埃德加·爱伦·坡是美国的短篇小说家先锋之一，并被公认为推理小说的创始者，以其悬疑、惊悚小说最负盛名。影片聚焦爱伦·坡生命中最后的一段时光，讲述发生在巴尔的摩的连环凶杀案。凶手十分沉迷于爱伦·坡的作品，一次又一次按照爱伦·坡小说中提到的种种杀人手段接连犯下罪案，甚至绑架了爱伦·坡的爱人埃米莉。面对身边的恐惧，爱伦·坡携手菲尔兹侦探追踪这名凶手。

影片情节纯属虚构。在现实中，爱伦·坡的死因至今不明，但据说，他确实在死前的一个晚上嘴里不停地重复“Reynolds”，可是无人知道他所指的是什么人。

影片故事性一般，推理办案侦探的手段也不算高明，但它的卖点是整部影片都围绕爱伦·坡的多部作品展开，这让爱伦·坡迷大呼过瘾，而此前不熟悉其作品的观众也借此大开了眼界。

Are you up to the task, Mr. Poe?

您有接受挑战的本事吗，爱伦·坡先生？

(After Poes beloved Emily is kidnapped, a note is delivered to Poe.)

“I challenge the brilliant detective mind of Edgar Allan Poe. A game of wits with Emilys life in the balance. You will 1)immortalize for the 2)exquisite pleasure of your readers this, your very own *Descent into the Maelstrom, which shall appear in serial form in the Baltimore Patriot. Know that I will kill again, and on that new corpse I will leave you clues that will lead to Emily. If I do not read a vivid accounting of this 3)convergence of fact and fiction, then dear Emily will die. Your only hope is to imagine a way to save her. I dare you to try to conceive of the painstaking care I have taken to secure her and the elegant means leading 4)inexorably to her end. Are you up to the task, Mr. Poe? Are you even capable of imagining the means to save your beloveds life? Or shall this tale end as all your stories do, with madness, sin and horror, the soul of the plot?”

（爱伦·坡深爱着的埃米莉被绑架后，有人给他送来一张纸条。）

“我挑战埃德加·爱伦·坡的超凡侦探头脑，用埃米莉的性命与您斗智。您要为取悦鉴赏力敏锐的读者写一个以您自己为内容的《大漩涡底余生记》，在《巴尔的摩爱国者》报上连载刊登，您会因此而不朽。您要明白，我会再杀人，并在尸体上留下线索带您找到埃米莉。若我没有读到这样一个由事实和虚构相结合的生动逼真的故事，那亲爱的埃米莉就死定了。您唯一的希望就是想出救她的办法，您要像我这样为了把她弄到手，为了让她凄惨地死去而费尽心思。您有接受挑战的本事吗，爱伦·坡先生？您能想尽办法保全爱人的性命吗？或者这次的故事结局也会和您写的其他故事一样，情节的核心尽是疯狂、罪恶及恐怖？”

You cant take it as your fault, Mr. Poe.

您不能归咎于自己，爱伦·坡先生。

(A murder crime scene similar to Poes The Mystery of Marie Rogêt leads the Detective Fields and Poe to a theatre where a stage hand, a sailor on leave, escapes.)

Fields: Now, please, think. Start with the sailor. Have you ever written anything about a sailor?

Poe: No. Did you speak with the ship captain?

Fields: I did.

Poe: And?

Fields: Robichaux was a valued crewman. Well liked. Had a family back home.

Poe: Where?

Fields: In France. N?mes. Anything?

Poe: No. Yes. Possibly. Who knows?

Fields: You see, what I keep asking myself is, why Baltimore? I mean the Fortunato had docked in several ports around the world.

Poe: The what?

Fields: Its been all over the world.

Poe: The name of the ship, say it again.

Fields: Fortunato.

Poe: “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could.”

Fields: What is that?

（一个谋杀现场与爱伦·坡的《玛丽·罗杰奇案》非常相似，这把爱伦·坡和菲尔兹侦探带到了一个剧场。在那里，一名后台帮工——休假的水手——逃走了。）

菲尔兹：现在请你仔细想想。先从水手开始。你写过有关水手的故事吗？

爱伦·坡：没有。你问过船长了吗？

菲尔兹：是的。

爱伦·坡：结果呢？

菲尔兹：罗比修是一名优秀的船员，人缘很好。在家乡有妻小。

爱伦·坡：在哪里？

菲尔兹：在法国的尼姆。有印象吗？

爱伦·坡：没有。有，也许有吧，谁知道呢。

菲尔兹：你看，我一直在想，为什么选择巴尔的摩？我的意思是佛图纳托号曾经停靠在世界上的好几个港口。

爱伦·坡：什么？

菲尔兹：它已经周游世界……

爱伦·坡：那艘船的名字，再说一次。

菲尔兹：佛图纳托号。

爱伦·坡：“佛图纳托所受的伤害皆起因于我。”

菲尔兹：那是什么？

Poe: The first sentence of *The Cask of Amontillado.

Fields: Go on.

Poe: A story I wrote about revenge. A man kills his rival by walling him up. The victim Fortunato is 5)entombed alive.

Fields: Where?

Poe: In the 6)catacombs of a 7)palazzo. The story is set in Italy.

Fields: But there are no catacombs in Baltimore.

