The Crow: 30th Anniversary Edition (1994) 4K UHD Steelbook Review: Grim Classic Adaptation Returns

There’s no getting around Brandon Lee’s death when discussing The Crow. An actor’s death during the production or release of a movie is going to affect how it’s seen. But the irony of the film being about an untimely, violent end makes it even more unavoidable. And it can make it difficult to separate the film from the tragedy that surrounds it. Because The Crow, which is a remarkably assured feature debut by Alex Proyas, is far from a flawless film.

It starts at a crime scene. A man is dead on the pavement, having been shot and thrown out a window. A woman is still in the apartment, alive but dying. She doesn’t make it, but a year later some force in the world has decided that it doesn’t like this turn of events one bit. So, a crow pecks at his gravestone, until Eric Draven bursts out of his grave. At first disoriented and terrified, he eventually remembers the events of that night. And he knows why he’s come back to life: for revenge.

One by one, Eric hunts down the four men who murdered him and his fiancée Shelly. At the same time, he encounters a few people who knew him from life: Albrecht, a cop who was on the scene after his murder, and Sarah, a street urchin Eric and his fiancée took care of. The cop wants to take him in, but how do you arrest a dead man? And Eric doesn’t know that his personal revenge is raising the ire of the town’s crime boss, Top Dollar.

The Crow is adapted from the comic book by James O’Barr. While it changes many of the plot details from the book, it is absolutely dead-on in capturing the tone. O’Barr wrote the book after the death of his own fiancée and channeled all of his grief into this story of supernatural revenge. The aesthetic of the book, ’90s goth with tight leather and white face make-up, is perfectly translated to the screen. Despite having a very low budget, The Crow manages to evoke the exaggerated over-the-top feel of a comic book.

What’s missing in the film is inevitable, given the death of the main actor. Eric Draven’s action and revenge story feels pretty intact. Eric Draven, the living man, is not. His and Shelly’s love story needs to be at the heart of the film. To justify bringing a man back from the dead, it needs to be special. But we don’t really experience it except for gauzy flashbacks. Eric’s interactions with other characters, barring a scene or two, are a little slim, as well. The Crow is missing a lot of its core, making it feel at times incomplete.

Which is especially unfortunate since Brandon Lee gives an unusually committed performance in this role. In earlier roles I’ve seen him in, he didn’t show that much promise as an actor. Charming, handsome, but glib. Here he hints at an unexplored depth. The rest of the performances are fine, with most of the villains going pretty broad in their portrayal of comic book street thugs. Ernie Hudson is typically earnest as the cop Albrecht. Michael Wincott’s Top Dollar seems perpetually amused at his own debauched villainy.

And it’s still gorgeous to look at, and this new 4K UHD release shows it off at its best. The blacks are detailed, and the film grain is present without going overboard, so it has none of the over-smoothed look some 4K UHD releases have been plagued with. The movie is 30 years old, so the added clarity and detail of a release like this makes dated special effects stand out more. But the direction is so stylish and the art direction so specific that that trumps any janky compositions or obviously rotoscoped crows.

While acknowledging some of the film’s problems, I found myself enjoying revisiting The Crow this time more than I have in the past. The Crow has such a commitment to its very specific style, it hardly matters that sometimes the story takes a backseat. But it’s beautifully made, and this is a beautiful release of a movie at once thrilling and sad.

The Crow 30th Anniversary edition has been released on 4K UHD by Paramount Pictures in both standard and Steelbook cases. This release does not have the film on Blu-ray but includes a digital code. Extras on disc include a pair of commentaries, one by director Alex Proyas and another by producer Jeff Most and writer John Shirley. Extras new to this release include “Shadows & Pain: Designing The Crow” (24 min), where production designer goes Alex McDowell goes through various aspects of the film’s production; and “Sideshow Collectibles: An Interview with Edward R. Pressman” (14 min), which is an overview of various The Crow figurines that have been available for sale.

Archival extras include a behind the scenes featurette (17 min); “A Profile on James O’Barr” (34 min); extended scenes (12 min); Deleted scene montage (5 min), and a trailer.