#anna thomson

This movie is rough around the edges but I think that makes it all the more endearing. There are wacky camera shots, wacky costumes, wacky characters, Hell, sometimes the main guy will just be up on a rooftop wailing on a guitar between scenes just to be cool. How did he even get equipment up there to play (it's an electric guitar)? I don't know but he did it! And then he smashes the damn thing and gets serious about killing. Anyway, here is the story.

One year ago on Devil’s Night (the night before Halloween) Eric Draven and his fiancée Shelley are murdered in cold blood for trying to help get/keep housing for the needy. This year, Devil’s night, Eric Draven rises from his grave only to learn what happened to his beloved and get revenge. First visiting his old home he finds it in tatters, memories flood back, he remembers dying. The sickos left the cat alone which is the only good thing they did. Eric dawns some makeup, his mask, and he becomes The Crow. It should also be mentioned that there is a crow familiar that aids, guides, and/or follows Eric.

Slowly and steadily Eric makes his way through those who harmed his love, they all have silly names but serious attitude problems. After disposing of the trash, a calling card in the shape of a crow is left for whoever finds the victim. This leaves police baffled but warns the only members of the crew left that death is coming for them. Eric wants them to know. He even lets one of the minor offenders live just so the guy could be a messenger that Eric was coming (dearly departed, Eric, that is). This is all sending shockwaves up the killer crew, who don’t want to believe in ghosts but are having a hard time with all the evidence being presented to them.

Eric finally just shows up, absorbing bullets and walking around like a certain X-man, kicking all sorts of ass. The long haired baddie takes his creepy sister (is it really his sister?) and escapes. Eric has finished his vengeance, or so he thinks, and is ready to finish his dirt nap but the long haired baddie calls him out by kidnapping Eric’s kid friend, Sarah! This time the baddies realize that if they shoot at The Crow familiar they can actually hurt Eric so they do and they can! Yikes! Wack! But Eric isn’t just going to lie down and die… Again… No, this time he keeps fighting, his injured crow pecks the creepy sister's eyes out and she falls to her death. 

Last but not least is a rainy rooftop battle with the long haired baddie, there's a sword, Eric grabs a piece of the building to swing around, it was a pretty intense scene. All hope seems lost when Eric gets run through with the sword but then he turns around and sends the memories of all his sadness about Shelley dying into the baddie. All that concentrated sadness at once was so shocking to him that he fell off the roof and died! Wack! But a nice use of those horrible memories! Sarah is safe now, she will miss Eric but he is really ready to die again. And who better to greet him than Shelley, she welcomes him back as if to Heaven (her arms) and when we pan out we see their graves undisturbed. Really a beautiful story about an avenging spirit who was brought back to do a job. It may look a little silly in some lights because of the face paint and names but this is a love story of Eric and Shelley who were to be married on Halloween but their lives were cut tragically short.