The Raven (1963) by Roger Corman

Director: Roger Corman

Year: 1963

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Witchcraft; Horror/Comedy

Plot:

While mourning the loss of his wife, a sorcerer is confronted by a raven who claims that another sorcerer is behind a series of occurrences around his house, and upon learning of his true intentions behind the events, challenges each other into a showdown for the ultimate sorcerer.

Review:

This is one of the more obscure Vincent Price films that brings in the right amount of humor and comedy. That is one of the best parts of the movie, which is the highly unexpected comedy that is incredibly prevalent in the film. Among the best parts of the comedy here is the fact that this has a lot of those lines that aren't exactly funny, yet they are due to the present situation, as the scenes of the sarcastic raven hopping around his chamber, that he wants to challenge him to a duel of magic, but only if he was sober which he rarely was, how he kept referring to his son as a brain- dead idiot and the utterly hilarious chants and spells being cast in common, identifiable Latin phrases that are totally the opposite of what they're intended to be was pretty funny and was the key to it's humor.

We even got some great physical humor, complete with people bumping into walls, slamming into each other, or other forms of slapstick that are featured regularly enough that it makes for quite a truly hilarious effort that comes as a great surprise here, considering this isn't exactly from a master comedy director. Another great aspect here is that this is one of Corman's few films where he is able to use mood and atmosphere very well. This is nowhere more apparent than in the beginning of the movie, while recapturing the opening lines of the poem, the entirety of the events plays out exactly as they are written, which is a fine opening and gets some solid suspense out.

This also works nicely for the final confrontation between Karloff and Price, as well as the magic used to combat the other, which was very inventive and was realistic in how two sorcerers would fight each other, and even the special effects used in the fight were a nice surprise. Considering the time that the movie was made, it looks good the way that they filmed its special effects, which are the perfect combination of cheesiness and finely attuned black magic that works well in the large, impressive Gothic castle while making for a few laughs as well.

These are what really help this one, while there are only a few minor elements to be held against it. The main thing about this one is that the opening of the movie is Vincent Price reciting the Edgar Allen Poe poem of the same name. Even though it fit with the movie, I thought that it was merely an uninteresting way to start the movie. Price has a fine voice, but all it did in the scene was to provoke dreariness for one of the few times, even in a Price movie. Corman could've thought of any number of ways to make the scene better. Some people might even be upset because the only references to the Poe story are the raven and Lenore, and the comedy as well might bother some looking for a more serious outing, but otherwise it's all personal preference for those issues.

Overview: *****/5

An excellent horror spoof done the right way, this one manages to be an immensely likable and utterly hilarious take on the style that has quite a lot of fun and not much in the way of genuine drawbacks. Those with an interest in this era of the genre, who are curious about it, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.