Raven’s Hollow: Review

24th September 2022

Upstate New York has a problem with a mysterious creature is sighted and the townsfolk start to be murdered. So, a band of young cadets are brought in to solve the case. Among them, a young man called Edgar Poe (William Moseley) seems to have a knack for finding a mystery and he’s determined that it must be solved.

However, there are certain distractions along the way such as the beautiful and equally mysterious Charlotte Ingram (Melanie Zanetti) and her mother, Elizabet (Kate Dickie) who seems to have an unusual hold over her daughter. Then there’s the wide range of suspects in the town and it seems that Poe’s investigation will be harder than he thought.

Raven’s Hollow is a slow burn detective horror story exclusive to Shudder, directed by Christopher Hatton and co-written by Chuck Reeves. Although any fans of Tim Burton will eventually see that this story is far from original and that it takes many liberties with its historical figure at the head of its movie.

It also draws quite heavily from Sleepy Hollow, an unlikely gothic detective reimagining which became a hit in the nineties.

Apart from the title there is a change in the main character’s appearance and demeanour that we all know so well. Both stories took their characters and changed them into something far more dashing and quicker minded than their counterparts. Both stories also include a potential love story with a young woman who lives with her mother and both stories include an ominous creature stalking the town. However, the one in Raven’s Hollow makes the sharks in Sharknado look more realistic.

Once the audience has settled into the story of Raven’s Hollow and the connection between it and Tim Burton’s retelling of a classic tale then they may even find themselves becoming a little bored. This is because not only has director Hatton taken inspiration from the characters of Sleepy Hollow, but most of the story beats as well.

There’s an attempt at trying to pad it out a little towards the end, but it’s only prolonging the inevitable and without the visual flair of Burton’s work it’s exposed to be a cheap and lazy copy.

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