The Crow

(1994)

Dir: Alex Proyas

 

Emo before emo was cool.

 

At one point in The Crow, Alex Proyas’ now sadly infamous 1994 supernatural action thriller, Brandon Lee’s recently revived Eric Draven sits atop a building in dark, rainy Detroit, clad all in black, strumming a melancholy tune on his guitar. It sounds daft. It sounds ridiculous. And it certainly is. But, boy oh boy, does it look nice.

Therein lays the dilemma of The Crow. Based on the 1989 comic book by James O’Barr, the film follows Lee’s Draven as he returns from the grave to wreak bloody vengeance upon the gang of pyromaniacs who raped and killed his fiancé, as well as offing him in the process.

It’s a fairly thin, unoriginal plot, taken right out of the Horror genre and transported to a noir action setting. If the word ‘emo’ had existed in 1994 it would have been stuck on this film like Eamonn Holmes on a buffet. There is nothing nice. Not one scene of daylight is featured throughout the entire 102 minutes, and rain covers every shot. The influence of such works as Ridley Scott’s 1984 Blade Runner or Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman are clear to see. Proyas, the man who later went on to make such underrated films as Dark City and I, Robot, clearly has an eye for the visual.

The Crow’s thin plot does suffer somewhat at times, but the sadly deceased Brandon Lee is enough of a morose, engaging presence to maintain our attention, whilst the always watchable, broken glass-voiced Michael Wincott chews the scenery with obvious and entertaining glee as the big, bad Top Dollar. The involvement of Rochelle Davis’ teenage Sarah and Ernie Hudson’s Sergeant Albrecht feels a little too narratively contrived, as a way to bring people into the story in an accessible fashion, which is disappointing, as a little ambiguity never hurts, and both of these characters go absolutely nowhere.

The Crow is flawed. Riddled with clichés, it runs dangerously close to accidental parody. But both Proyas and cinematographer Dariusz Wolski’s visual flair, and Lee’s solid yet sullen performance raise The Crow to a much higher, uh, perch. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

*** / *****