31 Days of Halloween: The Crow

1994, Alex Proyas (Knowing) -- download

Devil's night was a thing in Detroit up until... well, the release of this movie. It would happen on October 30 and involve mischief, pranks and petty acts of vandalism, but by the 90s had become synonymous with arson. The movie begins on that night in a run-down neighbourhood (technically, a miniature model neighbourhood) when a small band of criminals rape & murder Shelly Webster and her boyfriend Eric Draven.

A year later, Eric crawls out of his grave to exact revenge on those who took his life from him.

I have referenced The Crow a lot in this blog, as it sort of set the template for the emotionally driven, supernaturally fueled revenge flick in years to follow. And while, in this umpteenth rewatch, it still stands up for the most part, my fondness is still mostly now steeped in nostalgia from the days I eagerly anticipated watching it in the cinema.

What draws Eric out of the ground? Love. The Crow is just his guide from the afterlife back to the world of the living. He returns without an understanding of what or why he is, but utterly saturated by the anguish of his, and Shelly's death. 

This movie was all about style, the characters and the situations like little action figures being played with on this gutter diorama set. The criminals, from Top Dollar down to Skank, are caricatures of real criminals. Only T-Bird, with his unexplained, gruesome scars (who shot him thru the cheeks?) seems to be a legit thug. Even the cops seem only focused on this neighborhood, which in all honesty, I don't think the city would miss if it all burned down. And there are so many scenes that are indelibly implanted on my brain. And the initial choices of music, The Cure and Nine Inch Nails; so on point for the subcultures that would love this movie.

In the end, this is not a horror movie nor even really a Halloween movie (as its set on Oct 30), but it fits the .... subculture of Halloween lovers: Goths, weird kids, revenge takers risen from the dead.