Netflix had another winner on its hands when it dropped thecreepy crime thrillerThe Pale Blue Eye.It’s easy to love a film in which Christian Bale is a detective who is solving grizzly, possibly occult murders. From the trailer alone, anyone could figure out that this isgoing to be a tense, terrifying thriller that will no doubt befull of twistsand turns. This film actually has another hook aside from just featuringa grizzled Christian Bale. It also features a young Edgar Allen Poe as Bale’s young assistant in the investigation.
The Pale Blue Eyeis fascinating not just because of the crimes themselves, but because they are all seemingly inspired by stories written by Edgar Allen Poe. Actually, the film would have it the other way around. These are the events that inspired the young Poe to write several of his greatest works. As such, it’s clear this is a film that would be full of small clues that reveal the major twists, references to Poe’s most famous works, and characters who practically give away all the answers behind the main mystery. Here are 10 of the best clues hidden inThe Pale Blue Eye.
10Landor’s Missing Daughter
The Pale Blue Eyeis one of those mysteries where the secret is given to you in the first half hour. When Landor is being vetted by the Academy to take on the investigation, they go through his credentials. Among his alcoholism, his atheism, his widower status, and his many successes in solving cases, it is casually revealed that Landor’s daughter has run away, never to be seen again.
In that one exchange, we get all that we need to solve the mystery. We are told that Landor is an expert sleuth who has no faith in God or the system to provide justice. He only believes in his own abilities. As such, a man like Landor would never just accept that his child was missing. He would hunt for her to the ends of the Earth. Clearly, his daughter is no longer alive, and he is keeping it a secret. This should make him the primary suspect to the very same crime.
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9Looking for a Woman
The second that Landor examines the body with Dr. Marquis, the film gives us several clues to who one of the major perpetrators in the film is. He asks Marquis if removing the heart would be something difficult to do. The doctor answers that it wouldn’t require a surgeon to remove a heart. Landor then mentions that a woman could’ve been the one who committed the crime. This is an overt hint that anyone watching the film should be looking for a woman suspect. When Lea is introduced, it’s clear that she is the main person of interest. This is also a red herring because it throws us off of Landor’s trail since no one knows at that point that there are two criminals to look for and two different crimes overlapping each other.
Of course, the second Lea agreed to a date with Poe at the cemetery, there should’ve been no doubt that something was deeply wrong with Lea.
8Poe’s Visions
One of the strangest turns the movie makes is one towards the supernatural when Poe admits that he frequently has visions from his deceased mother. She gives him information and even tells him poetry from the great beyond. Landor seems to scoff at this piece of information, but he shouldn’t be. This actually gives him a huge piece of the puzzle that he’s missing. In fact, it’s the entire reason that the crimes are taking place.
Edgar is not the only one who is having these very same visions. Lea is also having strange conversations with a deceased member of her family. One of her ancestors was an expert in the occult. She was conversing with him just like Poe was with his mother. Landor should not have been so quick to dismiss the supernatural, especially considering the fact that his only friend in the film is an expert in the supernatural.
7Leaving the Note
Landor does a pretty excellent job of covering up his crimes. So much so that it is unlikely that he’d ever have been discovered by Poe unless he set himself up to be caught. In Poe’s most impressive feat of deduction, he figures out what the partial letter found in the first body’s hand was trying to say. Later in the film, Landor mysteriously leaves a letter to Poe, giving him a specific example of his own handwriting.
The second Landor left a note in the academy, alarms should’ve gone off for any would-be movie detective who was watching the film.
6The Family Dinner
Anyone not convinced that the Marquis family was at the center of the grizzly crimes would’ve been convinced by the exceedingly awkward family dinner Landor and Poe go to. The entire family acts strangely, as one would if the detective investigating your crimes was sitting at your table. The real tip of the hat comes when Gillian Anderson’s Julia Marquis throws a massive fit, disrupting the entire dinner. This outburst proves that while Dr. Marquis was the creepiest member of the family, Julia was the one helping her children commit their black magic acts. Her son might have been willing to all but challenge the detective to figure it all out, but Julia would’ve done anything to keep him from solving the mystery. Even if it meant ruining some of her fine china.
