“Nevermore,” I say after watching all four Crow movies. The Crow films have had a rough ride since day one. Born from the tragic loss of a loved one by comic book illustrator James O’ Barr, The Crow comic book was his way of dealing with grief. Unfortunately the tragedy doesn’t end there. Before the film was even released, there were numerous production issues, freak accidents, and some have even claimed the film is cursed. The most tragic incident was the on-set death of up-and-coming star Brandon Lee. Production issues aside, how do The Crow films hold up?

The Crow (1994)

On Devil’s Night (or Mischief Night as it’s sometimes known), a violent gang of criminals murder a young couple named Eric and Shelly. One year later, a crow resurrects Eric and grants him supernatural powers in order to avenge the death of his lover.

While the film is in color, the cinematography by Dariusz Wolski is extraordinary, as he tricks your mind into thinking the film is black and white, mimicking the source material. It’s also raining for the majority of the movie, which also lends to some incredible visuals. The film is also well known for its incredible music. The soundtrack was a huge hit on the charts and the score by Graeme Revell is simply iconic.

The cast of characters steal the show with actors like Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters), Michael Wincott (Along Came a Spider), David Patrick Kelly (The Warriors), Tony Todd (Candyman), and of course, the late great Brandon Lee as the resurrected musician Eric Draven. All of whom deliver some incredible dialog and brilliant memorable performances.

One downside is there’s a ton of material that was cut from the film, most of it as a result of Lee’s untimely death, as a lot of his footage was destroyed. There was a subplot with a character called the Skull Cowboy, who looks just as awesome as he sounds (and played by The Hills Have Eyes’ Michael Berryman). While a clip is available to watch online, it’s horribly pixilated and the sound is missing for most of it. Hopefully someday some of that footage will be available because the character design and makeup effects look absolutely incredible, even 25 years later!

Despite the troubled production, The Crow (directed by Alex Proyas) is an insanely solid film that still holds up to this day and there’s a reason it’s a cult classic.

I give The Crow 5 exploding arcades out of 5.

The Crow: City of Angels (1996)

The dead walk..and can only find ill-fitting vests.

Taking place roughly ten years after the events of The Crow, Eric’s friend Sarah is now a young adult living is Los Angeles. A crow continues to visit her and one night a young man rises from the dead, looking to avenge the death of his son. Sarah helps guide this new Crow named Ashe, while he himself struggles with his new immortality and another group of criminals.

While City of Angels does repeat a lot of elements from the original, it still has a style of its own. Just as The Crow did, City of Angels has an incredible cast who give stellar performances. Iggy Pop steals the show as Curve, the wildcard of the criminal gang. There’s also an early role the Punisher himself, Thomas Jane, whose death is actually kind of funny when you think about it. “The Punisher died doing WHAT?”

What surprised me the most was the appearance of former Power Ranger Thuy Trang, who still uses her martial arts in a great fight scene with star Vincent Perez. It was jarring seeing sweet innocent Trini as a villain dressed in a tight leather corset (at first, anyway. Now I’m not so bummed she left Power Rangers)!

The soundtrack is still amazing, and I actually kind of prefer it over the original. I think it was first CD I owned that I played so much, I warped the disk! Graeme Revell returns to do the score and it’s just as touching as ever.

Just like the first film, The Crow: City of Angels also had its fair share of production issues. This time, it was with the editing. While the filmmakers attempted to differentiate this film from the original, Miramax made them edit the film to be more like the original film, resulting in some bizarre story telling choices. Sometimes it even feels like the film is out of order.

One of the things that is different from the original is the visuals. When I think of City of Angels, I think color. While the original movie was filmed mostly in darkness and with muted colors, City of Angels is bright and colorful, but still has a dark tone about it.

The Crow: City of Angels doesn’t come close to the original, but it’s not awful. If we saw what the filmmakers had originally intended, it would probably stand on its own even better. As is now though, it’s pretty hit-and-miss.

I give The Crow: City of Angels 3 sexy Power Rangers out of 5!

The Crow: Salvation (2000)

When Alex (Eric Mabius) is framed for the murder of his girlfriend Lauren, he is sentenced to death and is resurrected by the Crow in order to find those who framed him and murdered his lover. At this point, the Crow formula was getting a little stale and the filmmakers decided to change things up… by giving the main character short hair!

Like City of Angels, Salvation is hit-and-miss. Mabius tends to go a little over-the-top in his performance and his delivery can come off as a little awkward. It doesn’t help that Mabius isn’t anywhere near as intimidating as Lee or Perez and ends up looking like Ronald McDonald in the makeup. The film has some pretty interesting scenes but the dialog can end up being a little clichéd. There are some decent performances by some talented actors like Kirsten Dunst and Fred Ward.

While the film had some minor distribution issues (as it was supposed to be a theatrical release in 1999 rather than straight-to-video in 2000), there weren’t as many behind-the-scenes problems as the original two films. There are some new ideas here, but nothing mind blowing.

I give The Crow: Salvation 2 jagged screw body modifications out of 5.

The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005)

“Don’t worry, he’s just going through a phase.”

Ya know what… I can’t… I just can’t…

Fine! Edward Furlong plays the Crow—no seriously, stop laughing! This time his girlfriend is sacrificed by a satanic cult – I’m being serious – lead by David Boreanaz and Tara Reid [everyone dies of laughter].

Yeah I’ll be honest, this one’s pretty bad. Like painfully bad. Not even “Neil Breen/Tommy Wiseau-so-bad-it’s-good” bad. I watched this film when it came out in 2005 and all I remember is Danny Trejo dancing around a dead crow and Edward Furlong in the most pathetic goth Hot Topic-ass costume and not being the least bit intimidating. Mabius was lacking intimidation but he was passable. Furlong looks downright embarrassing as the Crow.

I tried watching this again a few years ago, but it was painful.

The Crow: Wicked Prayer gets 1 shirtless dancing Danny Trejo out of 5. GOD!

In the past few years there’s been a lot a talk about remaking The Crow but it’s been in production hell since day one. I wrote an entire editorial about that garbage. My take: Don’t bring The Crow back to the big screen unless you bring something new to the table! Either that, or let The Crow stay dead.

Movies and TV

Series Review: The Crow