The Pale Blue Eye, the new movie on streaming service Netflix, has made its debut: but it has a big spelling error. Starring Christian Bale, Gillian Anderson, and Harry Melling, the Netflix movie is an Gothic mystery thriller movie which follows a detective (Bale) and a young Edgar Allan Poe (Melling) as they investigate an enthralling and disturbing murder.
The new crime drama movie has been praised for creating a heavy sense of atmosphere (including in our own The Pale Blue Eye review), and the period piece is set in early 19th century America during a bleak winter. But, perhaps the most intriguing element of the movie is that it centres around a young Poe.
Edgar Allan Poe’s stories and poems were enormously significant within the Gothic genre, and 19th century American literature. Their influence is still felt today in movies like The Lighthouse, and Mike Flanagan’s upcoming Fall of the House of Usher TV series is a direct adaptation from one of the author’s short stories.
However, in The Pale Blue Eye’s credits, the famous author’s name is spelt incorrectly despite his playing a major role in the movie. The mistake was spotted by and eagle eyed viewer who posted their findings to social media.
In the spelling mistake, his name is spelt ‘Edgar Allen Poe’ rather than the correct ‘Edgar Allan Poe’; which is a fairly common error though not one that you’d expect to see in the credits of a movie that is about the author. Still, errors like this do happen and the streaming service will undoubtedly ensure that the spelling mistake is corrected before too long.
For more on The Pale Blue Eye, check out our interviews with Harry Potter movie star (who plays Poe himself) Harry Melling and Lucy Boynton. Or, for more Gothic horror find out all you need to know about Mike Flanagan’s Flanaverse.