“The Crow” has finally returned from the dead — again.
The 2024 remake of the 1994 classic, which has been in the works for more than 15 years, follows Eric (now played by Bill Skarsgård) who, along with his girlfriend Shelly (FKA Twigs), are killed by thugs. But he’s given a reprieve – he comes back from the dead and is offered the chance to get retribution against his murderers. And while this film, like the earlier movie (perhaps remembered most for the tragic on-set death of star Brandon Lee), is based on the James O’Barr comic book, this is a very different movie.
How different?
Read on to find out the five biggest differences between the new movie and the 1994 film. But beware – consider this your major spoiler warning, for both movies, really.
One of the coolest aspects of the original movie was that it was set on Halloween. Eric (Lee) is then given the chance to return to the land of the living exactly one year later – also on Halloween. It added to the movie’s agreeably dread-filled atmosphere, along with flourishes likethe fact that it’s always raining (which has also been deleted from this new version). It also allowed for the Crow’s distinctive white make-up, inspired by a mask that his fiancée had, to take on a different dimension. The new “Crow” is set in an indeterminate time. And it doesn’t take a full year for Eric (Skarsgård) to come back from the grave. Still, the moodiness remains.
In the original “Crow,” Shelly, Eric’s doomed fiancée isn’t much of a character. Rupert Sanders, who directed the new movie, referred to her as a “silhouette” in the original film, which is dead-on. (Canadian musician and actress Sofia Shinas played Shelly in the original, she also had a supporting part in the underrated action movie “Terminal Velocity,” also from 1994.) In this new “Crow,” Shelly is a fully realized character – we get to see her meeting Eric at a rehab facility, watch as they fall in love, and see the life that they are building together, before that is all taken away. Here’s a bonus difference – in this version of the movie, she’s the musician. It makes sense. FKA Twigs is one of our most exciting performers. And it’s a nice flip on the original, with Eric the angst-filled rocker (he even carries his guitar around in the 1994 version and kills a guy with it). Now we know more about what Eric came back from the dead for.
Infamously, there were scenes shot for the original “Crow” that featured a character called the Skull Cowboy. Played by towering “Hills Have Eyes” actor Michael Berryman, the Skull Cowboy was a guide for Eric as he maneuvered the lands of the living and the dead. After Lee’s tragic death, the character was cut out of the movie, thinking it was too macabre. Some of that intent has been recycled here, as Eric (Skarsgård) is returned to a kind of mystical waystation every time that he dies. There, he interacts with Kronos (Sami Bouajila), who serves a similar purpose. He sets up the rules (more on that in a minute) and helps Eric in his quest. The waystation is a disused industrial space populated by dozens of crows, partially inspired by “Stalker,” Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 sci-fi classic. It’s cool to see one of the ideas from the original movie return in a new way. But this is still a big difference from the theatrical version of the 1994 movie and this new “Crow.”
In the original “Crow,” Eric is the only supernatural character in the movie, especially after the aforementioned Skull Cowboy was removed during the edit phase. The film’s main villain, Top Dollar (played by the immortal Michael Wincott), who was a minor character in the comic book, dabbles in the occult. But he’s not an outright supernatural character. In this new “Crow,” our big bad is Vincent Roeg (played by Danny Huston, having the time of his life). Roeg is a crime lord and political mover and shaker. He is also some kind of demonic creature, who has stayed alive for a sustained amount of time and who is desperate to keep his power. This adds a new dynamic to the story, pitting a good supernatural character against one that is pure evil. The battle, this time around, is as much about heaven and hell as it is anything else. That adds a new dimension to the proceedings and changes the tenor a bit, since the Crow, in the original movie, was a character completely outside the reality of the movie. Now, he’s part of a tapestry that includes angels and demons.
In the original “Crow,” Eric crawls out of the grave a year after his death, kills a bunch of people and then returns to the grave at the end of the movie. The “rules” of his resurrection are never detailed and it remains nebulous. This is as much a practical decision as anything else, as Lee died during shooting and the Skull Cowboy, meant to deliver exposition, was lost during post-production. It’s lean, it’s mean and it’s simple enough that you just go with it even without much explanation. With the new “Crow,” Eric’s quest is given an emotional underpinning – if he completes his tasks and fells Roeg, the evil demonic gangster, Shelly will return from the dead. She’ll live her life. She’ll love others. But Eric will stay dead. It gives Eric even more motivation. And it’s one of the biggest differences between the two films.
“The Crow” is in theaters now.
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