Absolutely Fantastic

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Before I start this review, I feel as though I should talk about a director, Rainer Werner Fassbinder. For those that don't know, Fassbinder, for me, blurs the lines between an art-house film and flat out exploitation. This was a guy whose best film, in my opinion, is where a couple who have both committed adultery are pressured by their crippled daughter to shoot said daughter. The guy was apparently a horrible human being in real life but I at least see an audience for his work. So why am I bringing this up? He often would produce films for his "anti-theater" movement, often actors that worked in his films would direct something he'd produce. The best director to come out of that is Margarethe Von Trotta who did Rosenstrasse and Hannah Arendt. On the other end of the scale, the worst is Ulli Lommel who just feels like he's trying to recapture that "arthouse/exploitation glory" with this - The Raven.If your familiar with Edgar Allan Poe's work, even remotely, you should know the story about how a guy is tormented with the loss of a woman called Lenore, a Raven flies in and torments him with the word "Nevermore" (this "analysis" doesn't do the poem justice at all, if you haven't already, I'd suggest checking it out). This film doesn't even follow that. In fact, it doesn't even follow a coherent narrative, to the point where Ed Wood would probably scratch his head in confusion to answer the question of "what the hell is going on?" The plot, actually is about a woman called Lenore who has psychic dreams about Edgar Allan Poe and The Red Death from his story "The Masque Of The Red Death". Whats the point of including this in the narrative, for The Red Death, there is none, for Edgar Allan Poe himself, thats a bit more complicated.So Lenore is told by her Grandfather (played by Lommel himself) that she is the Lenore that Edgar Allan Poe talked about in The Raven. Her character goal is to become Lenore in Poe's work but even if that wasn't vague enough of a quest, we have a reason as to why that is the single dumbest idea any character can conceive. Earlier in her life she actually fought off a man who wanted to rape her and she electrified him. He comes back with Tomato Sauce on his face killing all Lenore's friends but he can't harm her, nor even die, until she fulfills her destiny. So if she does become Poe's Lenore, it means this angry rage ghost can harm her and she's the source of his rage! Now for other questions like "why does Poe's work allow such a shroud of non violence against someone who shares a name with one of his characters?" or "where did the ghost come from?" or "why is it killing her friends and other seemingly random people we never even get a name for?" Explanation? Who needs it? Oh and the film is edited so badly that to figure out what I did about the plot, I had to read the blurb on the back of the box. If you saw this film without the DVD box...good luck trying to follow the film.I actually haven't even got to the editing in this film and that is by FARRRRRR the worst aspect of the film and considering the actors all sound like they're half asleep, all the cinematography looks like it was done by a 5 year old and the sound is eerily quiet and you suspect that it wasn't directed that way, thats saying a lot. Why? Well we actually get, nearly every minute, quick shots of telegraph poles. We also have the Red Death dreams that take up a good 10 minutes. We also see a man in a black bird suit driving from time to time which takes up less than 5 seconds every time and that happens every scene, and to add insult to injury, the killer often talks in this film, over a shot of telegraph poles and the words he's saying actually being put on screen for the audience. Can you guess how much this has to do with the plot? If you guessed "nothing" YOU ARE CORRECT!I'm not sure if this actually is starting to sound like The Room or Birdemic where "oh its just parody fun, this sounds hysterical" its not. Its absolute torture to sit through. I've never felt 80 minutes as long, drawn out and as boring as this. What about characters back story? Well lets try Lenore, she's a singer for a band (we see a total of 3 minutes devoted to it and thats to sing some shitty song, guess how much it contributes to the plot), she was raised in a nunnery (we get this information around 10 minutes from the end) and loved being read Edgar Allan Poe stories by her grandfather. The entirety of her character summed up in ONE SENTENCE! She is also the deepest and introspective character in the entire plot. Ask me to name another character, I swear, I WILL stare at you blankly.Overall, I don't see how anyone...anywhere can really enjoy this film. Its torture to sit through, you need a DVD case with you at all times to figure out the bare bones of what the hell is going on and it has nothing to do with the poem at all! In short, when your adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe story makes Masque Of The Red Death starring Frank Stallone look like a masterpiece, STOP DIRECTING IMMEDIATELY!

