The Raven

Recently turned into a raven, a magician (Peter Lorre) talks a fellow magician (Vincent Price) into helping him exact revenge on the magician (Boris Karloff) responsible.

The Raven is an ill-conceived horror spoof from director Roger Corman and screenwriter Richard Matheson, loosely based on the poem by Edgar Allan Poe.

The problem here is the tone. Rather than keeping things low-key and opting for a black comedy, the filmmaker’s go over the top from scene one. The result is a camp-fest that’s neither scary nor funny, and only mildly witty at best.

Peter Lorre and Vincent Price suffer the most, as both play one-dimensional characters devoid of any kind of menace. Boris Karloff fares slightly better; at least his character has some edge. A young, and very miscast, Jack Nicholson even shows up as Lorre’s character’s son.

If the film has a saving grace, it’s the big finale, featuring a magician’s duel between Price and Karloff. While the special effects are especially poor by today’s standards, the sequence is inventive and easily the highlight of the film.

The Raven could have, and should have, been better. With proven talent both in front of, and behind, the camera, this should have been a great black comedy, not the campy, forced mess it is.