Creeptober Day 30: The Crow (1994)

The Crow might not be horror, but it deserves to be on this Halloween-season horror movie marathon for two reasons. One, it’s an amazing film that is dark and supernatural enough for the season. And two, it begins on October 30th, making it the best movie to watch on Halloween Eve (aka Devil’s Night). So join us on day thirty of Creeptober as we enjoy our yearly viewing of The Crow!

Read on for our thoughts on The Crow (1994) as well as a recap of the movie, and join the conversation on our Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram!

Reacting to The Crow

The Crow (1994) is one of my absolute favorite movies ever. I watch it every year on October 30th (since that’s the date of Devil’s Night in the movie, naturally), and I’ll watch it other times throughout the year whenever the mood strikes. I’ve written and talked about The Crow before, and the remake that came out earlier this year prompted a somewhat lengthy look at the original’s legacy. So what else can I say about The Crow?

Well, I can say this: The Crow looks amazing. It was released 30 years ago, and it looks better than lots of movies coming out today. You can take a still image of just about any single frame in this movie, and it will look fantastic. It’s dark and moody, and everything is lit and structured in the exact right way to elicit whatever emotion the scene calls for. Much of the movie is practically black and white which evokes the visual style of the original comic books, but splashes of color add layers to the emotional impact. The red of blood and painful memories, the orange of fire and anger, the warm tones of comfort like Albrecht’s home and Sarah’s breakfast with her mother. A lot of attention was paid to the color palette and visual style in The Crow, and it continues to pay off decades later.

However, all the visual quality in the world wouldn’t work if there weren’t great actors bringing the world and its characters to life. The Crow has a perfect cast from top to bottom. Obviously, it all starts with Brandon Lee. Much has been said about how dedicated he was to making The Crow be something personal and authentic. He’s amazing in the movie, and there is no doubt this would’ve been the turning point in his career. But beyond Brandon, every other character is also inhabited by an actor who makes the role their own whether they have one line or a hundred.

Tony Todd as Grange always stands out to me for how cool he is. The character could easily have been little more than a henchman, but Tony makes Grange infinitely interesting to watch. Also, Ernie Hudson makes Albrecht someone you’d want to have a beer and a hot dog with. Bai Ling feels like she is Myca (or vice versa). Michael Wincott is mesmerizing as Top Dollar. I really could list everyone in the cast with similar gushing admiration, and it’s all true.

The perfect casting even goes down to the smaller roles, like the random cops seen throughout the movie. I love the scene when Eric has T-Bird drive through the city, and the two cops are sitting in their car. No offense is meant toward the actors who portrayed them, but the characters they play are perfectly bland. I’m sure they’re supposed to be bland, generic cops because the lines they deliver are hilariously plain. One cop is talking about artificial coffee creamer (a bland and boring observation), and when his partner sees T-bird speed by, he exclaims “what the crap.” He doesn’t swear, he just says “crap” like the bland person that he is. That’s hilarious to me, and it gets even better when, later in the movie, another cop says “what the crap” after he sees Skank’s body fall out of a window and onto his car. This attention to detail, and the commitment to making most of the police officers non-entities, is fantastic.

And of course, I couldn’t write about what I love about The Crow without mentioning the music. I’m not even a fan of about half the bands on the soundtrack (some of the bands I’m a big fan of), but I’ve listened to the soundtrack album many, many times over the years. Music is a big part of the movie. It sets the mood, and it is integral to many scenes. The club scene with My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult playing which leads to the huge gunfight in Top Dollar’s office, that might be my favorite song-plus-action sequence in the whole movie. That, and the scene where Eric puts on his makeup while The Cure’s “Burn” plays. Both scenes are amazingly impactful thanks to the marriage of music and imagery. And of course, the film’s score by Graeme Revell is iconic.

I could go on and on about everything I love about The Crow. What I’ve written here only scratches the surface in a slightly disjointed, stream-of-consciousness kind of way. It’s a movie that has had a big impact on my life, and for that reason whenever I talk about it I usually end up talking about the emotions I associate with the it. But I don’t just watch The Crow over and over because of its themes of love and loss. I also watch it because it’s an incredibly fun movie. There’s plenty of humor to go along with the heart. The villains are just as entertaining as the heroes. I love the visual style and the stylized way it depicts a fictional Detroit. Yes, there are heavy themes and real-life connections that often cause me to get sappy when I talk about it, but I wouldn’t be so connected to it if that’s all the movie was. I think The Crow is a blast to watch, and it brings a smile to my face every time I see it.

