The Crow is back. Fitting, really, given that the premise of the film is that a rock star gets brought back to life to avenge his girlfriend. Second chances and do-overs are part of the franchise's DNA.
There's a new Crow film in theaters, which is something of a miracle given how long the remake has been in production hell. It stars Bill Skarsgaard, and presents fans with a newer, edgier take on the already edgy original.
Since the original is such a beloved film, and there are five Crow outings in total, we decided to go the ranking route, and determine which supernatural adventure is the worst, and which is the best.
5. The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2004)
Yeesh. Anybody who has sat through this sequel from 2004 knows how bad it is. Those who haven't, well, they are better off. The Crow: Wicked Prayer boasts a surprisingly stacked cast, with the likes of Dennis Hopper, Danny Trejo, and David Boreanaz turning in fun performances.
The problem is, they don't get a lot of screen time. The other problem is that Edward Furlong turns in a truly abhorrent performance as the titular being. He's playing a different variation of the Crow, and he simply lacks the presence of the gravitas to be memorable. Wicked Prayer is a dud.
4. The Crow: City of Angels (1998)
The second Crow film suffered from studio tampering. The first film had been a surprise hit, and the producers of Miramax, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, wanted City of Angels to be as close to the original as possible. They recut the film, and effectively turned it into a pale (even paler?) imitation.
The Crow: City of Angels plays as though someone was drunk and trying to describe the events of the first film. There are some slick directorial flourishes from Tim Pope, but it's far too little to warrant a seal of approval. Pope wouldn't direct another film for two decades.
3. The Crow (2024)
There are definitely things to like about the Crow remake. Bill Skarsgaard is a compelling actor in pretty much anything he appears in. FKA twigs has a commanding screen presence, and watching the two of them interact is affecting. The problems lie with everything around them.
The film tries to carve out its own identity while staying relatively close to the original 1994 film, and the result is a slog that achieves neither. Bill Skarsgaard is giving it his all, but the redesign he's been saddled with too often makes him look like Joker in Suicide Squad (2016). It's edgy for edgy's sake, and it's consequently very forgettable.
2. The Crow: Salvation (2000)
Yes, The Crow: Salvation has an 18% on Rotten Tomatoes. We don't get to pick the films we rank in the franchise, we just rank 'em. And frankly, The Crow: Salvation is the most creative sequel to date. The film escapes the copycat problems that hindered the 1998 release and the 2024 remake, and tells an original story involving revenge and a wrongful death in Salt Lake City.
We're not talking high art here, obviously. The thing that saves Salvation, though, is the committed performances by the ensemble cast. Kirsten Dunst, William Atherton and Fred Ward are all dialed in to what kind of schlock they signed up for, and they're giving it their all. Eric Mabius is the weak link as the titular character, but there's enough going on here to make this film enjoyably bad.
1. The Crow (1994)
Is anybody surprised? The original Crow is a great film, and the only legitimately good film in the franchise. The tone is the most consistent, the direction by Alex Proyas is sublime, serving as the building block for his moody 1998 masterpiece Dark City.
Brandon Lee is revelatory in what would have been a star-making part had he not died during production. He's equal parts chilling and tragic, and it's easy to trace the influence of his wirey, unpredictable presence on Heath Ledger's Joker performance in The Dark Knight (2008).
The Crow was a lighting in a bottle film, and the fact that Hollywood is still trying to recreate it is a testament to its quality.