31 Days of Horror: The Crows (All the Other Ones)

There’s no doubt that The Crow managed to capture the imaginations of many Gen Xers and Millennials, like myself. Perhaps it was the combination of the death of Brandon Lee–son of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee–and the fact that The Crow managed to capture the zeitgeist of the younger generation at the time.

It was unique visually, and edgy in a way that just wasn’t the same. It also had a fantastic soundtrack. You can read about Aaron Cynic’s thoughts on it here.

I’m not here to talk about that film. I’m here to talk about all of the other ones. From City of Angels to Wicked Prayer, and all the way to The Crow (2024). To sum up my thoughts: they’re exactly as bad as I was thinking they’d be. But all but one of them takes a fair shot at it.

The Crow: City of Angels

• Release Date: August 30, 1996

• Director: Tim Pope

• Writer: David S. Goyer (Screenplay), based on characters by James O'Barr

• Budget: $13 million.

• Key Cast: Vincent Pérez (Ashe Corven), Mia Kirshner (Sarah), Richard Brooks (Judah Earl), Iggy Pop (Curve), Thomas Jane (Nemo), and Thuy Trang (Kali).

  
  

Set in a hyper-stylized, smog-choked Los Angeles, the sequel follows mechanic Ashe Corven (Vincent Pérez) and his young son, Danny, who are brutally murdered after his son hears gunshots and witnesses a murder. Brought back from the dead and unkillable, Ashe is driven by vengeance to hunt down the gang responsible, including their leader: Judah Earl. Ashe is aided by a now-adult Sarah–the young girl from the first movie, played here by Mia Kirshner. She acts as a bit of a mentor after he comes back from the dead.

City of Angels feels like a hyper-stylized corporate attempt at recapturing the magic of the original. Visually, it manages to capture some of the magic–but Vincent Pérez’s Ashe Corven comes off mostly goofy instead of cool, or menacing–something that will be a recurring trend in these sequels.

The Crow: Salvation

• Release Date: June 14, 2000 (Limited premiere), before a wider direct-to-video release.

• Director: Bharat Nalluri

• Writer: Chip Johannessen, based on characters by James O'Barr

• Budget: $10 million

• Key Cast: Eric Mabius (Alex Corvis), Kirsten Dunst (Erin Randall), Fred Ward (The Captain / John L. Book), Jodi Lyn O'Keefe (Lauren Randall), William Atherton (Nathan Randall), and Walton Goggins (Stan Roberts).

  
  

Alex Corvis (Eric Mabius) is falsely convicted of the brutal stabbing of his girlfriend, Lauren Randall (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe). After spending three years on death row maintaining his innocence and insisting the true killer was a man with distinctive scars, Alex is executed in the electric chair. It’s an interesting twist to have the killing be a state-sanctioned one–which wasn’t an angle I expected. Alex gets resurrected, and discovers he is unkillable, with rapidly healing injuries. Aided by Lauren's sister, Erin (Kirsten Dunst), Alex begins hunting down the corrupt cops responsible, eventually uncovering a deep-rooted police conspiracy orchestrated by the sinister Captain John L. Book (Fred Ward).

Eric Mabius would have been a great henchman or sidekick, but as Alex Corvis, he just comes off as a dork. The film itself has cinematography and visual aesthetics that stray far from the original’s gritty, surreal otherworldly depictions and instead look like something more made for TV. I have to give it credit for having the most original and interesting story out of the films, but it represents a major downturn in quality for The Crow films.

The Crow: Wicked Prayer

• Release Date: June 3, 2005 (One-week limited theatrical), July 19, 2005 (Direct-to-video)

• Director: Lance Mungia

• Writer: Lance Mungia, Jeff Most, and Sean Hood (Inspired by the novel The Crow: Wicked Prayer by Norman Partridge)

• Budget: Estimated at $8 million

• Key Cast: Edward Furlong (Jimmy Cuervo), David Boreanaz (Luc Crash / Death), Tara Reid (Lola Byrne), Emmanuelle Chriqui (Lily), Dennis Hopper (El Niño), Danny Trejo (Harold), and Macy Gray (Carman).

