I had a feeling that I would like The Pale Blue Eye, but it ended up being way better than I thought it would be. The movie was written and directed by the very talented Scott Cooper. I did not realize, but this is actually based on a book of the same name which I am now pretty interested in checking out. This is a Netflix Original movie and one of the first big movie releases Netflix has for 2023.
How to Download The Pale Blue Eye
You can download or stream the film from Netflix. Click on the Download button at the end of this review.
The Movie Review
Before we get to the movie we have to talk about the stacked cast this thing has. Netflix has been nailing it with the casting lately and this movie is a prime example of that. We have Christian Bale (The Dark Knight, Terminator Salvation, Amsterdam) and Harry Melling (he’s Dudley Dursley from Harry Potter movies) as our two leads. They are joined by the likes of, Lucy Boynton, Toby Jones, Gillian Anderson, Timothy Spall, and Robert Duvall.
The Pale Blue Eye is a gothic horror set in 1830. Taking place at the West Point Academy, a grisly murder has occurred and they call in Augustus Landor to try and solve the case. Now Landor is retired, an alcoholic and he still is messed up over the disappearance of his daughter. Still, he pretty much has no choice so he takes the case.
The story has a bit of a twist! What he thought was a standard murder case is something much more strange and sinister and the victim has had their heart removed with surgical precision! He is tasked with finding out who did this and bringing them to justice. However, he is soon joined by a “helper” on the case.
The person helping him is none other than Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is a cadet at the academy who has a real knack for this kind of work and he is working incognito trying to find information from people at the academy. Harry Melling is amazing as Edgar Allan Poe and he has fantastic chemistry with Landor who is played by Christian Bale.
Before long, another murder occurs and the higher-ups at West Point are starting to lose patience with Landor and want him to move quicker in bringing this thing to an end. I do not really want to go into any more detail with the plot of The Pale Blue Eye as it is a mystery/whodunnit story where the less you know, the more fun you will have with it.
I love the whole design of the movie. I get such a kick out of the way people dress and the whole “gothic” nature of what we have going on here, this is certainly a movie that is worthy of having Edgar Allan Poe as one of the characters. If I had come into this blind and someone told me Tim Burton had something to do with this movie, I would have fully believed it as it has that kind of look about it.
The only thing I will say about a movie like this is that it is the kind of movie that is a one-and-done as much of the appeal is trying to figure out who the killer is. Still, The Pale Blue Eye is a great way for Netflix to kick off 2023. I had a lot of fun with this and it is the perfect movie if you are in the mood for a bit of grisly gothic murder!
