Themystery of Edgar Allen Poe’s last days is given extremely speculative treatmentin this reasonably gory thriller-cum-horror from director James McTeigue (V for Vendetta). It stars theever-youthful John Cusack as a booze-guzzling braggart of a Poe, who we firstmeet as he recites his poetry to some Nineteenth-Century Baltimore tavernchavs. This pretty much sets the template for the whole film, which, for allits preposterous, overblown nature, manages to sustain the tension for most ofits two hours’ running time.



The filmbegins with Poe alone on a park bench in Baltimore, the worse for wear, staringvacantly at the sky. This much has some semblance of historical accuracy aboutit, Poe expiring soon after in reality in 1849, the cause of his deathremaining a mystery.