A Dark Superhero Movie: Why is The Crow the Best Horror film?

For the past twenty-two years, I’ve seen lots of horror movies and I have favorites that have reasons why they are my favorite. For example, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1976) is my favorite horror cult movie for its characters and its plot. The Nightmare on Elm Street (1984-2010) franchise is my favorite slasher film and Freddy Krueger is my favorite character in all of the horror genre. Cannibal Holocaust (1985) was a movie that will gross me out and a movie I will only watch once. The Saw (2004-2017) Franchise has the best plot twist ending out of all the horror movies I’ve seen. The Frankenstein creature, which is based on the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, was a character I related to growing up and even now because of my diagnosis of Autism at a young age and being left out or rejected for who I was. The exact feeling the creature had once he was brought to life by Dr. Frankenstein. I can continue with more movies and why they are so special, however, we would be here for a while if I were to do that.

There is one movie that I would love to talk about and why I believe it is not only the greatest horror movie, but it is my all-time favorite movie. This movie is The Crow (1994).

Let me talk about the plot just in case you may have not heard or seen the movie. The movie is based on the dark superhero comic book series by James O’Barr. The movie adaptation is slightly different from the comics, but it is still a great storyline. The plot is about a young man named Eric Draven, who, along with his fiancé, Shelly, was murdered by a group of gang members on the night before Halloween. One year later, a crow, that has some form of power, brings Eric back to life to go and take revenge on those who have killed him and his fiancé. Once he has completed his mission, he goes back to his grave and is put back to rest.

There is more to the plot, but I will explain more in detail as we discuss this film. We will discuss the characters, the script, and the dark tragedy that took place. The truth is, it’s not about the fictional story that is scary or is remember by so many, but it’s what happened within filming that is haunting.

When it comes to the story itself, it is breathtaking. I wouldn’t say it’s a jump scare horror film or so much of a gore film. The movie is like a gothic-themed superhero movie.

Here is why I say it a bit of a superhero movie. The character, Eric Draven, comes back from the grave by a mysterious crow to go and get revenge on the bad guys who killed him and his fiancé the night before their wedding. With Eric being brought back to life, he is given multiple gifts and abilities. Some of these abilities include his fighting skills, can heal from any wound, and his ability to “remember” events when holding a specific item. With every superhero, they always have some form of weakness. In this case, Eric’s weakness is the crow itself. I know it. Doesn’t make sense when you think about it but hear me out. When the crow gets injured or killed, it affects Eric drastically. In the film, when the crow was shot, Eric loses his ability to heal and ends up getting shot and injured severely. One of the antagonists, Myca, quotes in the film “The crow is his link between the land of the living and the realm of the dead (The Crow, 1994).” The quote is followed up by another antagonist, Grange, with “So, kill the crow… and destroy the man (The Crow, 1994). Now when it comes to the appearance of this superhero, he looks more like a gothic version of the Joker from the DC universe. His humor, however, is quite similar to the joker. Some of Eric’s short quotes include: “Is that gasoline I smell.”, “Victims, aren’t we all.”, “And I say, “I’m dead”, and I move.”, etc. He may not the typical stereotype for a superhero, but he is the hero in this story.

Now like I have mentioned before, this movie isn’t all on jump scares or bloody gore, but it does have dark energy and a gothic feel to it.

When I say dark energy, I’m not just talking about the dark look to it, but they do show what some parts of our city look like that you don’t see on TV or in movies all the time. Some of these issues include Drug use, high rates of homicide, high rates of arson, gangs, child endangerment, and so much more. Throughout the movie, Eric uses these problems through his time of redemption. For example, with child endangerment, a girl named Sarah would be roaming around the dark streets of the city with her skateboard while her mother, who was a waitress, had a drug problem and cared more about her boyfriend (named Fun-boy, who helped in killing Eric and his fiancé) more than Sarah. When Eric confronts the mother, he tells her while both of them are staring at the mirror “Look. Mother is the name for god on the lips and hearts of all children (The Crow, 1994)”. He goes one and ends up getting the morphine out of her system and it ends up changing her whole aspect of how she should be as a mother and not live her life on drugs.

