The Poster for THE RAVEN & One Literary Geek's Feelings about Messing with Poe

As hesitant as I am about seeing the new John Cusack movie, The Raven, I have to say I love the artwork on the poster.  The freaky dark bird/spilled ink motif, along with the use of black and red, pretty much matches the look of my website, so I suppose it's not surprising I'm drawn to the image.

In case you're unfamiliar with this new movie, The Raven is a fictionalized account of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe's life, in which the poet pursues a serial killer whose murders mirror those in the writer's stories.

In August, I offered my two cents on the movie (as well as three other Poe films in the works) over at Suburban Vampire in a post called "Here Come the Poes." In a nutshell, I said, "I'm happy Poe is having his moment in the modern cinematic spotlight, but the guy married his thirteen-year-old cousin, made a huge impact on the horror genre, invented the modern detective story, and struggled with drinking and depression. Do we really need a fictionalized version of him? Isn't he interesting enough as is?"

Maybe this is another moment for me to add a line to my "You Know You're A Historical Fiction-Writing Geek When..." list:

You know you're a historical fiction-writing geek when you feel pangs of guilt about your attraction to the splashy new, historically inaccurate Edgar Allan Poe thriller coming to your theater. 

In case you're also experiencing that curious attraction, here's the newest trailer for The Raven. (Sorry about the ad at the beginning, but the trailer is too new to show up on YouTube.)