Be still my elder millennial goth little heart, black as a coffee in the smoking section of Denny’s at 2am, they finally did it.
They rebooted The Crow.
Now I’m a fan of The Crow. Hell, I’m enough of a fan to have the logo from the original film tattooed in a location that guarantees anyone performing fellatio on me will be aware of my fandom (a decision that was cuter at 18 than it is at 41, as a middle aged paunch now resides beneath my plethora of black t-shirts).
Oh did you doubt the tattoo?
So of course I had to see this flick opening night. Now, one might think this blasphemy as a fan of the original. But I’m not *just* a fan of the original film.
Let’s back up…
The Crow as a franchise began with a 1989 graphic novel by James O’Barr. O’Barr wrote the tale of a vengeful man returning from the dead to kill those responsible for the murder of his fiancé while dealing with his own grief after his fiancé was killed by a drunk driver. Personifying his anguish with a mime-painted face and hair by way of Siouxsie Sioux, the wirey musculature of Stooges era Iggy Pop, and the titular bird as a guide, O’Barr sends protagonist Eric on a violent tear that would make Paul Kersey proud.
The success of that graphic novel in an era where Batman dominated the movie screens and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had gone from a gritty underground comic to the one of the all-time largest multi-media crazes ever, meant it was almost a no-brainer to give something like The Crow a shot at Hollywood. Though it wasn’t an easy transition, at one point the film was pitched as a musical to star Michael Jackson (the first ill-fitting musician to be pitched to lead a Crow film, but certainly not the last… we’ll get to that in due time).
Brandon Lee, son of ill-fated actor Bruce Lee, and inheritor of the family curse if you believe in such things, eventually won the role of protagonist Eric (now with the last name Draven, which rhymes with raven, which is kinda like a crow… this movie has layers, man, like whoa…). Other members of the cast included Candyman’s Tony Todd, David Patrick Kelly who was the bottle-clinking villain Luther in The Warriors, Bai Ling of Crank 2 and Southland Tales fame, Michael Wincott who is that gravel voiced dude you’ve seen in a bunch of things, and of course Ernie Hudson who would later go on to be in Airheads and The Substitute.
I imagine if you’re reading this piece, you probably already know what comes next in the story, but in case you don’t- Loss and death were not just on-screen themes, they were about to be too real off-screen as well. While filming a scene in which Eric Draven and fiancé Shelly Webster are murdered in their apartment, a pistol that hadn’t been properly discharged and cleared prior to filming, propelled remnants of a previously fired round into Brandon Lee, killing him with only three days left on set remaining. After his death the decision was made to finish the film. Stuntman Chad Stahelski who would later go on to be Keanu Reeves’ stunt double on The Matrix, and then director of the John Wick franchise, stood in as Brandon Lee using digital face replacement from previously shot footage, as this was decades before we’d get the uncanny valley residing CGI resurrections of folks like Peter Cushing’s Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One.
nope, so much nope
The combined elements of the comic’s tragic origins and the death of Brandon Lee in what would be his star making role, along with the morose and angsty tone of the film and a soundtrack by some of the hottest musicians at the time including Nine Inch Nails, The Cure, Stone Temple Pilots and so many more, plus a general Hot Topic-y vibe in the air, made the flick an instant classic when it debuted in May of 94. Not a cult classic, this opened at #1, this movie was a hit, and then went on to have great success in the home video market. Remember renting videos? At a place? *wistful sigh* Anyway…
The success of the film meant interest in the property as a whole, and so starting in 1996 came 3 separate The Crow comic arcs, with new protagonists from a variety of backgrounds taking up the mantle of revenge against all sorts of villains from confederate soldiers and their descendants, to right-wing terrorists. And I was diving into it all. My VHS copy of the flick had permanent static lines from being watched over and over. I was going to Unicorn Comics and Cards in Villa Park, IL to pick up all the comics. I was a teenager in 96, angst was in my blood and The Crow spoke to that angst. I was too young to be precious about any one part of it all- comics, movies, whatever, I was just happy they kept making more. So when the movie sequel came out in 96, I wasn’t mad they were “disrespecting Brandon Lee”, I was already well accustomed to the idea that other people could be “The Crow”. In fact, here’s the take that would’ve gotten me booted off the forums at CrowFans .com back in 2003 (where I met my first ex-fiancé, because while in the world of The Crow the tagline is “love never dies”, my lived experience says different…)
Anyway, my hot take- 1996’s The Crow: City of Angels is my favorite of the franchise. It’s not the best, believe me I know that. Re-writes and re-shoots, producer meddling in the final edit, some unfortunate CGI… the flick has its problems. But goddamn do I love its vibe.
