Before anyone finds themself impressed with my knowledge of Edgar Allen Poe, I want to assure you I had to look him up. Sure I know he is a famed poet and literary agent and I’m definitely familiar with The Raven and The Tell Tale Heart. However, The Bloodhound is based on another of Poe’s works, The Fall of the House of Usher. I watched this movie twice and I liked it. The Bloodhound film is dark and aesthetic and moody. The characters are stiff and purposefully odd. The narrative is riveting despite weird dreamy scenes and a story that seems to be about nothing at all except for this house. There is tension built around the notion of a climatic hammer drop that you wait and wait for.
The Bloodhound is a directorial debut from Patrick Picard and this story is built upon a short run time. I like a slow burn that gets to the point quickly and that is definitely so here. It’s a movie with less of a storyline and more of a preamble that leads to a dead-end. And similar to The Raven and many other of Poe’s literature; loneliness, depression, friendship, and madness are among some of its more obvious themes.
The film stars Liam Aiken (A Series of Unfortunate Events), like Francis, a man who is beckoned by an old friend to come and visit. Joe Adler (The Maze Runner), plays the eccentric Jean-Paul Luret (J.P), a man rich in everything except family and friends. His twin sister Viviene who appears only in dreams but lives in a room in the basement comes from Annalise Basso (“Snowpiercer“).
If You Can’t Buy Happiness, What Can You Buy?
JP has made it known he is suffering from an illness. So is his sister. His family is all dead and the two are now shut off from the world in this large and sentient estate. For J.P., Liam is something of regret and so the two try to rekindle long-forgotten memories. There’s a weird bandaged thing that comes out at night, visions of dead bodies, and the house itself plays its own games.
If you’re into aesthetics and mood pieces “The Bloodhound” film will do nicely for some. The rest will bail out or make it to the end accidentally and be annoyed. I must admit, I scoured a few Edgar Allen Poe, and House of Usher explanation pieces, and read through excerpts of the original text thinking this was a storyline that could be explained. But it can’t.
While The Bloodhound is only generally based on Poe’s story, its tone and dark textural cinematography are captured. I think this is what makes it a success.
Edgar Allan Poe Quotes About Madness
The basic gist of the original story is that Liam is to be seen from the point of view of the audience. The house is haunted and responsive to the fears of those it accommodates. Lineage for J.P. and Vivienne is fraught with incest and therefore you can attribute madness to both siblings. The Bloodhound twists the ending with alarms and a sense that this empty fortress is closing up. In the original text, it splits in two and crumbles. At its core, it’s simply a story about nothing but emotion encased in a haunted house that tricks the occupants by listening. But it’s still good.
“But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
“The Haunted Place” from Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher
Assailed the monarch’s high estate; (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow
Shall dawn upon him, desolate!)
And, round about his home, the glory
That blushed and bloomed
Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.”
The Bloodhound is rated
3.75 When is a home, not a home? out of 5
Edgar Allan Poe Usher House
- Director and writer: Patrick Picard.
- Producers: Leal Naim and Thomas R. Burke, of The Endless and Synchronic.
- Release date: 1st December, see where to watch The Bloodhound below.
- Edgar Allen Poe the Tell Tale Heart short film: The Tell Tale heart
Another Quote About Madness by Edgar Allen Poe
“Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence”
Edgar Allan Poe poetry
The Bloodhound 2020 Trailer, Watch it on Arrow
Without Reservation, Watch The Bloodhound Here:
- See The Bloodhound exclusively on Arrow
- ARROW is available in the US and Canada on Android (all Android devices), Fire TV (all Amazon Fire TV Sticks, boxes, etc), Roku (all Roku sticks, boxes, devices, etc), and on all web browsers.
- Arrow Video is offering fans a 30-day free trial of ARROW. Subscriptions are available for $4.99 monthly or $49.99 annually. A UK rollout is planned for 2021.