The Crow – A Recap

On October 30th, the date known as Devil’s Night, Shelly Webster and Eric Draven are attacked in their apartment. Eric dies in the street after falling through a window, and Shelly dies hours later in the hospital. They leave behind their young friend Sarah, whom police officer Albrecht tries to comfort as Shelly’s ambulance drives away.

One year later, Eris crawls out of his grave. Returning to his apartment, he is haunted by the memory of his and Shelly’s deaths at the hands of four criminals—T-Bird, Funboy, Tin Tin, and Skank. Seeing a tragedy mask brings back memories of his time with Shelly, and Eric paints his face in the mask’s image. He also discovers that new wounds he receives heal within seconds. Elsewhere in the city, the crow finds Tin Tin and leads Eric to him. After a brief fight, Eric stabs and kills Tin Tin with his own knives.

Eric then goes to Gideon’s pawn shop. There, he finds Shelly’s engagement ring which was pawned after her death. Eric questions Gideon about the whereabouts of the rest of his murderers. After getting the information he needs, Eric blows up the pawn shop. Gideon barely escapes the blast. Albrecht holds Eric at gunpoint outside Gideon’s, but Eric quietly gets away after a brief conversation. Later, Sarah also encounters Eric, but he disappears on her as well. Albrecht and Sarah both recognize Eric, but they can’t believe it’s really him.

The crow leads Eric to Funboy who is in bed with Sarah’s mother, Darla. Funboy shoots Eric multiple times, but Eric forces the drugged-up criminal to also shoot himself in the leg. Funboy passes out. Eric tells Darla that Sarah needs her, and he uses his powers to force the morphine she’s injected out of her body. Darla runs away. In a bar downstairs, Grange (the right-hand man of the city’s crime boss, Top Dollar) finds Gideon drinking. Grange also sees Darla run away, so he goes upstairs to check on Funboy. Eric disappears out of a window, and Grange finds Funboy, dead and stabbed with multiple syringes.

Eric visits Albrecht at his home. Eric is able to experience Albrecht’s memories, seeing that the officer stayed with Shelly in the hospital until she died. Meanwhile, Top Dollar learns about Eric from Gideon, then he kills the pawnbroker. Later that night, Eric forces T-Bird to drive to a pier where he blows the car up with T-Bird inside.

The next morning, Grange finds Eric’s empty grave. During the day, Albrecht is suspended from the police force for withholding information about the previous night’s killings (his superior calls it “insubordination”). Sarah visits Eric’s old apartment, and he eventually comes out to hug her. Across town, Skank rants to Top Dollar about T-Bird’s death. That night, Top Dollar holds a meeting of the city’s criminal element. Eric crashes the meeting. He just wants Skank, but he ends up killing many more people when the criminals start shooting at him. Top Dollar, Grange, and Myca (Top Dollar’s sister) escape, but Skank is killed. Albrecht helps Eric escape when the police arrive.

With the four men who killed Shelly dead, Eric returns to the cemetery. He finds Sarah sleeping on Shelly’s grave. They say their final goodbyes to each other, but Sarah is abducted by Grange as she starts to walk home. Eric hears Sarah’s cry for help coming from a nearby church. Inside, Grange shoots and wounds the crow. Top Dollar shoots Eric, and he realizes that he can’t heal anymore. Albrecht arrives and kills Grange, and Myca takes the crow into the church’s bell tower. Albrecht is shot and wounded. As Eric climbs up the bell tower, the crow pecks Myca’s eyes, causing her to fall to her death down the center of the tower.

Top Dollar has Sarah on the roof. He pushes Sarah away, and he fights with Eric. Top Dollar stabs Eric with a sword, but Eric retaliates by forcing the memories of Shelly’s death into his mind all at once. Top Dollar falls and is impaled on a gargoyle. Eric leaves Albrecht and Sarah behind, and he is reunited with Shelly in the cemetery.

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