Exam Result Centre

The Raven is a 2012 American thriller film directed by James McTeigue and based on a screenplay by Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare. It stars John Cusack, Alice Eve, Brendan Gleeson and Luke Evans. It was released March 9, 2012 in Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States and on April 27, 2012.

• Set in 1849, it is a fictionalized account of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe's life, in which the poet and author pursues a serial killer whose murders mirror those in Poe's stories.

• The title derives from Poe's poem "The Raven", in the similar manner of the unrelated 1935 and 1963 previous films.

Plot of The Raven (2012)

• The film opens in 19th century Maryland – where several Baltimore policemen are chasing after the screams of a woman in an apartment. The police arrive at the apartment to discover a woman sprawled on the floor with her throat sliced open and the corpse of her daughter stuffed in the chimney. Detective Emmett Fields is called to assist in the investigation and discovers that the crime resembles a fictional murder in the short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", which is part of a collection of stories penned by the writer Edgar Allan Poe.

• Poe has become a social pariah and penniless drunkard whose stories have not been circulated for some time. He has fallen in love with the beautiful young Emily Hamilton and desires to marry her but faces opposition from her father Captain Hamilton, a military man who loathes Poe and goes to the length of threatening physical violence. Poe is brought to see Fields for questioning and is horrified to learn someone is using his stories as the backdrop for a series of murders. Fields then proposes that Poe volunteer his services to help the police catch the killer and the writer agrees to the task.

• The two men are called to investigate the murder of literary critic Rufus Griswold, the man who became Poe's rival after a feud that was published in the Baltimore newspapers. Poe realizes the gruesome crime resembles a scene from "The Pit and the Pendulum" as Fields notices a red demon mask near the corpse. The two then deduce that the scene of the next crime will take place at Captain Hamilton's annual masquerade ball - a scene that will resemble the Masked Ball in "The Masque of the Red Death".

• Fields assigns several members of the Baltimore Police to go undercover as guests at the Masked Ball. Sometime before midnight, at the height of the festivities, a man on horseback dressed in a skeleton costume appears. Fields shoots the man only to learn he was an actor hired for the entertainment and receives an anonymous note. Poe then realizes Emily has been kidnapped, meaning the event was all a distraction. It's revealed in the killer's note that he will continue to commit murders and leave clues to Emily's location. The killer then threatens to kill Emily if Poe does not start writing columns for the newspaper that describe the brutal combination of fact and fiction - forcing Poe to comply with the request in order to save Emily.

• The local Medical School's anatomy class discovers a live raven and the corpse of a prostitute in theatrical clothing. Poe and Fields investigate and deduce the scene resembles "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" except for one detail - the blood on the corpse's hands was not an element of Poe's story. The two soon learn the woman was an actress in costume as Lady Macbeth and rush to the theatre where the victim worked, demanding to see all the stage hands. All the stage hands are accounted for except for Maurice, a sailor on leave after his ship landed in Baltimore. Poe and Fields notice a mysterious figure running along the catwalks and pursue him but the figure escapes. Fields later makes an off-handed comment that the name of the ship Maurice arrived on is the Fortunato - which prompts Poe to realize the next murder will resemble "The Cask of Amontillado".

• Poe and Fields search tunnels under the city with several policemen and discover an area with fresh brickwork, an area that might be where Emily is being held. The officers smash through the brick and discover what appears to be a woman with blonde hair in the costume Emily wore the night she was kidnapped. But the body is revealed to be that of the sailor Maurice, who was dressed to resemble Emily after he was killed and buried in the niche.

Cast of The Raven (2012)

. .