The Pale Blue Eye — release date, cast, plot, trailer, first looks and all about the Gothic horror mystery (2024)

The Pale Blue Eye is an upcoming Netflix horror thriller that's pitching up to frighten us early in 2023.The new movie is written and directed by Scott Cooper who's known for such films asCrazy Heart andOut of the Furnace and it is co-produced by the show's main star Christian Bale, who plays Augustus Landor. Shocking events follows Augustus as he investigates a mystery at the military academy attended by future horror writer Edgar Allan Poe, played by Harry Melling.

The movie is an adaptation of Louis Bayard’s 2006 novel The Pale Blue Eyewhich sees Edgar Allan Poe, legendary writer of The Fall Of the The House Of Usher, get caught up in a grisly killing that plays out at America's West Point military academy in 1830. Gillian Anderson, Harry Melling and Harry Lawtey () also star in this Gothic horror.

"I had an opportunity to fashion a whodunnit, a father and son love story, and then a Poe origin story," adds Scott Cooper, who has written and directed the drama. "Poe at this young age was warm and witty. The experiences that I’m putting forth led him down darker paths we have come to know him for."

So here's everything you need to know about Netflix movie The Pale Blue Eye...

The Pale Blue Eye release date

The Pale Blue Eye arrives worldwide on Netflix on Friday January 6 2023, although will be shown in select cinemas from December 23 2022.

Is there a trailer for The Pale Blue Eye?

Yes a trailer for The Pale Blue Eye has been released by Netflix and it does look pretty terrifying, creepy and intriguing. We can't wait to see the movie. Do take a look below...

What's the plot of The Pale Blue Eye?

The Pale Blue Eye follows the same plot of the novel. At West Point Academy in 1830, a young cadet’s body is discovered swinging from a rope just off the parade grounds. It's an apparent suicide, but the next morning, something truly horrific happens. Someone has stolen into the room where the body was laid and removed the heart. At a loss for answers and desperate to avoid any negative publicity, the Academy calls on the services of a local civilian, Augustus 'Gus' Landor (Christian Bale, is a former police detective from New York City who retired to the Hudson Highlands for health reasons.

Now a restless widower, Gus agrees to come out of retirement to take on the case. As he questions the dead man’s acquaintances, he finds an eager assistant in a moody, intriguing young cadet who likes a drink or two, has written two volumes of poetry and has a mysterious past that often changes from telling to telling. The cadet’s name is none other than Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling).

The Pale Blue Eye cast — Christian Bale on playing Augustus Landor

There's a top cast for The Pale Blue Eye, with executive producer and British star Christian Bale leading the way as Augustus Landor, a veteran New York detective investigating the grisly deaths at West Point.

Landor, who is called to West Point military academy in New York state after a young cadet is found dead with his heart gruesomely removed. As Landor makes enquiries, the academy’s senior staff are keen to keep matters quiet to preserve their reputation, and Landor has to turn to quirky, rebellious and talented poet Poe (Harry Melling), who is also a cadet there, for assistance with the case.

"Landor dismisses Poe initially, but comes to find him to be the centrepiece of his life," says Bale. "But every character in the story has secrets."

Christian made his name as a child star in the 1987 Steven Spielberg movie Empire Of The Sun. He later starred in American Psycho and played Batman in The Dark Knight and The Dark Night Rises. He played Moses in Exodus: Gods and Kings.

Harry Melling as the young Edgar Allan Poe

Harry Melling stars as the young Edgar Allan Poe, before he became a famous author, who helps Augustus with his investigations at West Point.

Harry has revealed: "When Poe was younger, he was very nomadic, he moved around a lot. He was in London for years. And then he was in Virginia, then he went to Boston where he was born. So that told me that maybe we're dealing with an adult who had no sense of home or place, and that to me was interesting."

Harry Mellinghas previously starred in other Netflix shows such as The Queen’s Gambit,The Devil All the Time,The Old Guard,andThe Ballad of Buster Scruggs.

Who else is starring in The Pale Blue Eye?

Other big name stars in The Pale Blue Eye include Harry Lawtey plays well-to-do cadet Artemus. Harry is best known as Robert Spearing in Industry, and the soon to arrive ITVX drama.

Harry Lawtey has revealed: "Artemus has a lot of pressure in the culture that he’s in, the environment he’s in, to live up to being this golden boy figure of the academy and to be this prodigious leader of the military at a time when the American military was sort of in a fragile place in terms of its own self-identity. So then trying to live up to that and play that role and fill those shoes … and then also for me, having the opportunity to completely invert that and focus on a vulnerability and an emotional dependency and a fear of holding close to people that count most in his life, you know?

Gillian Anderson (The First Lady, The Crown, X Files, The Fall) also features in the drama as socialite Julia Marquis alongside Toby Jones as her doctor husband Daniel, while Lucy Boynton (The Ipcress File) is their daughter, Lea.

Lucy said: "Doing period pieces is always a kind of behind-the-scenes history lesson, and it’s so rare that you actually get to exist in an era that you are researching and experiencing it in such a vivid way. The costumes are the bonus of that, and it not only helps you find the character, but it’s just a real treat of an experience to get to be so extracted from your everyday life. It makes the job more easy [and] accessible and also I think just much more enjoyable."

Timothy Spall plays one of the leaders of the academy, while Charlotte Gainsbourg and Robert Duvall co-star.

Charlotte Gainsbourg, Charlie Tachan, Fred Hechinger, Gideon Glick, Simon McBurney, Hadley Robinson, Joey Brooks and Brennan Keel Cook also star.

* Take look at Harry Lawtey and Lucy Boynton chatting about Artemus and Lea in The Pale Blue Eye below...

Locations and behind the scenes

Filming of The Pale Blue Eye took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and New York from November 2021 and February 2022 and then went into post-production for its early 2023 release.

Who was Edgar Allan Poe?

Legendary American horror writer Edgar Allan Poe wrote poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre.Born in Boston in 1809 he'd have been 21 when The Pale Blue Eye was set and played by Harry Melling. His taleThe Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) initiated the moderndetective story, while The Raven, penned in 1845, remains one of the best-known poems in American literature.Edgar Allan Poe died in 1949 in mysterious circ*mstances, having been found delirious on the streets of Baltimore.

* Other guides to top films on Netflix...

• All Quiet On The Western Front
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