"Do beleive in angels"

“Darker than the bat” claimed the UK promo poster for this gothic thriller, and you would have a hard time arguing other wise. Based on the violent comic mini series by James o’ Barr, the big screen version stays very close to the original source. On Devils night (a fictional eve of Halloween), a murdered rock musician, Eric Draven, returns from the grave by the power of a mysterious crow, to reek revenge on those who killed he and his fiancée Shelly. After realising the power he has over the regular living person, he paints his face like some kind of demon and heads out into the night with the crow perched on his shoulder like the guardian that it is. Officer Albret, the cop who investigated the original murder of the couple is brought back into Eric's life, as is a young girl named Sarah who was close to the couple before they died at the hands of T-Bird and his ruthless gang. One by one Eric kills the maniacs, until he reaches the man behind it all.

The best scene comes when Eric is dispatching a group of the cities criminals at the gangs nightclub headquarters, when Eric stops and coldly says, “You’re all going to die”. With the haunting score by Graeme Revell that accompanies Erics rampage during the final stages of the battle, with the added strobe light effects, it really does send a shiver down your spine. This was the movie that Brandon Lee died while filming; when a bullet lodged in a gun was fired and pierced his skull. The film was completed using CGI, doubles and shooting extra scenes involving the Sarah character making her more of a lead role as well as Brandon.

This would have been the movie that launched the career of Brandon to the height of his father. It is odd however that both he and Bruce both made five films in their adult life and the fifth one in both cases had to be completed with camera trickery and doubles. Maybe the Lee family demon legend is true (Not to the extent of Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story though) I must add thought that if The Crow had stuck exactly to the comics, scene by scene, the censors would have either heavily butchered it or it would be banned out right. Because some scenes in the original comic are very unsettling indeed, especially the killing and subsequent rape of Shelly. I guess it just goes to show the true power of literature. At the end of the day, The Crow is a darkly gothic twisted love story with a pumping sound track from the likes of Pantera, Stone Temple Pilots and Nine Inch Nails which compliments the film greatly. If this movie doesn't make you feel something then you're dead from the neck up.

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