Art imitates life, a universal truth that reverberated in a most tragic sense in the creation of James O’Barr’s timeless gothic vigilante series, The Crow. The ex-marine writer created the Crow, a common man wronged by a cruel world who lost his own life and that of his beloved, resurrected as an avenging angel of darkness to exact vengeance upon those responsible for his agonizing past. The Crow was conceptualized as the writer’s own cathartic release to cope with his fiancée’s tragic demise. Admixed with shades of sorrow, guilt, and trauma, the violent, black-and-white world of Crow unraveled itself in the comic panels in 1989. The Crow quickly found its audience as with its pervading visual and metaphorical darkness, a broken protagonist, neo-gothic settings, and morbid theme—it had an appeal of its own that readers in the early 90s cherished with their heart. A timeless classic in its own right, The Crow has been adapted into a significant number of mediums through the last three decades.
A total of four movie adaptations of The Crow have been released ever since, all having different narrative, tone, and visual treatment of their own, with the themes of loss, vengeance, faith, and love linking all of them in a single thread. We will try to give you a brief overview regarding each adaptations, comparing them to see how they fare against each other and explore the mythology of The Crow through the discussion.
The Crow (1994): A Gothic Masterpiece
The morbid theme of The Crow found a dreadful, tragic meaning in its very first movie adaptation in 1994, as the lead actor, Brandon Lee, had passed away in an unfortunate accident during shooting. Aside from the fact that Bruce Lee’s son gave an impeccable final performance as the titular lead, effortlessly channeling the pathos, guilt, and vengeful spirit that is associated with the eponymous character—the tragic incident itself forever canonized his portrayal as The Crow. The movie is a gothic, neo-noir masterpiece, set in a dystopian version of the crime-ridden city of Detroit. The evocative, enchanting darkness and dread of a world marred by corruption almost mimics the fictional city of Gotham and really contributes to the creating a mood of its own. The visual innovation of the movie—notable from the opening scene itself—the expression of passion and pain in the red-hued flashback scenes, the grimness of urban squalor, and the haunting beauty of the entirety of it—has stood the test of time. The Crow follows the story of the original comics to a t, with a few minor alterations of its own: the night before Halloween, celebrated musician Eric Draven gets killed by a bunch of violent, psychopathic gang members, and before his death, witnesses his fiancée, Shelly Webster, getting sexually assaulted and tortured by the ruffians – who eventually succumbs to her injuries at the end. Eric and Shelly were going to be married the next day, and this wanton act of violence ended everything.
As the legend goes, the primordial entity, the incarnation of death itself—the spirit of the Crow—guides people to the afterlife, and occasionally, the ones who have been denied justice, passed away with agony and guilt in their hearts—get a second chance in life as the spirit of the Crow resurrects them to exact vengeance upon the people who have wronged them. A year after Eric’s death, he gets resurrected by the spirit of the Crow and gets imbued with powers like superhuman strength, invulnerability, clairvoyance, and limited psychic abilities. Remembering the last moments of his life, Eric goes on a killing spree to avenge the death of his fiancée. Fashioning himself in a morbid, self-mutilated appearance, Eric becomes the spirit of vengeance, the Crow, and with the spirit of the Crow guiding him through his journey, Eric eliminates all the psychotic criminals responsible for Shelly’s tragic passing one by one. Eric and Shelly used to take care of a little girl, Sarah, and after returning to life, Eric helped her reconcile with her estranged, drug addict mother. Top Dollar, a local mob boss, had ordered his men to evict Eric and his fiancée in the first place, as he needed their apartment to propagate his criminal activities. After learning about Erik’s connection with Sarah, Top Dollar abducts her and the climactic sequence of the movie, Eric engages in a battle with him In order to rescue Sarah. Shelly had endured prolonged agony before meeting her end, and through his mystical psychic connection, Eric was able to carry the pain within him through Detective Albrecht, who was present at the crime scene a year ago. Eric transfers the agony Shelly had experienced to Top Dollar before impaling him to death at the end. With Eric’s revenge now complete, the spirit of the Crow allows Eric the eternal rest, and in the final moments of the movie, Shelly’s spirit arrives to take Eric’s soul to the afterlife.