While the first movie’s Detroit is a deteriorating city rendered in blues and greys and black and white punctuated by sudden bursts of red-orange flame, the second movie is a garish neon nightmare. Sickly yellows and greens color a Los Angeles where the smog isn’t exhaust fumes, but sulfur, and the angels are all fallen because this is hell. If The Crow is a shed tear, The Crow: City of Angels is a bruise in bloom. Vincent Perez takes on the lead role as Ashe Corvin (which is like corvid, which is the family of birds that crows belong to… these movies remain deep) in his first English language film. He’d later go on to cement his 90s/00s goth daddy status with his portrayal of the vampire Marius in Queen of the Damned (a movie I saw in theatres with costume fangs in, lest you think my goth-cringe begin and end with The Crow franchise). In a differentiation from the first movie, Ashe is not avenging the loss of a lover, but instead it’s the death of his son at the hands of a drug slinging gang that includes a pre-Punisher Thomas Jane, post-Power Rangers Thuy Trang, and one of the inspirations for the original comic- Iggy Pop himself, that sets Ashe on his mission. The addition of a post-death love interest in Mia Kirshner’s tattoo artist, Sarah- a grown up version of the young girl who was friends with Eric and Shelly in the original, provides some connective tissue between the two movies. It also explains why another dude has the same face paint- she does it for him in tribute to her dead friend. Which… is weird. But I don’t live in a reality that has revenge zombies, so who am I to say what’s weird?
Ashe and Sarah are sexy together in that particular gutter trash/heroin chic way that was the controversial fashion of the time, and it inspired in me a want to be a waifish but badass goth girl in ways I did not know how to process at the time. The whole movie drips in sex from the nudie-booths where one gang member meets his end, to the sex dungeon/kink castle/drug den in which the lead villain resides. The original proposed ending was a tragedy that would have seen Ashe succeed in his vengeance, but due to his involvement with the living world outside of his mission (falling in love with Sarah), he would find himself unable to pass on afterwards and be doomed to continue roaming the earth forever undead, never reuniting with his son (but maybe settling up further sequels?). It was decided by producers the Weinsteins (yup, those ones) to recut the film to more closely match the pace and tone of the original. Also, Courtney Love’s band Hole covers Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman” for the soundtrack and it’s one of my all time fav covers. Courtney Love was one of the first people to talk openly about the Weinsteins being scummy… *hits bong* It’s all connected, man…
Anyway, The Crow: City of Angels for all its flaws is a blast, even just to watch Iggy Pop chew scenery. Of course critics and audiences didn’t agree, and for decades to come that would be the last theatrical run for a Crow film. But there was much The Crow media yet to come.
1998 saw a handful of further novels and comic books exploring the mythos of The Crow as a figure of vengeance through the ages, but not only was the universe expanding, it was also revisiting the original source material and the character of Eric Draven in The Crow: Stairway to Heaven. The show lasted one season, and starred future Iron Chef Chairman and John Wick adversary Mark Dacascos in the role previously inhabited by Brandon Lee only 4 years earlier.
Before the 90s closed out multiple pitches were made to try to bring The Crow back to theatres, including one that would have put Eminem’s Crow against a villainous DMX (see, told you we’d get back to musicians), as well as a cyberpunk Crow set in the future and helmed by musician(!) turned horror director Rob Zombie (and likely staring Sheri Moon Zombie if his greater filmography is any indication). Needless to say neither flick happened, and it wouldn’t be until 2000’s The Crow: Salvation that a new grief stricken revenge zombie would hit screens in the at-the-time still thriving home video market.
Starring former Cruel Intentions secondary character Eric Mabius as Alex Corvis (see, cuz it’s like “corvid”, which… ehh you get it…), and Kirsten Dunst, the one-time child vampire Claudia from Interview with the Vampire but now grown up and not a vampire, as Alex’s murdered fiancé’s sister. Alex is framed for his fiancé’s murder and the by-now iconic Crow facepaint design is seared into his face when he is given the electric chair. He returns from the grave both to clear his name and to take down the crooked cops who were behind the whole thing. It’s a messy flick that can’t escape how much it looks and feels like a 2000s Dimension Films direct to video sequel (see any number of later Hellraisers or Highlanders for comparison) and is really only carried by Mabius portraying Alex in a way that is gleefully unhinged. Alex has a personality that is more in-line with the graphic novel rendition of Eric Draven, than the sorrowful stoic of Brandon Lee’s portrayal in the film. Tremors star Fred Ward stands opposite him as a crooked police chief with a perverse love of taxidermy.
It’s not the best flick in the series. Is it the worst? That might depend on how one feels about what’s to come next.