5The Attacks Were Related to Poetry
Poe’s first huge deduction in the film is that whoever committed these crimes has some connection to poetry. As one of the most renowned poets in human history, it’s remarkably easy for Poe to find poetic symbolism in the vicious crimes against his classmates. Landor seems impressed by this, but not completely convinced that this read on the crime was correct.
Later, when Poe goes to visit Landor in his cottage for the first time, he pulls a poetry book by Byron off of his bookshelf. Landor gets emotional and explains that the book was his daughter’s. It’s not hard to see that the film was tipping its hat to the reveal that Landor was the criminal all along. Of course a film featuring Edgar Allen Poe would have poetry as its biggest clue.
4The Journal
One of the key pieces of evidence Landor receives in the film is a journal from one of the fallen students. The entire book is encrypted, so to the common man it is unreadable. We see Landor uncovering the journal’s secrets in a later scene, proving that he has figured out how to uncover the book’s secrets. Later in the film, when asked if he has made any progress with the journal, Landor clearly lies by saying that he hasn’t figured anything out.
We discover in the end that Landor used the journal to prove what happened to his daughter. The only reason for him to hide the journal’s true contents was to hide his own motive for taking vengeance into his own hands.
3Landor Hates the Academy
Throughout the film, we are given many clues that Landor is actually the criminal waiting in the wings. What we don’t have for much of the film is a proper motive. That all changes after a choice exchange once another body is discovered. It is thrown in Landor’s face that he doesn’t care about the academy. While it was assumed that he would defend himself against this accusation, he actually agrees. Not only that, but he goes into great detail about how the academy makes people less human. He even goes so far as to accuse the academy itself that they are somewhat responsible for any crime committed by anyone that goes to the academy itself. With these comments in one hand, and his missing daughter in the other, it’s easy to figure out what happened.
One of the most mysterious characters in the film is Mrs. Fry, the barmaid who is seen frequently in the film. She is constantly providing information to both Poe and Landor. What’s truly fascinating about the character is that she is seen in several romantic sequences with Landor. He is a grieving widower who seems to harbor no affection for her. We also know that Landor is an expert at unconventional interrogation methods. So it would seem like Landor was romantically linked to Mrs. Fry specifically to uncover information about the students at the academy. This speaks volumes about Landor’s character. There were clearly no lines he wouldn’t cross not only to investigate the crime but to learn about the students. If he used a woman like that, it’s clear that he’s a darker persona than even he lets off. One with plenty of secrets held back.
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1The Works of Edgar Allen Poe
If you’re familiar with the works of Edgar Allen Poe, there are several things you can figure out faster than the average moviegoer. For starters, the detective, the crimes, and the title all reference one of Poe’s most influential works “The Tell-Tale Heart”. It’s about a man who commits a grizzly crime but feels the overwhelming need to confess the crime because he continues to hear the body’s heart beat beneath the floorboard. Landor references this by stating in the end that Poe is the one he needs to talk to about the crimes. The name Landor is itself a reference to his story “Landor’s Cottage”. The story makes it clear that there are mixed feelings about Landor, hinting that a confrontation between the two friends is inevitable.
The other major criminal in the story is Lea, otherwise known as Lenore. That name is used in multiple poems about a lost love. Lenore is one of the subjects discussed in his most famous work, “The Raven” where the protagonist asks if he will see Lenore again, to which the Raven famously answers “nevermore”. There is also a work titled “Lenore” that is also about lost love. It’s pretty clear when Lea is introduced that she will not live to the movie’s end. The film is full of other references and easter eggs that point to Poe’s work. It is a love letter to the late writer as much as it is a mystery story.