In an impoverished Southwest desert town, ex-con Jimmy Cuervo (Edward Furlong) and his girlfriend, Lily (Emmanuelle Chriqui), are brutally murdered by a satanic biker gang known as the Four Horsemen. The gang is led by the charismatic and unhinged Luc Crash (David Boreanaz) and his clairvoyant magic-using lover, Lola Byrne (Tara Reid), who sacrifice the couple as part of a dark ritual to transform Luc into a demonic incarnation of the Antichrist. Seriously.

Resurrected by the crow, Jimmy seeks vengeance against the gang, battling his way through their ranks–each one representing one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse played by Marcus Chong, Tito Ortiz, and Yuji Okumoto. Includes an appearance by a Satanic pimp with completely head-scratching over-the-top gangster dialogue named El Niño, played by the legendary Dennis Hopper. And while Hopper is known for his portrayal of crazy on film, this comes off more like an SNL skit.

Oh man, who thought this was a good idea? I think I came across Wicked Prayer in a video rental store, and knew exactly the quality of its content by seeing the box art. I was mistaken. It’s far worse than the headliners “Edward Furlong” and “Tara Reid” would suggest. Furlong has no business being the protagonist, and that’s why Boreanaz and Reid take up more runtime. Though this is probably the worst performance by Boreanaz I’ve ever seen. He’s not just hammy–it’s awful, and makes the world worse for existing.

The Crow (2024)

• Release Date: August 23, 2024

• Director: Rupert Sanders

• Writers: Zach Baylin and William Schneider

• Budget: Approximately $50 million

• Key Cast: Bill Skarsgård (Eric), FKA twigs (Shelly), Danny Huston (Vincent Roeg), Sami Bouajila (Kronos), and Laura Birn (Marion).

The reimagining follows Eric (Bill Skarsgård) and Shelly (FKA twigs), two troubled young lovers who meet in a criminal rehabilitation facility. After escaping together, Shelly’s past catches up with her as demonic, aristocratic Vincent Roeg (Danny Huston) is trying to find Shelly because of a video in her possession. Long story short, they’re both killed, and Eric is resurrected with the ability to survive fatal wounds, quickly heal, etc. This time he has a spirit guide in the afterlife named Kronos (Sami Bouajila). Roeg sacrifices innocent souls to unnaturally prolong his life, and Eric is sent to make things right.

While this movie was a commercial disaster–only making $4.6 million during its opening weekend–it’s actually one of the better The Crow films. I’d almost argue it’s the best–even better than the original. But this Crow isn’t, and never could be, the same type of cultural touchstone that the original was. It does have some great, gory action sequences and a great performance by Skarsgård, Huston and FKA twigs. It’s a bummer it didn’t do well at the box office, but The Crow feels like something that is meant for the 90s.

Final thoughts

While I’ll never get those hours back, I don’t regret my time with these films. At least now I know my original instincts were correct. The first film was lightning in a bottle, and it’s hard to recapture the moment in time, soundtrack, visual style, and everything else all intersecting at once to make that happen.

But I did notice one important fact while watching these films: all of the characters' names mean “Crow” or have Raven in them. There’s Eric Draven. dRAVEN, get it? But that’s the least offensive. There’s Vincent Pérez’s Ashe Corven, Eric Mabius as Alex Corvis, Edward Furlong as Jimmy Cuervo, and Bill Skarsgård as another Eric Draven.

So to be a crow, you have to have some sort of Crow-adjacent name. I feel like Draven should be an outlier, despite being the first depicted on screen. I can’t help but think the avenging Crow spirit was like “mehhh, close enough!”

Bonus: TV Show

Despite finding a way to stream these episodes, I didn’t get a chance to watch this before this article was due. That means I’m going to do a feature on them for next year’s 31 Days–stay tuned.