Eric (Bill Skarsgård) and Shelley (FKA Twigs) fall in love at a rehab center, where he recovers from childhood trauma as she evades a demonic villain. Their union sets the stage for tragedy and his new incarnation as an undead avenger.
Released in 1994, Alex Proyas’s The Crow was a hit more for the horrific mystery surrounding it — its star, Brandon Lee, was tragically killed during production — than for its quality. So elegant, yet so mediocre, it’s no surprise it’s not being reproduced. This simple yet exciting revenge story has a lot of potential. This new edition has, disappointingly, gone beyond all the mediocrity – and added more of its own style – but in precious little style.
In development for over 15 years, the producers of The Crow describe this film not as a remake, but rather another take on James O’Barr’s 1980s comic. It’s not really like that. It borrows the kernel of Opar’s idea, the Gothic trappings and high-contrast look of Proyas’s film, and mixes them together with its poorly explained mythology.
It fails at even basic storytelling.
In O’Barr’s novel, The Crow was created after a young couple, Eric and Shelly, were murdered by street thugs. Eric is revived by a crow, consumed by grief and rage, and seeks bloody justice. Here, we still have Eric and Shelley, played by Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs, but they’re involved in some sort of satanic conspiracy with Vincent (Danny Huston), who has to keep demanding innocent lives to satisfy, we must assume, Satan. We must assume, because the crow gives little reason why anything happens.
It ruins even the simplest storytelling. We are introduced to Eric in a pre-credits sequence that shows his childhood despair over the death of a horse. That’s all the explanation we’ve ever given as to why, as an adult, he went into rehab and had an emotional breakdown. He is instantly brought back to life when Shelley, who is on the run from Vincent’s evil henchmen because she has a video that could “destroy” him (which she never tried), joins him in rehab. She’s drawn to Eric because he seems “brilliantly broken,” a line Twigs delivers with the airiness of a kid saying he likes your unicorn pencil case. They got out of rehab and fell deeply in love.
We are told that this love, forged over several days, and in rehabilitation, is so pure that when a terrible fate befalls Eric and Shelley, Eric is offered the chance of immortality to avenge their killers. Again, the rules and reason for his special treatment are not well defined.
Rupert Sanders (Snow White And The Huntsman, Ghost In The Shell) has never shown himself to be a great storyteller, but he’s usually good with a bit of visual appeal and the occasional humour. But the mood here is gloomy and slow, the movement is chaotic, and the appearance is monotonous. Only in the last 25 minutes, when Eric goes “full crow”, does Sanders seem to enjoy it. Eric’s concern with the right amount of eyeliner for his new identity is perhaps more camp than Sanders intended, but it’s better for him. Although the massacre at the opera is straight out of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation with John Wick, it’s bloody, cheap fun. It’s not a lot, but after 70 minutes of boredom, it’s a welcome modicum of sustenance to get rid of this rotting carrion.
A turkey in crow’s clothing.
