January 8, 2023 – Like “The Raven” (2012) you'd think that a murder mystery movie featuring Edgar Allen Poe, considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre, would be intriguing, but once again the attempt falls short in “The Pale Blue Eye,” a Netflix movie with a strong cast, but a plot that goes way beyond the pale.

Based on the book of the same name by Louis Bayard, this dark, brooding mystery's central figure is not Poe (played by Harry Melling of the “Harry Potter” movies) but detective Augustus Landor (played by Christian Bale of “Ford v Ferrari”) who is hired by the United States Military Academy at West Point to solve a crime committed on the grounds.

Set in 1830, Edgar Allen Poe is a cadet at West Point where Cadet Leroy Fry has hanged himself, but later, someone removed Fry's heart from his body. Upon examining the body, Landor quickly finds evidence that Fry did not hang himself, but was, in fact, murdered. This evidence was seemingly overlooked by Dr. Daniel Marquis (Toby Jones of “Captain America: The First Avenger”) who conducted the autopsy.

West Point Superintendent Thayer (Timothy Spall of “Spencer”) and Captain Hitchcock (Simon McBurney of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) are quite anxious for this case to be solved and to keep it as quiet as possible in the meantime, fearing that Congress might shut down West Point, a new institution at the time. The investigation, however, proves complex and lengthy, which makes the officials very uneasy.

Questioning cadets proves fairly unproductive, causing Landor to seek help from within the ranks of the cadets. He gets his inside help from cadet Poe, who has a sharp mind and a fascination with crime investigation. When yet another cadet turns up murdered and mutilated, more complications arise when Poe himself becomes a suspect in the murders.

Strange clues come to light which lead Landor and Poe to an expert in the occult, Jean Pepe (Robert Duvall of “Secondhand Lions”) who links a symbol to a famed witch hunter and a book written by Henri Le Clerc about black magic. The rare book reportedly contains an immortality spell, Pepe says.

This is where the investigation starts getting really unbelievable. Not only are there unrelated crimes that are connected in the most unlikely of ways, but there is also black magic, communication with the dead, and some very unlikely cover ups at high levels.

Poe and Landor are right in the middle of this messy, bizarre investigation, but so is Dr. Marquis, his wife, Julia (Gillian Anderson of “The Last King of Scotland”) his son, Artemus (Harry Lawtey) his daughter and Lea (Lucy Boynton of “Murder on the Orient Express”). To further complicate matters, Poe has fallen in love with Lea while doing undercover work for Landor during the investigation.

It is no big surprise to find out that this whole investigation was fundamentally flawed from the beginning, but Poe figures it out. Poe, in this movie, reminds me of the Ben Gates character in “National Treasure” or the Robert Langdon character in “The Davinci Code.” Like them, he makes these wild guesses, based on very thin evidence, and is always right.

Despite the silly plot and perpetually dark cinematography, the top notch acting talent did keep me interested in the story. Never in a million years would I have recognized the gaunt, angular, intense Harry Melling, playing Poe, as the same guy who played chubby, spoiled, Dudley Dursley in the “Harry Potter” movies. He's perfectly cast here as a morose, thoughtful, romantic, West Point outsider.

The gothic nature of this story harkens back to an age a lot earlier than 1830 when people took witchcraft seriously, but the mood of this story does remind me of some of Poe's own gothic stories, such as, “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Masque of the Red Death” (both of which were made into films). This film rates a C.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff (no extra charges apply). I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2023 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Robert Roten can be reached via e-mail at