Poe's having a nice little resurgence, starting with this, and continuing with a 75 million Christian Bale - starring horror movie centered around Poe on 6th January 2023, and Mike Flanagan's "House of Usher" series, fall 2023. Shudder offers us a gothic tale featuring Edgar Allan Poe as a young man, travelling over grey lands with his fellow cadets, and stumbling upon a grisly murder near a small and suspicious village by the name of Raven's Hollow. It's a low budget horror movie with terrific production design, and plenty of thought for the Poe-ish story, but ultimately it falls quite flat and short of the standards of Edgar's works.
My main attraction, however, is that it's a rare horror movie co-produced by and entirely shot in my small country of origin - Latvia. The gloomy and dark autumn palette perfectly fits the atmosphere, locations are not grandiose, but picturesque, sets are solid, and the cinematography by Michael Rizzi is one of the main forces lifting up the movie. Very good use of light and sound, and on the back-ground of its modest budget, it's visually/aesthetically truly impressive indie horror film. Rest of the levels of "Raven's Hollow" don't quite reach the same heights as its audiovisual atmosphere. Acting's good, but not standing out with anything, and for me, William Moseley gave a smart, young cadet fascinated by the mysterious, but did not give us what felt like Edgar Allan Poe. The story seems thought-through, yet never truly surprises, and feels sluggish at times, and in the end - like an undercooked gothic mystery inspired only by the peaks of the mountains called Poe. "Raven's Hollow" offers a couple okay jump scares, end besides the palpable sense of misty gothic mystery, it never feels scary or creepy, and a couple of shabby special effects didn't help either.
It's at least an average shudder original, if not above, and I really wished I enjoyed it more, but for such a nice looking little film, it is, in its sum, painstakingly tepid. Never fulfilled all of potential it possessed. Do check it out if you're into Poe and other gothic vibes. My rating: 5/10.
My main attraction, however, is that it's a rare horror movie co-produced by and entirely shot in my small country of origin - Latvia. The gloomy and dark autumn palette perfectly fits the atmosphere, locations are not grandiose, but picturesque, sets are solid, and the cinematography by Michael Rizzi is one of the main forces lifting up the movie. Very good use of light and sound, and on the back-ground of its modest budget, it's visually/aesthetically truly impressive indie horror film. Rest of the levels of "Raven's Hollow" don't quite reach the same heights as its audiovisual atmosphere. Acting's good, but not standing out with anything, and for me, William Moseley gave a smart, young cadet fascinated by the mysterious, but did not give us what felt like Edgar Allan Poe. The story seems thought-through, yet never truly surprises, and feels sluggish at times, and in the end - like an undercooked gothic mystery inspired only by the peaks of the mountains called Poe. "Raven's Hollow" offers a couple okay jump scares, end besides the palpable sense of misty gothic mystery, it never feels scary or creepy, and a couple of shabby special effects didn't help either.
It's at least an average shudder original, if not above, and I really wished I enjoyed it more, but for such a nice looking little film, it is, in its sum, painstakingly tepid. Never fulfilled all of potential it possessed. Do check it out if you're into Poe and other gothic vibes. My rating: 5/10.