Typically known for his dramas like Hostiles, Black Mass, and the Academy Award-winning Crazy Heart, Scott Cooper decided to dabble in the horror genre in 2021 with Antlers. After finding decent success with the Guillermo del Toro-produced folklore horror film, Cooper teamed up with Netflix and Christian Bale, who he previously worked with on Out of the Furnace and Hostiles, and released his newest horror mystery film, The Pale Blue Eye.
Cooper wrote the screenplay, based on the novel by Louis Bayard, and joining Bale in the cast are Timothy Spall (Harry Potter series), Toby Jones (Captain America: The First Avenger), Simon McBurney (The Conjuring 2), and Harry Melling (Harry Potter series), in the role of Edgar Allan Poe.
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The Pale Blue Eye follows stoic investigator Augustus Landor (Bale) as he arrives at West Point Academy after being summoned to look into the possible murder of one of its cadets. In an attempt to solve the case, Landor creates an unlikely partnership with a strange cadet, Edgar Allan Poe (Melling).
Like most of Scott Cooper’s films, the biggest strength of The Pale Blue Eye lies within its characters and performances. Cooper always does a fantastic job getting the best out of his actors, and this murder mystery is no exception. While Christian Bale always shines, and does so here as well, it’s Harry Melling’s performance as pre-famous Edgar Allan Poe that stands out.
Melling has tried for years to shed the Dudley Dursley Harry Potter association with his career, showing up in big releases like The Queen’s Gambit and Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, but it’s his reserved, soft-spoken, and semi-creepy portrayal of Poe may be what finally puts some distance between him and his most recognizable role.
One of the biggest surprises of the film was that included in the strong supporting cast is a great minor role from 92-year-old Robert Duvall. In a film riddled with great acting, a small performance from a seven-time Oscar nominee (and one-time winner) doesn’t hurt anything.
The story posed a solid whodunnit, and although the twist was slightly predictable, it was memorable and revealed in a great way. It’s no surprise that Louis Bayard’s 2003 novel was nominated for both an Edgar Allan Poe Award and a Dagger Award.
The chemistry and dialogue between the two leads were palpable, almost giving a stage-play-style feel to their storytelling. The Pale Blue Eye offered up enough red herrings to convince the general audience to think they knew what was going on; deeper fans of the mystery genre and avid whodunnit movie-watchers that are going to pick out the right path quickly.
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After Antlers, it was clear that Cooper’s filming techniques were perfect for a darker genre, and his camerawork, combined with the cold, snowy, and grim setting filmed in Pennsylvania, matched the tone beautifully. This was only made better by Howard Shore’s engaging music. Shore released his first horror scores back-to-back, with Crimes of the Future in 2022 and The Pale Blue Eye in 2023. His last contribution to the horror genre was in 2000’s The Cell.
A trend in many of Cooper’s films, The Pale Blue Eye’s biggest issue was its pacing. While I feel the film started and ended with a good pace, segments of the film’s mystery and case-solving were broken up with romance and side stories of Poe’s character, as well as a lot of dialogue that didn’t move the story forward much. Not that these scenes weren’t acted brilliantly; they just felt like unnecessary padding in a movie that is already more than two hours long.
The final act bordered on being a little too silly for the movie it was finishing. While the subject matter was serious, there was just a little too much going on, and the typical whodunnit switcheroo felt more jarring than a smooth flow. This probably works out better in the novel, but it felt more like the ending of an actual Edgar Allan Poe story than a historical fiction about his life.
Overall, the movie was plenty serviceable and absolutely worth checking out, if just for the acting performances alone. The Pale Blue Eye is now available to stream on Netflix.
