Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Christopher Hatton
Starring: William Moseley, Melanie Zanetti, Callum Woodhouse, Kate Dickie, David Hayman
When it was announced that Hammer Studios was set to reform, I eagerly
awaited an overdue return of the sort of period gothic horror movies the
British studio had built its reputation on in its previous 20th century
incarnation. Sadly it wasn't to be, with only the disappointing
Woman in Black and its sequel skewing towards traditional
Hammer fare. Director Christopher Hatton's 1830s set
Raven's Hollow is the sort of movie I expected from the
revived Hammer, one that makes great use of a cast of talented (mostly)
British actors, some well designed sets and atmospheric
storytelling.
After a striking opening in which a young girl is menaced by a presence
in the woods that takes the form of a small whirlwind of leaves, we cut
to a group of West Point cadets making their way on horseback through a
training exercise. Coming across what they initially believe to be a
scarecrow, they find it's something far more gruesome – the disemboweled
body of a man left on a wooden rack. The cadets suggest leaving
immediately, all but one, who leans in for a closer look. This ghoulish
cadet is none other than a young Edgar Allan Poe (William Moseley), and as he's examining the body the man jolts alive for a second and
utters a single word, "Raven."
Convincing the others to take the corpse to the nearest town, the
cadets come across the hamlet of Raven's Hollow and assume it's where
the man was referring to with his last breath. The locals - who are in
the middle of the funeral of the girl we saw in the prologue - deny
having ever seen the man, but they're behaving in a suspicious manner
that draws Poe's curiosity. The local innkeeper, Elizabet (Kate Dickie), suggest the cadets ride away, but her daughter Charlotte (Melanie Zanetti) is enchanted by these handsome new arrivals and insists they spend
the night at the inn.
Thus sets in motion a classic, decidedly old school (albeit with
lashings of gore) piece of gothic storytelling. Snooping around, Poe
learns that the village has been menaced by a seemingly supernatural
creature that takes the form of something close to a giant raven.
Getting the full details from the villagers proves difficult, but when
his men begin to be picked off one by one, Poe digs in his heels in
search of answers.
Hatton is fully aware of the sort of movie he's making here and leans
heavily into the tropes of the genre. All the classic characters are
present and correct – the sinister town doctor (David Hayman, who
looks for all the world like someone born two centuries ago), the
seductress (Zanetti), the lantern clutching servant who issues warnings
to "leave now, while you still can" (Oberon K.A. Adjepong) et al.
They're all played convincingly by a cast of actors who fit their parts,
none more so than Dickie, who was born to become a star of the gothic
horror sub-genre.
The tension is ramped up nicely, and there's great use of fog machines
and dreamlike visions in the night, but the movie loses a lot of
momentum in its final act with the full reveal of what our literary icon
is up against. Making the lead character a young Poe is a clever way of
grabbing our attention, but Hatton pours it on a little too thick with
characters bearing names that would later appear in Poe's writings, not
to mention a beating tell-tale heart at one point – it gets a little
cringey after a point. Overlook these details and fans of gothic horror
should be largely satisfied by one of the more committed takes on this
form of dark storytelling.
