THE CROW (2024) - REVIEW

I watched this movie over a week ago and I’ve been waiting for some kind of strong opinion to hit me one way or another. I waited, and waited, and waited, and it just didn’t happen. The feeling wouldn’t come. I was beginning to fear that I had lost all sensation entirely, and that I was doomed to walk my remaining days on this earth in some sort of phantasmic liminal state. 

Then I took a moment and breathed a sigh of relief. No, I am no ghost. Just like The Crow, I am alive and only suffering the effects of a very medium movie. 

 So should the Crow really be walking the earth again? The biggest fault in the movie is a failure to illicit a strong response one way or the other. It’s no photo copy of the original film, thankfully, but it’s also not different enough to make a strong point for itself. 

So is it a terrible movie? No. But is it a good one? Also no. Bill Skarsgard, a very talented actor, does the best with a narrative that feels like it belongs in the early 2000s, but it’s hard to watch this movie and not wonder to myself if “Pennywise” plus “Boy Kills World” really equals “The Crow”?

That being said, there’s a couple things that are welcome additions in this Crow reboot. The amplified blood and violence felt like a true representation of the original graphic novel, and a villain with dark supernatural powers felt right at home in a story about supernatural birds from the underworld. However, those elements seem to be applied (as most things in this movie) in more in an “action” style that works against the overall piece in this humble reviewer’s opinion. This story could benefit from much more of a tragic horror-drama feel. Most importantly it would benefit from caring less about recreating story elements and more about recreating the feeling and spirit of its source material. 

For a remake like this to really work, it needs a true reason to claw its way back from the grave. This Crow (2024), while having some impressive action sequences and interesting elements, fails to take enough chances to give itself a new identity, add to the lore, or find a reason to keep fighting. 

written by Jordan Miller | September 9, 2024