The Crow: City of Angels (1996)
The success of the first movie prompted makers to come up with a sequel two years later, as The Crow: City of Angels takes the story to Los Angeles with a new set of characters in the lead role. The avatar of Crow is more like a mantle, as the primordial spirit chooses its host to allow them to enact justice on its behalf. Compared to the first movie, City of Angels is not visually as gothically rich or evocative; in fact, none of the sequels can hold a candle the original, but still, the first follow-up of The Crow tried to take the franchise forward by attempting something new. City of Angels had a visual language of its own, and a brilliant punk rock soundtrack that went perfectly with the vibe the movie wants to convey. This time, single father Ashe Corven and his son, Danny, get murdered by a bunch of hooligans working under the dreaded druglord Judah Earl, after Danny unwittingly becomes witness to a killing. Sarah, the little girl from The Crow, is also present in the sequel, she has grown up and works in the city of LA as a tattoo artist. Sarah’s past connection with Eric Draven, the former avatar of the Crow, allows her to see ominous visions linked with Ashe and his son.
Ashe gets resurrected by the spirit of the Crow from his watery grave in the harbor, and Sarah helps him to get in touch with his present reality. Returning to his home, a reanimated Ashe reconnects with his final moments and, guided by Sarah and the spirit of the Crow, begins his quest for vengeance. As Ashe kills all of Judah’s lackeys, the druglord is approached by Sybil, a blind prophet who is aware of the primordial entity, the Crow, and advises Judah to weaken Ashe by taking care of the accompanying Crow familiar – the physical manifestation of the Crow entity which guides its avatars. Judah manages to abduct Sarah, and after killing the Crow familiar, he drinks its blood to get empowered himself, robbing Ashe of his mystical powers and immortality as a result. A near-death Ashe is motivated to persist after getting a vision of his late son, and with Sarah’s timely intervention, Ashe manages to end Judah by invoking a murder of Crows. However, sustaining a fatal injury while saving Ashe, Sarah passes away, and the trio of Ashe, Sarah, and Danny pass to the afterlife.
The Crow: Salvation (2000)
The franchise started taking a dip in quality with the third installment, The Crow: Salvation, and from what the reception of the latest reboot conveys, it has maintained the downward trajectory ever since. The first sequel opted for a different route from the original, did its own thing, and somewhat succeeded as well—on the other hand, a blind adherence to source material without adding ingenuity to the mix resulted in The Crow: Salvation being panned by fans and critics alike. Alex Corvis, a teenager from Salt Lake City, Utah, gets framed for the rape and murder of his beloved girlfriend, Lauren, and gets capital punishment as a result. Returning back to life with the help of the spirit of the Crow, Alex gets assistance from Lauren’s sister Erin, and the duo investigate to learn a bunch of corrupt cops were responsible for the death of Lauren. Eventually, it is revealed that Erin harbors a sense of guilt for her sister’s death, which she manages to process with Alex’s help. Erin further learns about her father, Nathan’s relation with the killer cops, as he was unwittingly responsible for the predicament of his own daughter. Nathan hangs himself after learning the truth, much to Erin’s dismay.
After killing the four cops responsible for Lauren’s tragic demise, Alex considers his quest for vengeance to have been fulfilled—not knowing that police Captain John Book had ordered Lauren to be eliminated by his lackeys as she had witnessed him murdering someone. Nabbing Book, Alex and Erin strap him into the electric chair, making his death as ghastly and gruesome as Alex’s own. Finding peace after attaining justice for Lauren, Alex’s soul departs for the afterlife, while Erin holds on to the memories of Alex and Lauren.
The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005)
The fourth entry to the franchise, The Crow: Wicked Prayer, with all due respect to the makers, is perhaps one of the most miserably made franchise movies we have come across. Right from the uninspired visuals, bad plot and characterization, weird dialogue writing, to drastic change in setting and tone—we had a hard time finding any silver lining whatsoever in this movie’s attempt at reimagining the mythos of the Crow. Wicked Prayer is wickedly bad, and there is no entertainment factor to even pass it off in the ‘so bad it’s good’ category.
Keeping it short, living in the Aztec reserve of Lake Ravasu, an ex-con Jimmy Cuervo wants to settle down with his girlfriend, Lilly, and spend their life together. The duo gets into serious trouble after catching the ire of a satanist biker cult led by Luc and Lola, who seek to bring the Antichrist into the world by brutally murdering the lovebirds. Like clockwork, Jimmy returns from death with the help of the spirit of the Crow, and with the help of Lilly’s brother Sheriff Tanner and their father, Padre Harold, he starts hunting down the perpetrators. However, with the help of a satanic preacher, Luc becomes a physical conduit of Lucifer himself, and after incapacitating Jimmy and injuring his Crow familiar, Luc proceeds to perform a mating ritual with Lola to bring the Devil to the mortal plane. Harold’s extremely cringe-worthy Crow dance revives the Crow familiar, thereby restoring Jimmy’s powers, who goes on to kill Luc at the end. Lola is taken to custody, and Jimmy’s soul finds peace after attaining justice for his late beloved.
