The Crow Review: A Reboot That’s Both Dead and Alive

The Crow went from a cult-hit comic series to a cult-hit movie when the 1994 original hit theaters. Its gothic design and themes perfectly captured the Gen X angst of the 1990s, and inspired a stylistic wave that is still iconic today. The indelible influence of The Crow is a testament to the power of director Alex Proyas’ vision – but it’s also been the biggest impediment to The Crow becoming a larger franchise property. None of the subsequent Crow sequels (City of Angels, Salvation, Wicked Prayer) ever found a way to open up the doors of the franchise to new generations — but has this year’s The Crow finally done it, or is it just another failed attempt? 

Under the direction of Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) and the genuine effort made by stars Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs, The Crow isn’t a total failure – but it is a messy mismatch of high-art aspirations and bloody, brutal, B-movie action-horror. It’s both vibrantly alive with creative spark and passion – and a listless, muddled attempt at telling a cinematic story. If you think The Crow is a property that can function simply off style and vibes, Sanders’ film will make you second-guess that assessment. 

The Story of The Crow follows Eric (Skarsgård), a troubled boy whose violent past and deep traumas land him in a rehab facility. While there, he eventually meets Shelly (Twigs), an equally troubled girl also trying to leave a violent past behind – only it quickly becomes clear that Shelly’s past is very much still a threat to her present. After falling quickly for one another, Eric and Shelly escape the facility and start a whirlwind romance – which just as quickly ends in tragedy. It turns out that Shelly has been sitting on proof of local business magnate (and secret crime lord) Vincent Roeg’s (Danny Huston) demonic power – evidence that Roeg is willing to kill for. Eric and Shelly are eventually found by Roeg’s people and are sadistically murdered – but Eric’s soul will not rest, and he finds himself at the crossroads of life and death, being offered a opportunity by the spiritual entity Kronos (Sami Bouajila): Take a crow as his guide back to the land of the living and use the power of immortality to wipe Roeg’s demonic stain from the Earth, and in doing so win back Shelly’s soul.

However, Eric’s soul is already so troubled that taking to his new powers and mission proves to be his biggest challenge – even more so than slaughtering his way through hordes of Roeg’s goons to finally get at the demon lord himself. 

The Crow isn’t a total failure, but rather a film that’s ultimately dragged down by poor directorial measurements. For all the knee-jerk criticisms of this adaptation, Rupert Sanders and cinematographer Steve Annis (Foundation, I’m a Virgo) manage to depict the gothic world of The Crow in a lavishly dark, almost high-art way that could arguably become its own cult-hit stylistic milestone, in time. That said, Sanders (once again) seems to be overly indulgent in how much high-art imagery and deeper drama he tries to pack onto the bones of what is ostensibly a genre B-movie (see also: Snow White and the Huntsman), throwing the pacing of The Crow off to a degree that nearly breaks the movie by the end of the second act.

The chemistry between Skarsgård and Twigs is palpable, and the Eric/Shelly love story in this film is more convincing than the original – but Sanders invests far too much time early on in building out the world and the story of Shelly’s involvement with Roeg before we even get to the adult version of Eric or learn anything about him. The gothic love story portion of the film works emotionally (and is shot beautifully), but is equally too long, nearly pushing the hour-mark before the actual “Crow” portion of the story even starts. When the supernatural superhero elements do begin, it quickly becomes clear how little investment Sanders has in that side of the film.

The story (by screenwriters Zach Baylin and William Josef Schneider) stumbles into subplots about Eric’s crisis of faith in his love, or his baffling reluctance to embrace his powers from the outset. Nearly all of the hardcore action marketed in trailers for The Crow occurs in about 20-25 minutes of the final act of this nearly two-hour film; the rest of it is a rumination of tragedy, trauma, and grief for the Gen Z era. As many fans called out early on, this new version of The Crow does indeed supplant the “goth” elements of the franchise with a modern “emo” vibe, which is novel, at first, but will lose many older fans by the end. 

It’s not impossible that, despite its flaws, The Crow will follow the path of the original and grow into a cult hit in years to come. If nothing else, it’s one of the biggest showcases yet of Bill Skarsgård’s potential as a leading man (and not just the lineup of odd creatures and/or creeps he’s played). But, after more than a decade of trying to get this reboot off the ground – and all the creative talent that’s been attached to it along the way – it’s almost amusing that middling effort is the end result. 

Rating: 2 out of 5

The Crow is now playing in theaters.