The Engrossing Darkness of The Crow

Can a cult hit point the way forward for the beleaguered comic-book movie?

- Shirley Li

The superhuman protagonist of The Crow, the comic-book movie that went on to become a cult hit after its release 30 years ago, doesn't relish being undead and invincible. When he first shows his face on-screen, Eric Draven, played by Brandon Lee, is crawling out of his own grave in near-feral agony. His fingers claw at the mud around his tomb. His clothes, drenched by rain, cling to his skin. He never gets to his feet; instead, he writhes on his back, screaming in pain.

To say this isn't a standard superhero's welcome is an understatement-but then, The Crow didn't care to obey the genre's conventions. Grim, stylish, and brazenly violent, the film is a gothic fable about a young rock musician and his girlfriend who, on the eve of their wedding, are murdered. When Draven, the former heavy-metal guitarist, is resurrected from the dead a year later by a mystical crow-just go with it-he's not a noble crime fighter, but a wounded predator hunting the killers. "They're all dead," he snarls. "They just don't know it yet."

The Crow premiered in 1994, at a moment when superhero films themselves appeared to be in dire shape. Gone were the shiny Superman movies of the 1970s and '80s. In Batman Returns, released in 1992, Tim Burton refined his approach to the genre's aesthetic― less spandex, more noir-and delivered a much grittier story, but his Batman sequel fell far short of the boxoffice bar set by its predecessor in 1989. Films based on Marvel comics were forgettable, and although the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie was successful, it was intended for children. Producing mainstream comic-book-based entertainment posed a challenge for the studios. Could a hero be fresh but familiar enough to spawn the next great franchise?