Now for the gothic part, its more or a beautiful yet tragic gothic story, similar to stories and poems were written by Edgar Allen Poe. Strange enough, there are lots of metaphors or similarities to his writing and the movie. Here are a couple of examples. The crow in the movie may be symbolized as the raven in Poe’s poem The Raven (1845). Eric’s grief when learning the truth about what happened to his wife, shelly, is similar to the feeling that Edgar had when he lost his wife to tuberculosis. One of the biggest things to note from the movie was the beautiful, yet dark poetry use within the movie. The main quotes to focus on are the ones spoken by Sarah, the girl mentioned earlier. One of my favorite quotes from her character is as followed:

“A building gets torched. All that is left is ashes. I used to think that was true about everything, families, friends, feelings. But now I know, that sometimes, if love proves real, two people were meant to be together, nothing can keep them apart.” – The Crow (1994)

The movie does a great job of blending beauty and darkness. I don’t see lots of movies that can do that as well as The Crow did.

Now we have gone over the storyline itself, how it is dark, gloomy, and unique. However, I haven’t mentioned why it is considered a horror movie (or maybe I have in your view). The truth is, it’s not the story that is scary, it’s what happened while creating this movie that makes it infamously remembered. This film in particular is known to have a curse.

When the filmmakers were given the OK to start filming, many circumstances have happened that lead to the film being “cursed”. For example, from the beginning, mysterious people left voice messages warning the production crew to stop filming because bad things will happen if they didn’t. Then tragedies followed behind, an electrician was electrocuted on the first day of filming. However, there was nothing more tragic than Brandon Lee, who played the main character Eric Draven, being killed while filming the movie.

Brandon Lee was known as the son of Bruce Lee, a famous martial arts actor back in the 1960s and 70s. Bruce died on an allergic reaction to an ingredient in his medicine. It has been rumored that there was a curse within the Lee family, particularly, with the male members. Brandon was becoming well known in the filming industry and The Crow was going to be his big hit yet, little did he know, it was his last film he would be in. In the last few days of filming, Brandon and Michael Massee (who played Fun-boy) were in a scene where Fun-boy shots Eric at the beginning of the movie before Eric is brought back by the crow. When it comes to props in a film, it’s great to make it real, but very important that no one gets hurt. Particularly with guns, you need a dummy round, so it doesn’t harm the person “being shot” at. In this case, the individuals in charge of the gun Michael use did not do a good job of keeping the props safe. Michael shot at Brandon while filming, killing him. Brandon’s death still haunts those involved with the film. Up to his death in 2016, Michael Massee has felt guilty for what happened to Brandon because he was the one who pulled the trigger. When in reality, it was a prop accident that should have been prevented before rolling the cameras.

For the longest time, I thought that Brandon’s death was premeditated by someone who did not like the Lee family, particularly Bruce Lee. When I was 13 and heard about how Brandon was killed on set, I tried to play detective and find out who wanted Brandon dead. Fortunately, his death was the result of an accident and not a homicide. Unfortunately, the world lost an amazing man.

As mentioned before, this film isn’t about the jump scares or the gore that makes it a horror film, it is the art of beauty with darkness and the horrific tragedy behind the scenes that makes it an amazing horror film. This is one of those movies that I will watch over and over again and not be bored with it. There have been more movies of The Crow, but I never had the desire to watch them because it’s just not the same without the person who played Eric Draven the best and for who we lost too soon.

There has been talking about a possible remake of the film. If they do plan on doing that, there are two options for what I’ll do. One, don’t see the remakes no matter how well it ends up doing. Two, do everything in my power to stop them from filming and to leave the original film by itself. This film has its place in the spotlight and has its history behind it. Why try and cover it up with a remake and forget the film that was almost canceled but was released in honor of Brandon Lee?

On my final note, if this film was remade and it ends up overpowering the original, the original will always be in my heart, the story, the characters, the lessons, and Brandon Lee. Thank you for this tragic yet masterpiece of a film.

Rest in Peace, Brandon Lee.