Bill Skarsgård in “The Crow”. Photo credit: Larry Horricks for Lionsgate. Copyright: © 2022 Yellow Flower LLC.

“The Crow,” directed by Rupert Sanders, will be released in theaters on August 23. Starring: Bill Skarsgård, FKA Twigs, Danny Huston, Josette Simon, Laura Birn, Sami Bouajila and Jordan Bolger.

Related article: “The Crow”: First pictures of Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs in the remake

First thoughts

Here’s a little secret: This writer was never a big fan of the original 1994 film The Crow. At the time, it seemed bleak, unnecessary, and all about style over substance, with simplistic characters and a reactionary, nihilistic narrative. But the death of lead actor Brandon Lee – who was accidentally shot on set and later died of his injuries just days before filming wrapped – cast an unmistakably grim shadow over the film that only a robot could sense. Lee is great despite the film around him, but his on-screen presence is also surrounded by a ghostly aura that permeates the entire film, casting an otherwise dull revenge thriller in a different light that has since made it a cult classic.

Whether it’s right or wrong, when you take the mystique and legend surrounding Lee out of the equation, as the new remake of “The Crow” does, you’re left with nothing but a dull revenge thriller. Despite the best efforts of star Bill Skarsgård (who dominates the movie monster market with his previous portrayal of dancing clown Pennywise in “It” and his upcoming leading man turn in “Nosferatu”) and a few inspired moments, this long-in-development reboot from director Rupert Sanders (“Snow White and the Huntsman”) is dull, trite and predictable, and lacks energy in both direction, style and casting.

Story and direction

(Left to right) Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs in “The Crow.” Photo credit: Larry Horricks for Lionsgate.

The new “Crow,” written by Zach Baylin and William Schneider, keeps the basic framework of the story (based on the original 1989 graphic novel by James O’Barr) but adds a convoluted new setup to lead us to the main plot. Skarsgård’s Eric Draven is in a rehab facility in a fairly obscure location (it appears to be in the relatively sunny countryside, while the unnamed town where the main action takes place is perpetually dark and rainy) for fairly unclear reasons (a flashback reveals that he watched a beloved animal die as a child) when he meets roommate Shelly (FKA Twigs), a musician who got herself arrested for drug possession and committed to the facility to avoid an even grimmer fate.

This is where The Crow 2024 differs greatly from the 1994 film: While the villains in that film were local Detroit gangsters (yes, that film was set in Detroit; the new one is supposed to be set in an American city, but was filmed in Germany and Prague) who wanted to take over the apartment building where Eric and Shelly live, the antagonist here is Vincent Roag (a bored Danny Huston), who is apparently immortal thanks to a pact he made with the devil long ago. This pact involves whispering in people’s ears with a demonic voice and making them kill either themselves or someone nearby, thereby corrupting their soul and sending them to hell. Shelly was used by Roag in this way to murder and thus damn someone, but she recorded the whole thing on video (though how this is supposed to bring him down remains frustratingly unclear).

It’s a needlessly complicated backstory that diminishes the power of Eric’s own development into a supernatural being. Which, of course, is ultimately what happens. He and Shelly escape rehab fairly easily just before Roag’s gang of goons (led by “Foundation” star Laura Birn, who deserves better) show up, and enjoy an inexplicably lazy montage of them hanging out with their friends at a lake or making tender love and/or music together (the timeline in this film is really opaque). But Roag’s henchmen catch up to them at Eric’s apartment and suffocate them both in a gruesome sequence as they watch each other die.

Eric is sent to a gray computer-generated afterlife that looks like the outside of an abandoned train yard, where the ghostly mentor Kronos (Sami Bouajila) provides the information needed to move the film forward. Eric is dead, but he can return to the land of the living and avenge Shelly’s death or “make right the wrongs.” His physical body can heal from any wound as long as his love for Shelly remains “pure.” And he can save her damned soul, too – but at a much higher price.

