Forgive me if I'm bad at this, this is my first time proposing a villain. Anyways, today I give you Ivan Reynolds, the main antagonist of The Raven.
WHAT'S THE WORK?[]
The Raven is a 2012 crime thriller film and a fictionalized account of the events leading up to the mysterious death of Edgar Allan Poe. Set in 1849 in the town of Baltimore, Maryland, the movie focuses on the Baltimore Police's efforts to find a serial killer who uses Poe's stories to commit grisly murders. When head detective Emmett Fields (Luke Evans) figures out the similarities, he enlists in the help of Poe (John Cusack) to catch the madman. However, when Poe's future wife is abducted by the killer, Poe is forced into writing more stories and playing the killer's game, with each new victim yielding a clue to the whereabouts of Emily and her captor.
WHO IS THE CANDIDATE/WHAT HAVE THEY DONE?[]
Ivan Reynolds is revealed to be the aforementioned serial killer. He was the typesetter for the local newspaper, the Baltimore Patriot and worked in the office where Poe published his stories. Ivan was a huge fan of Poe's, even referring to himself as Poe's biggest fan. Supposedly after Poe lost inspiration and stopped writing, Ivan went crazy and began the killings as a way of getting Poe's attention.
What Has He Done[]
- In the beginning of the movie, Ivan kills a mother and her 12 year old daughter. He slices the mother's throat with a straight razor and strangles the girl, before stuffing her in a chimney. The kills aren't on screen, but we do get to hear the pleas of the mother not to kill her daughter, and we get to see the aftermath. Afterwards, he locks the door and escapes out a window.
- While the police are investigating Poe, Ivan abducts Ludwig Griswold, a known rival of Poe's, and subjects him to torture before watching as a Pendulum cuts him in half. The torture isn't on screen, but the Pendulum murder is. After finding the body, even Poe is appalled at the actions of the killer.
- The next night at Charles Hamilton's masquerade ball, Ivan convinces a man to dress like a skeleton and ride into the ball on a horse to deliver a note, knowing full well the police were on the lookout for a man dressed like Death. As a result, the man is shot by Hamilton, but never confirmed to have died.
- While everyone was distracted by the fake Death, Ivan kidnaps Hamilton's daughter and Poe's future wife, Emily Hamilton. He locks her in a casket in his secret lair and when she tries to scream for help, he threatens to kill her, which keeps her quiet.
- The next day as a group of medical students are getting ready to examine a body, a thud from the trunk causes the lead doctor to open the trunk, and inside are the corpse of a woman and a live raven. Through further investigation Fields and Poe discover that the woman was an actress who was going to play Lady Macbeth at the Imperial Theatre. She was strangled off-screen with a rope by Ivan, though while Poe is writing a story, we get to see flashbacks of the crime.
- When they get to the theatre, they find that a stagehand named Maurice is missing. Fields goes to investigate the downstairs area and Poe sees Ivan walking up on the catwalk. He chases after him, but Ivan knocks Poe off with a backdrop. Poe is luckily able to grab the ledge and save himself from falling. After reconvening, Poe and Fields discover a severed tongue and a feather in the locker of the missing stagehand.
- Poe, Fields, and a group of officers go to search an underground system of tunnels for freshly laid bricks. One of the officers, Cantrell begins digging through a different colored set of bricks and they end up finding the missing stagehand's corpse dressed to look like Emily. Once again, another off-screen death, but his tongue was removed, his mouth sewn shut, and an X carved into his back.
- At the Holy Cross Church, Ivan waits on the roof for their arrival. When one of the officers is scoping out the back, Ivan jumps off the roof and slashes his throat with a large knife. Fields finds his coworker bleeding out, but is shot in the shoulder. Poe chases after Ivan on horseback but loses him in trees and fog. Ivan fires a shot into the tree which spooks the horse and causes it to throw Poe off. After walking back to the church, Hamilton informs Poe that the grave marked Emily Hamilton was empty.
- Emily tries to break through the casket with a wire from her dress, but Ivan catches her in the act and taunts her through the hole, before covering the casket in dirt.
- With Emily's life in mortal danger, Poe offers that Ivan take his life instead of Emily's, and Ivan was willing to take Poe up on that offer. Off-screen, Ivan kills his boss, Henry Maddux and waits for Poe to figure him out. Poe arrives at the Baltimore Patriot and Ivan opens up about his crimes and motives, but Poe holds him at gunpoint, demanding to know where Emily is. Ivan convinces Poe to hand over the gun, after telling him that if he shoots him, Emily dies with him as he's the only one who knows where she is. Ivan pours Poe a glass of poison while admitting that he killed his own father with poison and going on about his admiration for the poet. After Poe drinks the poison, Ivan reveals his intentions of doing something similar with Jules Verne as he did with Poe and leaves Poe for dead. Before dying Poe is able to rescue Emily and give the information that the killer's last name was Reynolds. When Ivan arrives in Paris and gets into a carriage, he is greeted by Fields, who had managed to figure out the clue Poe left. Fields then presumably shoots Ivan when he lunges towards him.
FREUDIAN EXCUSE/MITIGATING FACTORS[]
- Freudian Excuse: None or at least none never shown or mentioned.
- Sympathy: No, there's never any moments where we are supposed to feel sorry for him.
- Redeeming Qualities:
- Ivan's admiration of Poe is merely an obsession, an obsession that obviously wasn't enough to keep him from taunting, traumatizing, or even killing his idol. Even after he kills him, Ivan just moves on to another author, intending to do something similar with Jules Verne.
- Ivan has two scenes with Poe, before being revealed as the killer. One where he gives Poe a bottle of alcohol after giving him some bad news, and one where he's reluctant to Poe trading his life for Emily's.
- Admittedly, this does appear to show that Ivan has somewhat of a concern for Poe. But, considering how Ivan torments him throughout the movie and was willing to let him fall, it's more likely this is concern for Poe's work and future work than concern for Poe himself.
- Offscreen Villainy: While most of Ivan's murders, we don't get to see actually happen, we do get to see the aftermath, the carnage.
- Thriller Film Heinous Standard: Probably the biggest issue is that thriller film villains have such a high standard and Ivan doesn't really do anything outside of the norm. Despite this revelation, I think he still counts.
- Comedic Relief: Nope. Ivan is taken quite seriously. He causes fear, hatred, and revulsion from multiple characters.
- Remorseful: Hah! Nope. Not even to his own idol.
- Moral Agency: I'll let you guys be the judge, 'cause I really don't know how to determine whether a person has a moral agency or not. He's not a demon, not a robot, and seems to be perfectly aware of reality.
HEINOUS STANDARD[]
There are no real other villains in the movie to compare Ivan to, unless you count Charles Hamilton, the guys who threw Poe out of the bar, or the people that burned down Poe's house.
In the case of Charles Hamilton, he threatened death and punched Poe once. However, this was just him being overprotective of his daughter, Emily. As for the guys at the bar, they only threw Poe out cause he was causing a ruckus. And the arsonists thought Poe was exploiting the murders for his own personal gain.
I think death threats, assault, and arson are hardly comparable to Ivan's crimes.
FINAL VERDICT[]
I'll be honest, I'm not sure myself. I'll let you guys be the judge.