Poe: No, but there are tunnels underneath the city.

Fields: Tunnels?

Poe: The waterworks.

(The sailors body is found in underground tunnels. The clues on his body lead the Detective and Poe to the Holy Cross Church where the detective is shot and Poe fails to capture the killer. Desperate, Poe begins to write a new column in the newspaper.)

“The 8)gossamer white of bone was now visible beneath the 9)tattered meat of her fingertips, as Emily clawed madly at the wooden slats of her coffin, a desperate, drowning animal. The dirt rose around her, the inescapable sand of an 10)hourglass, as her final breath of air slipped her into the 11)twilight of consciousness until….He knew now that all hope was lost. He had failed his beloved, and there was but one last thing left to do. One last act.”

爱伦·坡：《一桶白葡萄酒》的第一句。

菲尔兹：继续说。

爱伦·坡：这是我写的一个关于复仇的故事。有人通过把对手砌在墙内将其杀死，名叫佛图纳托的受害者被活埋。

菲尔兹：在哪里？

爱伦·坡：一座大宅的地下墓穴，故事发生在意大利。

菲尔兹：可巴尔的摩没有地下墓穴。

爱伦·坡：对，但这里有地底坑道。

菲尔兹：坑道？

爱伦·坡：排水沟。

（水手的尸体在地下排水沟里找到了，尸体上的线索把菲尔兹侦探和爱伦·坡带到圣十字教堂。在那里，菲尔兹侦探遭枪击而受伤，而爱伦·坡也没能抓住凶手。绝望的爱伦·坡开始在报纸上开辟专栏。）

“那抓破的手指上，肉里的苍苍白骨清晰可见。埃米莉疯狂地抓她的棺木板，宛如一头绝望溺水的野兽。她四周尘土飞扬，她就像沙漏里的沙一样无处可逃，在昏迷之前咽下最后一口气，直到……他现在知道希望尽失了，他辜负了他的爱人，如今只剩下最后一件事要做，最后一件事。”

Ivan (Typesetter): (reads on) “A final desperate plea: one life offered for anothers…” Oh, Mr. Poe, no...No, you cant!

Poe: Set the print, Ivan.

Ivan: But, sir...

Poe: Do it!

Ivan: You cant take it as your fault, Mr. Poe.

Poe: Is there someone else youd blame?

Ivan: Its the killer whos to blame, sir.

Editor: Let me read that.

Ivan: Sir, I need to...

Editor: (reads on) “Poe could feel the poison already feeding on his blood, as the 12)maggots were soon to do.” Jesus...

伊凡（排字工）：（继续往下读）“在最后关头绝望地恳求：一命抵一命……”哦，爱伦·坡先生，别，别，您不能这样。

爱伦·坡：付印吧，伊凡。

伊凡：可是，先生……

爱伦·坡：快去！

伊凡：您不能归咎于自己，爱伦·坡先生。

爱伦·坡：不然你想归咎于谁？

伊凡：要怪就怪那个杀人魔。

编辑：让我看看。

伊凡：先生，我要……

编辑：（继续读手稿）“爱伦·坡已经感觉到毒药随着血液遍布全身，很快就会有蛆虫。”天哪……

Artist to artist.

两位艺术家。

(The next morning…)

Poe: What time is it?

Maid: Just past six, sir. The papers here for you. Heres something else for you, Mr. Poe.

Poe: (reads the note) “It is a masterpiece, Mr. Poe. An 13)epitaph worthy of your gifts.” When did this come?

Maid: I dont know exactly, but before the paper was delivered.

Poe: How do you know that?

Maid: It was underneath the paper.

Poe: Impossible. Look at the 14)streaks in the ink.

Maid: I dont understand. Im sorry, Mr. Poe…

Poe: Its been rained on.

Maid: It rained last night before dawn.

Poe: But the newspaper is bone dry.

Maid: Im not sure what...The paper was delivered later, after it stopped raining.

Poe: This note was written in response to what I wrote in this newspaper. He delivered the note before the paper. So he knew the story in advance. Hed already read it.

(Poe rushes to the newspaper office and finds the editor dead. He turns around and sees Ivan, the typesetter.)

Poe: Ivan.

Ivan: Surprised?

Poe: Where is she?

Ivan: Dying. More quickly than I expected. So I had to speed things along and deliver the morning edition so you could finally realize it had to be none other than your humble typesetter and biggest fan. A drink?(Ivan pours a drink for Poe.) You dont know how Ive looked forward to this moment, sir. Sit here like this, no more masks, artist to artist.

Poe: Artist to artist?

（第二天早上……）

爱伦·坡：几点了？

女佣：刚过六点，您的报纸送来了。还有一张给您的字条，爱伦·坡先生。

爱伦·坡：（读字条的内容）“这是一部杰作，爱伦·坡先生，是您名副其实的墓志铭。”这是什么时候送来的？

女佣：我不太确定，不过是在报纸送来之前。

爱伦·坡：你怎么知道？

女佣：它被压在报纸底下。

爱伦·坡：不可能，你看墨水都晕开了。

女佣：我不明白，抱歉，爱伦·坡先生……

爱伦·坡：纸条被雨水淋湿了。

女佣：昨晚天亮前是下过雨。

爱伦·坡：但报纸一点儿都不湿。