This laughable excuse for a film was both aesthetically assaulting and insulting....to the viewer and to the media industry. there was nothing even remotely entertaining or well done about this production. the whole thing wasn't even worth the edit that would have told them not to attempt to bring it into the world. i couldn't even watch the whole thing. someone decided they could make a film just because they had a cheap camera and some makeup one could purchase at any Walgreens. I could film something better than this with a potato. I don't know whats worse, the film itself, or the fact that someone allowed this garbage to be published....shame publishers. I'd say the same to the producers, but seeing as this must have been a no-budget film, i think its safe to say there are no producers to blame for such catastrophic defecation of the film industry. My advice...DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM! (Strongly recommended)

If only you were able to rate with negative stars. New rule: if you're going to make a movie based off an author's work, and put the name of that author in the title, ie: "Bram Stoker's Dracula", or "Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven" as this movie is called, then you should at least make an attempt to address the source material at some point. This movie has nothing whatsoever to do with Edgar Allan Poe or his poem "The Raven." There are select passages read out of context in the film, but none of these have any meaning whatsoever to any of the characters or the plot; they just try to make it fit the convoluted serial killer plot. This film truly is a disgrace to Edgar Allan Poe's genius. "The Raven" is a work that is only meant instill fear through the possibilities it raises of madness, desperation, and that there may be no heaven, afer life, being after this. But that has not stopped them from making this piece of crap, of the older version with a young Jack Nicholson that I also recall having nothing to do with the poem; but, at least from what I remember of that at a young age one late night on cable, that one had a plot. This does not. It also features some terrible acting, completely senseless plotting... I don't know why we finished watching this, but we did. Total piece of crap. Don't waste your time.

I realize he's dead since quite some time now, but I sincerely hope that the spirit of Edgar Allen Poe still has enough strength and energy left to rise from the depths of eternal darkness and HAUNT Ulli Lommel (as well as everyone else involved in this blasphemous turkey) until he opts for premature burial. Yes, I do realize that sounds cruel, but … have you seen this movie?!? "The Raven" is the type of film of which you initially think: "Hey, how bad can it possibly be?" The film is inspired by the writings of the legendary Edgar Allen Poe, so as long as the script remains faithful to its source, very few things can go wrong. Clearly a lot of things can go wrong when Ulli Lommel is in charge! The plot is a seemingly endless bunch of retarded nonsense that has NOTHING to do with the original poem, the cast members are a gathering of insufferable losers that don't even deserve to star in an amateurish YouTube video, the digital camera-work and editing appear to be the work of toddlers and the arrogant wannabe-artistic atmosphere nearly causes you to vomit. Lenore is a twenty-something untalented singer whose mind is inexplicably linked to Poe's and he even appears to her in nightmares. There's a killer (the penis-munching freak from "Cannibal") on the loose and Edgar commands her to go after him. Or something like that, whatever, nobody cares anyway, because it's all pure rubbish. Lommel himself makes a brief appearance as the girl's grandfather when she's five. He wears a ridiculous eye-patch and a sea captain's hat, which pretty much states that he hasn't got the slightest bit of self-dignity left. Once upon a time the promising director of the video-nasty classic "The Bogey Man", Ulli Lommel now just appears to be on a mission to become the world's record holder of repugnant films linked to his name. The amount of crap this guy unleashed upon the world is literally incredible. "B.T.K Killer", "Zombie Nation", "Green River Killer" … You better just avoid everything he did.Enough about this piece of junk! Back in the 1960's, director/producer Roger Corman made a cycle of films based on the writings of Edgar Allen Poe; all starring the magnificent Vincent Price and all close to brilliant. Corman's reputation is questionable and his nickname is "King of the B's", but he surely had (and probably still has) more sense of class and finesse in his smallest toe than Ulli Lommel in his entire body.