The Crow (2024) Review: Not Even Bill Skarsgård’s Committed Performance and a Visceral Third Act Can Save This Overall Bland Remake

Perhaps there’s a supernatural reason why The Crow should be left alone. It was a cursed project that suffered from development hell for a decade since 2008. Back when The League of Extraordinary Gentleman director Stephen Norrington tried to take a stab at making his version of The Crow. Things didn’t work out as planned and from there, different directors came and gone including 28 Weeks Later‘s Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Rings‘ F. Javier Gutiérrez and The Hallow‘s Corin Hardy all tried and failed to make it past through pre-production stages.

Then came Rupert Sanders of all people. The same director behind the awful Snow White and the Huntsman and the tedious live-action Hollywood remake of Ghost in the Shell. Having him on board barely inspired any confidence, even though casting Bill Skarsgård is an inspired choice to play Eric Draven.

But I still kept an open mind and after finally watching the movie, the long-gestating Crow remake should have stayed… dead. While I admired Sanders for not copying Alex Proyas’ 1994 cult classic in terms of its distinctly gothic visuals and storytelling structure, it still fails to justify the existence of this remake.

The first 40 minutes are spent focusing on how Eric and Shelly (singer FKA Twigs) first met in a rehab centre, where the latter is arrested due to a drug found in her purse. Eric is a loner who sports a mullet and has lots of tattoos. It doesn’t take long before they become close to each other.

One day, a woman named Marian (Laura Birn) comes to visit Shelly but the latter is scared of meeting her. Eric and Shelly end up escaping the rehab centre. Marian turns out to be the right-hand woman working for Vincent Roeg (Danny Huston), a crime boss with a supernatural ability. He can make his victims commit suicide by whispering evil spells in their ears. And apparently, Roeg wants Shelly because of the video evidence she has in her possession — a MacGuffin supposedly used to propel the story forward and to keep things more intriguing.

And yet, there’s a little sense of dramatic urgency as the movie progresses. We see Eric and Shelly’s romance eventually end with a tragedy after Roeg’s men manage to track the two down and kill them both. The next thing Eric wakes up, he finds himself in a limbo with lots of crows fluttering around and there’s a spirit guide named Kronos (Sami Bouajila) spewing heavy expositions. How and why Eric is in the afterlife and all, leading to his resurrection back in the real world to exact vengeance.

Eric’s quest for revenge and his power of immortality finally pick up some slack but only to a certain extent. However, his initial attempt to kill and die trying isn’t exactly what you would expect for a vengeful character who can’t die until his mission is fulfilled. He’s more of a reckless amateur at first and prone to failure. It wasn’t until the third act that Eric finally evolved into a super(anti)hero-like character, all equipped with a sword as he brutally slashes and dices the guards in the opera house. Sanders goes all out with the free-flow orgy of blood, gore and violence — the single, most gut-wrenching and well-choreographed action sequence of this otherwise dull and soulless movie. It makes me wonder if the story portrays Eric this way from the beginning of his resurrection, the result might be been a more visceral cinematic experience.

Both Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs try their best to play their respective roles as Eric Draven and Shelly. Skarsgård particularly deserves praise for his committed performance that the late Brandon Lee played so well in the 1994 version.

But they are ultimately hampered by mostly insipid direction and the story — credited to Zach Baylin (Creed III, Gran Turismo) and William Schneider — that drags on and on. Despite the movie’s attempt to flesh out the romance between Eric and Shelly, it feels emotionally hollow. Danny Huston, no stranger to playing antagonists is wasted here with his underwhelming performance as Vincent Roeg, whose supernatural power isn’t as formidable as I thought.