1994’s The Crow is getting the much-maligned reboot treatment. This week we’ll look back at each film in the series to try and understand why this series has staying power.

The Crow in 1994 was billed as a gothic superhero film. Superhero films at the time were not what they are today, but they still had some ticket-selling power. This was also 1994, the peak of grunge and goth. And The Crow is about as dark and edge lord as it gets. The original film did a lot of things. It isn’t a bad movie, but it is probably most famous for being the last film of up-and-coming film star Brandon Lee who died in a tragic onset accident.

Brandon Lee was the son of famed martial artist and movie star Bruce Lee. Brandon had starred in some smaller productions but The Crow was meant to be his big break. He had done some martial arts films, turned down a chance to play his father in a movie, and now wanted to make a name for himself in Hollywood. The Crow was the perfect opportunity as it was sleek, cool, and the type of film that would separate him from his father’s legacy.

Brandon Lee was tragically killed by a poorly handled weapon on the set of the film. It was an onset accident not too dissimilar to the incident with Alec Baldwin on the set of Rust. A combination of lax safety on set and actors with no firearm safety experience led to Brandon being fatally shot in the stomach with only eight days left in the shooting schedule. The production team decided to move forward, finishing the film with his stunt double standing in for Lee’s remaining scenes. The filmmakers also utilized CGI techniques to superimpose Lee’s face on other actors for various crucial scenes. The film finished production and a year after Brandon Lee’s fatal on-set accident, The Crow received a wide release in theaters.

The Crow is billed as a gothic superhero flick, but it plays much closer to a horror or revenge flick. Eric Draven, the film’s protagonist played by Brandon Lee, comes home to find his fiancee Shelly Webster being brutally attacked by a gang of neerdowells. Shelly and Eric are killed in the subsequent encounter and one year to the day, the day before Halloween, Eric is mysteriously resurrected by a supernatural crow. His mission is to bring vengeance to the ones who murdered him and his soon wife to be.

While Eric Draven isn’t a superhero in the traditional sense, he does have some supernatural powers, mainly that he cannot be killed. The crow following him is the source of his power but Eric who is continuously shot and pulverized in this movie, instantaneously regenerates. His powers are similar to Deadpool or Wolverine. He’s pretty strong and has some fighting abilities, but his main power is regeneration. The dude can take a bullet. Which makes for a strange dichotomy throughout the film. We are constantly seeing our hero being shot and surviving throughout the film. Our hero who is portrayed famously by an actor who was shot and killed on the set of the film. Obviously his powers are a central plot point of the film and the filmmakers couldn’t remove all of those scenes, but it does leave the audience with an uneasy feeling watching Brandon Lee get shot over and over again in this film knowing the outcome of the star. It’s not anyone’s fault that this unease permeates every scene, but it is a hard visual to overcome.

The film’s aesthetic is really the selling point of not just the film but the entire franchise. It’s a totally goth-centered movie, with a soundtrack full of Nine Inch Nails and The Cure. The whole film has a strange edge-lord quality to it, with our heroes and villains both costumed in leather pants, long leather jackets, and tight black shirts. Eric Draven for most of the film wears pale white clown makeup on his face which contrasts well with the dark aesthetic of the rest of the film. This is pulled straight from the comic the film is based on but it is a striking visual choice that looks great in the film. Brandon Lee also nails his performance. When The Crow was first released critics praised Brandon Lee but their praise wasn’t undue. He truly does a standout job, making the character of Eric a creepy mix of Batman and the Joker rolled into one. He’s on a mission for vengeance but unlike his bat-dressed comic peer, he has no rules. And unlike other lawless protagonists like The Punisher, he isn’t overly serious. He brings the perfect amount of camp and charm to this role, making us believe this was a genuinely good guy, filled with personality, who had his life destroyed. Eric Draven is out for his pound of flesh, and he gets it.

While the story is supposedly a superhero tale, the film plays much more like a horror movie. The main crux of the film is the kills with Eric Draven slowly and methodically taking out each perpetrator one by one in spectacular fashion. The camera does a great job of capturing these moments and adding some striking visual cues to the madness. Each kill is more outlandish than the last and the film culminates in an epic rooftop battle scene. The cinematography isn’t perfect, and the direction isn’t flawless, but it captures everything the film sets out to achieve. It’s a fun revenge movie with a killer soundtrack that satiates the audience’s lust for on-screen violence.

The Crow isn’t a perfect movie but it is a surprisingly competent one. There have been a few sequels and attempted reboots that attempt to capture the story but none of them have been able to. This first Crow movie was made as a vehicle for Brandon Lee and it does exactly that. It’s a shame we never got to see more of the talented actor but at least this is the film we get to remember him by. The Crow is a 7 and I’m excited to see what a reboot of this first film looks like.