In the age of the remake, the same stories are constantly being recycled, so it is no surprise that cult classics like the 1994 film “The Crow” are being targeted in this phenomenon. With a film as beloved as “The Crow,” fans were immediately skeptical — and rightfully so — when it was announced that director Rupert Sanders would remake the film. With the original being associated with the tragic death of its star, Brandon Lee, it always seemed like a film trapped in time, one that a remake could never touch. And if there is a way to revitalize “The Crow,” it isn’t with Sanders’ film.
The promotion for “The Crow” (2024) initially was compelling. The announcement of critically acclaimed actor Bill Skarsgård and Grammy-nominated artist FKA Twigs for the leading roles hinted at a promising redemption for the series, yet not even their strong performances could overturn the amateurish writing of the film.
The primary pitfall of the work is its lackluster dialogue. The conversations between Eric Draven (Bill Skarsgård) and Shelly Webster (FKA Twigs) feel entirely too dull to represent a magical, death-defying relationship. The couple’s dynamic lacks emotional connection, which is primarily the fault of the prolonged backstory the writers give the characters.
One of the most compelling elements of the original film is the mystery that surrounds Eric and Shelly’s situation. When the audience first meets the two characters, they are already together and happily in love. There is little information given on their history as a couple, and the plot flows perfectly fine without this inclusion.
The new release, on the other hand, spends an exaggerated portion of the film to show how Shelly and Eric’s relationship came to be. In theory, this seems interesting, yet the writers, Will Schneider and Zach Baylin, still manage to underdevelop the couple’s origin. Despite spending a lengthy chunk of the film to explain how the couple met, the connection between the two still feels disingenuous. Eric and Shelly profess their love for one another just moments after meeting in a rehabilitation center, making the relationship come off as adolescent.
This lengthy backstory also takes away time from the actual hook of the plot. “The Crow” follows the premise of Eric and Shelly being wrongfully murdered. So, when a legend explains that unfinished business allows a person to be revived through the spirit of an invincible crow, Eric is brought back to life to avenge his and Shelly’s deaths by executing their murderers.
The 1994 film begins with the death of the couple and uses the remainder of the film to explore Eric’s revenge arc. The movie depicts the struggles he faces, from his grief over Shelly to the physical challenges that come from him tracking down and murdering his assassins.
The 2024 release seems to do the exact opposite. Eric faces hardly any struggle throughout the film, other than a flashback of childhood trauma depicted in a thirty second montage. Because the filmmakers rush through his revenge arc, he faces no difficulty in trying to find his murderers, despite the film being set in a large, busy city. He even dispatches them with comical ease.
Similarly, rather than spending more time with Eric’s dark mission of murdering his killers, the director seems much more interested in a long montage of Eric brutally killing countless security guards at an opera performance. The scene is flooded with unnecessary gore that makes an already hard-to-watch moment even more uncomfortable for viewers.
“The Crow” (2024), along with its rushed, gruesome kill montages, also depicts a villain with little screen time and no true relation to the flow of the plot. In the 1994 version, Shelly and Eric are murdered by a gang that runs the city and the apartment complex in which the couple resides.
In the new release, the villain is Vincent Roeg, a businessman with a vague connection to Shelly’s childhood who is haunted by the devil. In the time used to emphasize Shelly and Eric’s backstory, the writers could have worked to create a clearer understanding of who Roeg is as a villain and how he fits into the story.
The original’s plot only gives Eric superhuman powers as the crow, placing more focus on the mystery that surrounds the legend of the crow.
The 2024 film misses this concept entirely, now awarding both Eric and Vincent with these superhuman powers, normalizing the supernatural elements of the world to the point where no character questions how Eric has suddenly risen from the dead and become an invincible being. This realization that the crow is the root of Eric’s power is a fundamental aspect of the original film that is completely overshadowed in the new release.
“The Crow” (2024) lacks the emotional depth that the first film is still globally celebrated for. The new-age attempt at an angsty, tattooed Bill Skarsgård as the crow completely misses the mark when compared to Brandon Lee. The film does a disservice to the legacy that the original left behind, and it is an embarrassing attempt at a supernatural love story.