Christian Bale has to solve a murder case with Edgar Allan Poe in first trailer for new Netflix horror

The first spooky teaser trailer for The Pale Blue Eye, a new Netflix movie starring Christian Bale, is here.

Bale plays Augustus Landor, a veteran detective hired to solve a series of murders that took place in 1830 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. He's helped by a young cadet who will later become a world-famous author – Edgar Allan Poe, the master of gothic fiction, played by The Queen's Gambit's Harry Melling. The cast also includes Gillian Anderson, Toby Jones, and Timothy Spall. 

In the teaser, we see the discovery of a dead body in the snow-covered woods surrounding the military base. "Down, down, down came the hot thrashing flurry. Darkest night, black with hell-charneled fury, leaving only that deathly pale blue eye," Melling's Poe cryptically says as we catch glimpses of ravens, bleak winter scenery, and flashes of knives. 

Directed by Scott Cooper, The Pale Blue Eye will see Bale re-team with the filmmaker after he starred in Hostiles, Cooper's 2017 Western, alongside Rosamund Pike and Jesse Plemons. The pair also worked together on crime drama Out of the Furnace in 2015. Cooper penned the script for The Pale Blue Eye, too, which is an adaptation of Louis Bayard's novel of the same name. 

The Pale Blue Eye is being released in select theaters on December 23, before hitting Netflix worldwide on January 6. While we wait, fill out your watch list with our picks of the best Netflix movies that you can stream right now.

Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.