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*Get "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe on Amazon here*
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Hi, welcome to one of the few negative reviews of this film. There is a fine line between cheesy, campy, crappy horror film, and funny horror film. This falls into the former category.
The plot concerns three sorcerers who try to outdo each other after they visit the gothic castle home of one. The plot gives way to humor that makes Adam Sandler at his worst look like Oscar Wilde. So many people find this stuff hilarious, but the lack of laughs makes this painful to watch. Corman did one masterpiece film, "Frankenstein Unbound," but his penchant for no budget and little thought to scripts have resulted in films on the level of Ed Wood. No one dares speak of this, however, because Corman is revered for giving up-and-comers their starts and always making a dime. Anyone can make a dime off a celluloid pile that costs a nickel.
"The Raven" features Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, and Peter Lorre, and they are all terrible. They mug for the camera, and do not deliver one laugh. Jack Nicholson, young and fit, shows up in time to give no proof he would ever win Oscars. Corman's direction is standard, and Richard Matheson's screenplay seems like it was composed as the film progressed. Watch this again? Nevermore.
Stats:
(1963) 86 min. (2/10)
-Directed by Roger Corman
-Screenplay by Richard Matheson based on the poem by Edgar Allan Poe
-Cast: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson, Hazel Court, Olive Sturgess, Dick Johnstone, Connie Wallace, William Baskin, Aaron Saxon
-(G)
-Media Viewed: Home Video