2005’s The Crow: Wicked Prayer is unquestionably the campiest entry in the series. It stars a post-T2, but not yet rock-bottom at the Rainbow with Ron Jeremy, Edward Furlong as Jimmy Cuervo (it’s just Spanish for crow or raven, we’re not even trying anymore). Jimmy is an ex-con living outside a reservation, and he’s in love with Lilly Ignites-The-Dawn played by Emmanuelle Chriqui of 100 Girls. Does anyone remember 100 Girls? No? Just me? That’s fine. Anyway, Lilly is the sister of the local sheriff, and daughter of the local chief (played by Danny “It’s Fucking Machete” Trejo) both of whom distrust Jimmy. When David Boreanaz of Angel fame shows up as Luc Crash with his girlfriend, Sharknado’s own Tara Reid, as Lola Byrne (get it? do you get it? like “crash and burn”! get it???), and the rest of his satanic posse who are given 3rd rate Tarantino style text laid over frozen-mid-violence still frame introductions to start the flick, no scene goes left unchewed. Dennis Hopper plays a satanic pimp, singer Macy Grey shows up. There is so much happening! At the end Jimmy Cuervo has to face off against a newly possessed-by-the-devil Luc Crash and it’s just delightfully cheesy fun. Is it a good Crow movie? Shit, I can’t even say it’s a good movie period, but it’s fun.
What? Do you hate fun?
these folks love fun
If you’re taking the concept of an undead revenge zombie with varying degrees of martial arts knowledge all that seriously… honestly, I don’t know what to tell you. All these flicks are great.
Yay physical media!
And that brings us to 2024’s The Crow reboot…
Taking place in a Detroit that is sometimes Chicago and sometimes Germany, and almost starring Jason Mamoa (up through makeup tests and such being done), the reboot stars Bill Skarsgard as Eric Draven by way of MGK, FKA Twigs as a Shelly Webster who is actually given enough screen time to register as a character and not just a plot point, and features Danny Huston as a predatory business ghoul, who rather than running a sleazy metal club like Top Dollar in the original film, instead fancies a night at the opera and trafficks in young talent culled from a music conservatory. It’s a solid choice for a villain, since these days we understand culturally that rich old white dudes in suits who feed like parasites off the rest of us are the enemy. He’s an Epstein. He’s even got a Ghislaine. And it’s Shelly’s past dealings with, and escape from, these rich fucks that kick off the plot of the movie, well before her untimely demise. When I say Shelly is an actual character in the movie this time around, that means the first half of the runtime is largely devoted to seeing how Eric and Shelly fall in love. Granted, theirs is the feverish frantic love of addicts who meet in rehab, bust out of rehab, and then become squatter artists with other squatter artist friends. But seeing them with each other for so much of the film gives a connection between the characters that other Crow films lose by having the murdered loved one largely exist as a jumping off point for the movie who only show up in flashback, rather than be a larger part of the movie itself.
Bill Skarsgard and FKA Twigs have vibrant and deeply sexy chemistry and the movie is better for it, even if that means the movie is considerably more of a drama than an action flick.
Though when the action does happen it is gruesome and bloody and visceral (literally, there’s viscera in one scene). This Eric is a junkie poet, not a martial artist. He only wins fights because he can’t die (though he can feel pain). And so by the end of each confrontation he is a bloody, tattered mess, mending himself together and shoving pieces back into place before getting to continue on. There is a limbo space he returns to throughout the film that could harken to the surrealist void space of the ‘79 Russian film Stalker as well as the train station Neo finds himself trapped within in Matrix Revolutions. The space is populated by a mentor figure of sorts, and while one could view those bits as a bit exposition dumpy, how else does a vengeance zombie find out about their mission?
I’m sure there will be plenty of complaints about this flick. We’re told early on what the villain’s deal is, but it feels somewhat underdeveloped all the same. Like it could be a whole additional movie on its own. And it might not hit for everyone that he’s also supernatural. If you prefer that Eric be the only supernatural figure in the story, that might not work for you. There are also complaints that are more cosmetic- if you prefer your musicians to look more like Chris Cornell (RIP) than Lil Peep (also RIP), then congrats- you’ve aged out of pop culture. Also you probably won’t dig the look of our hero.
But for the parts that work- the trippy water symbolism that acts as a threshold between life and afterlife, the eventual opera house action set piece that turns a fancy lobby staircase into an abattoir, the relationship between the leads, and a soundtrack that features some fantastic acts like Joy Division and Gary Numan sure to make any aged goth happy, I really enjoyed this flick.
Does it stand up to the original? How could anything? The circumstances around the original flick propelled it into mythic status. But if you find yourself caught up in conversations about the sacrilege it is that they even tried rebooting The Crow, just reflect back on this article and see what has been, as well as what could’ve been…
And then be glad we never saw the Crow do the moonwalk.
“Hee hee!” – Eric Draven
Riki Adams is a musician, comedian, podcaster, and FBC contributor.
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