" & "The House of Usher" were soft-core port too, but at least *those* movies had a somewhat good story. Sure, these movies are based on Edgar Allen Poe's novels, so the story was already provided, but "The Raven" has something that the other two movies do not: bad execution! I mean... come on! The acting was weird, the plot holes were many, the story overall was full of clichés and the editing of the so called "sex-scenes" was a joke! Looping footage over and over again to make the scene last longer, doesn't mean it'll make the scene better! And as for the ending... You know... a quote comes to mind: "There's plot convenience, there's Deus Ex Machina, and then there's just pulling stuff right out of your ass!" "The Pit and the Pendulum" & "The House of Usher" were not good movies! Nowhere, at any point, were they good movies. They too had pretty much the same flaws as "The Raven", but at least they weren't as boring! I have never been so bored watching a movie before! Never! Final thoughts: If you want the usual soft-core porn that David DeCoteau does so "well", got watch "The Pit and the Pendulum" instead!