The bloodthirsty writings of Edgar Allan Poe give birth to a deranged serial killer in James McTeigue's hack-and-slash thriller set on the streets of 19th-century Baltimore. Punctuated by scenes of gore, including the cleaving of one heavily bound victim by a pendulum blade, The Raven is suspenseful and tautly paced, drawing inspiration from the same well of misery as Se7en.

Screenwriters Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare splice fact with blood-spattered fiction, putting Poe’s own words into the mouth of the writer’s long-suffering newspaper editor (Kevin McNally), who remarks: “I believe that God gave him a spark of genius and quenched it in misery.”

But the meat and gristle of The Raven is pure ludicrous invention, opening with a caption that reveals the final days of Poe’s inglorious life were shrouded in mystery. Yet the film suggests the writer was involved in a murder case in the days before his death — a case which generated plenty of column inches for many weeks to come. It’s the first of many inconsistencies that you will have to swallow to enjoy this disturbing journey to the dark side of human nature.

Baltimore detective Emmett Fields (Luke Evans) investigates a double murder in a supposedly locked room, where one girl’s body is discovered wedged in the chimney flue. “This scene is familiar to me,” remarks Fields, recognising the similarity to a crime described in a collection of short stories by Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack). So Fields approaches the writer, a solitary figure who wanders the city streets and pokes at a dead cat in order to better understand the animal’s internal workings.

Fields encourages Poe to help him get inside the tortured mind of the killer. When a second victim is slain and the perpetrator targets Poe’s sweetheart Emily (Alice Eve), the writer accepts the challenge, remarking: “If I had known my writing would have had such an effect on people, I would have devoted more time to eroticism.”

The Raven sustains dramatic tension for almost two hours, anchored by a quixotic performance from Cusack as the tortured genius, who confides: “I despise people who despise me.”

Evans is a tad bland and Eve’s damsel in corseted distress is more of a plot device than a fully fledged love interest.

Director McTeigue (V For Vendetta) has brio when it matters, concealing the identity of the murderer, who quips with understated dry humour: “I used to live for your stories. When you stopped writing them, I guess I went a bit nuts.”

Young Edgar Rice Burroughs (Daryl Sabara) is summoned to the home of his beloved uncle and former Confederate soldier John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who has perished in mysterious circumstances in John Carter 3D. Leafing through Carter’s cherished journal, Burroughs learns that his uncle sought sanctuary from Apaches in a cave and was magically transported to the Red Planet.

There, Carter was captured by the Tharks — a savage race of 15-ft green warriors with tusks protruding from their mouths, who live in the deserts of Barsoom (the alien word for Mars). Meanwhile, Matai Shang (Mark Strong), the leader of the Holy Therns, took charge of the planet’s destiny by orchestrating the marriage of Prince Sab Than (Dominic West) of Zodanga and Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins) of the besieged city of Helium. The princess raged against the arranged nuptials, despite the pleadings of her father (Ciaran Hinds).

Opening with a computer-generated aerial battle in one of the sandstorms that rage across the surface of Mars, John Carter is a soulless spectacle. We give up caring well before the plodding 132 minutes are up.

Kitsch is devoid of charisma as the time-travelling soldier, who tips the balance of power in favour of the good guys by scything through hordes of computer-generated beasts. Strong and West are pantomime villains, and their comeuppance is swift and unsatisfying. A convoluted race-against-time finale neatly tees up a second film in the series but it’s doubtful that his adventures will go further than the closing credits here.