What is the point of a film like this when the killer has No Real Motive, other than
a) maybe, "I guess he didn't like being less famous than EAP."
b) or "Well, he's pretty psycho"
Who was that masked serial killer?
Psycho Killer, qu'est-ce que c'est?
I'll be honest, the only time I remember seeing the killer in the movie is in the previous scene (before the reveal) where he comforts Poe after his run in with the editor. So when he shows up all creepy and "Here's the whole plot before I kill you" I was like "Huh?".
Nothing about the ending is earned. You're expecting that the killer was hiding in plain sight, but you also expect that the clues and motives should've been there all along for us to see, not this concocted malarkey.
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A journey into the realm of the obscure: http://saturdayshowcase.blogspot.com/
** SPOILERS! **
The killer's motivation was to push Poe into writing another work, when everyone else - including Poe - had given up on such a thing ever happening. It is a pretty crazy way to go about getting another literary work out of an author, and it shows a surprising lack of faith from Poe's biggest fan that Poe's career will ever have a comeback, but that's all we ever got as an explanation. Up until he got his throat cut at the end, I kinda expected the killer to turn out to be John Cantrell: that tall policeman that Detective Fields always had on hand.