Ever happen to watch any of the Saw films and think, "Damn it all, I love these elaborate games and traps, but I just wish Jigsaw were an early 1800s serial killer?" No? Totally understandable, because the only thing more ludicrous than Jigsaw (often aided in retrospect by various henchmen) building giant battle axe pendulums to cut people in half with would be a Jigsaw-esque killer doing the exact same thing nearly 200 years in the past. But someone at Relativity Media came across a script by Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare containing that very premise and thought it absolutely needed to be a movie. Cut to today and the first trailer for The Raven has premiered over at Apple.

On paper, The Raven does sound intriguing. It's about a serial killer in the early 1800s who challenges illustrious horror writer Edgar Allan Poe to a deadly game of wits. If Poe can figure things out in time, he'll be able to help the police find and rescue the victims. If he can't, said victims will be cut in half by giant battle axe pendulums.

On film, however, the latest from Ninja Assassin director James McTiegue looks like it's following a very simple formula: Saw + Sleepy Hollow + Sherlock Holmes = The Raven.

Of course, perhaps I'm just being a bit too cynical too early in the morning. John Cusack is always fun to watch, whether he's rom-com'ing, running from the inevitable 2012 apocalypse or Hot Tub Time Machine'ing it up, so he's a welcome sight. And even though Ninja Assassin is often a mess of CGI blood, V for Vendetta did show a lot of promise for McTiegue. So here's to hoping that when The Raven hits on March 9, 2012, it's not quite as goofy as it currently looks.