From there, it becomes a fairly standard stalk-and-kill scenario, albeit with oodles of computer-generated gore (god, how we miss Karo syrup sometimes) and some entertainingly wacky deaths, particularly in an extended fight in an opera house that leaves Eric standing amidst a pile of severed limbs and heads (two of which he takes out in unintentionally comical fashion). But whereas Eric faced distinctive villains like Michael Wincott’s Top Dollar and his gangster bride Myca (Bai Ling) in 1994, his enemies here are just a bunch of the usual burly, slightly Eastern European-looking security guards in fancy suits that Roag seems to have an endless supply of at his disposal. The titular bird, a sort of spirit guide in the first film, is just along for the ride here.

It lacks tension, energy or thrills overall, as everyone seems to know the plot is going through predictable steps. The eventual confrontation between Eric and Roag after pretty much everyone else has been killed is as disappointingly flat as everything else on display here. The gothic aesthetic and alternative/metal soundtrack of the original film have been replaced with a general grey-brown gloom and actually some pretty good songs from Foals, Enya and Traitrs. But the overall style that made the first film such a cultural milestone of its time just can’t be replicated in the same way.

The cast

(Left to right) Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs in “The Crow.” Photo credit: Larry Horricks for Lionsgate.

We really enjoyed Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the It films, as well as his performances in films like John Wick: Chapter 4 and Barbarian. And while it’s unfair to judge him in comparison to Brandon Lee, the latter is such an integral part of the Crow legacy and a dominant presence in the original film. It’s impossible to ignore the fact that Lee was able to transcend the material, whereas Skarsgård was not. He does his best, but the emotional undercurrents just aren’t there, while his patchwork look of random tattoos, tousled hair, and disheveled clothing does nothing to build his character.

There’s also no chemistry between him and FKA Twigs, who delivers a monotone, expressionless performance in a key role. Some of the scenes between Twigs and Skarsgård simply fall silent, as if they have nothing left to say to each other, and Twigs isn’t a strong enough actor to flesh out Shelly. A subplot involving her relationship with her mother (Josette Simon) is left largely unexplored and mostly forgotten, but on that basis we’re not sure Twigs can even handle anything too complex. In a film that already exists on a purely surface level, an actor needs all the tools he can muster, and Twigs fails.

Danny Huston largely pulls off his role as the villain Roag, a character whose backstory and modus operandi are confusing to say the least. Is he a vampire? A demon? Both? It’s never quite clear. Laura Birn remains an impressive presence (her work as the android Demerzel in Foundation is one of that series’ strengths), but is underused, while the rest of the cast isn’t given enough to stand out here.

Final thoughts

Bill Skarsgård in “The Crow.” Photo credit: Larry Horricks for Lionsgate.

This is, at best, IP mining, an attempt to capitalize on a brand name that still has some resonance 30 years later (a series of bad sequels also kept the film in the public eye for a while), and, at worst, pure exploitation. But above all, it’s mediocre: Too much of The Crow has the kind of bland feeling you get when you watch direct-to-video thrillers. The aura that Brandon Lee gave the original is no longer there, and even the love story at the film’s center pales in comparison.

The original 1994 film The Crow is a testament to a promising actor and his career that ended tragically too soon, and a snapshot of a particular moment in youth culture. 2024’s The Crow lacks either of those things, and is a testament to what happens when a storyline is revived and retread without asking whether it was even appropriate.

“The Crow” receives 3 out of 10 stars.

“True love never dies.”

R1 hour 51 minutes23 August 2024

Show times & tickets

Bill Skarsgård takes on the iconic role of the Crow in this modern reimagining of James O’Barr’s original graphic novel. Soulmates Eric (Skarsgård) and… Read the plot

What is the plot of “The Crow”?

Wounded souls Eric (Bill Skarsgård) and Shelly (FKA Twigs) fall madly in love, but Shelly’s dark past and her demonic benefactor catch up with them. After the couple are brutally murdered, Eric is sent back from the realm of the dead to “make right the wrongs” – even if it costs him the thing he wants most.

Who is in the cast of “The Crow”?

• Bill Skarsgård as Eric
• FKA Twigs as Shelly
• Danny Huston as Vincent Roeg
• Josette Simon as Sophia
• Laura Birn as Marian
• Sami Bouajila as Kronos
• Isabella Wei as Zadie
• Jordan Bolger as an opportunity

Bill Skarsgård in “The Crow.” Photo credit: Larry Horricks for Lionsgate.

Other films and television shows in “The Crow” franchise:

Buy the movie “The Crow” on Amazon