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Not everything has to be a horror movie.
Not everything needs to open with jump scares and random inserts of loud incoherent chaos.
But what if you also shoot your own movie in the head in the process?
The crow, known as Crow, insists its there to help.
I wont leave until you dont need me anymore, it insists.
Whenever the camera focuses on Cumberbatch, however, things clarify.
And here, hes maybe more confused than ever.
He tries to put up a brave front, but his grief consumes him.
When Crow begins manipulating him, the fathers flails of protest become discordant dance moves, programmed but alien.
Its one of the best, most alive and inventive performances the actor has given.
Unfortunately, the film is even more confused than the character.
Is the confusion intentional?
(I think the Demon is supposed to represent despair.)
Porters title, of course, is an allusion to Emily Dickinsons poem Hope is the Thing with Feathers.
He does, however, appear to have added the whole Demon thing.
And it comes dangerously close to wasting one of Benedict Cumberbatchs greatest performances.
