I guess it’s fitting to do a review about a horror film the night before Halloween. So, I figured I’d review a classic. This is actually a remake of the original Night of the Living Dead (1968). It is director George A. Romero’s claim to fame. Tom Savini directed this version, but it was based upon the writing and story by both Romero and John A. Russo. There is nothing complicated about the premise of this movie, it helped to inspire a number of other zombie films.
This was the tagline that was used: “There IS a fate worse than death”. The casting for this film was excellent, and there are some hidden messages in the story if you read between the lines including racism and religion as well as morale values. The undead return to life through an accident, and start to crave the flesh of the living. This theme has been used a number of times over the years. The zombies in this one move rather slow, but they certainly creep up on you after a while.
The cast (aside from the zombies) deliver very convincing character types you find in modern day society. Tony Todd stars as Ben who was brilliant in his performance. He meets up with Patricia Tallman playing the role of Barbara who also delivers a wonderful performance as well. Some people might not know she was the Possessed Witch in the Sam Raimi movie Army of Darkness (1992).The setup starts off with Barbara finding her way from a graveyard to a white house in the countryside. Once she is there she discovers the absolute madness that follows. This was Katie Finneran’s first film appearance as Judy Rose her character Judy is the girlfriend of William Butler who plays the role of Tom. Tom Towles plays a snobby jerk named Harry Cooper. He was very convincing in the role. His wife was played by McKee Anderson as Helen Cooper. She constantly tries to reason with his as he is very demanding and forceful. Johnnie is played by Bill Mosley, David W. Butler plays Hondo, Zachary Mott is Bulldog, Pat Reese is The Mourner, William Cameron is The Newsman, Pat Logan is Uncle Rege, Berle Ellis is the Flaming Zombie, and Bill ‘Chilly Billy’ Cardille plays a T.V. Interviewer.
There have been a number of sequels in this series of films and an upcoming release starring Tony Todd is already in the works and in production titled Escape of the Living Dead (2009). Perhaps it will be in limited release sometime next year. John A. Russo will be directing and he also wrote the screenplay.
The story is basically about revenge, and the lead character coming back through the spirit of a crow giving him the powers to destroy those who wronged him in another life. This film was directed by Alex Proyas and was based upon the comic book series written by James O’Barr. David J. Schow and John Shirley both wrote the screenplay. The late leading actor in this was Bruce Lee’s very own son Brandon Lee, who tragically died while filming on March 31, 1993 at EUE Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina. Apparently, a faulty charge on a prop gun went off, it had a live round in the chamber which was unknown to the crew. The round struck him in the lower abdomen. He later died at New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina around 12 hours later. There were about 8 days left of shooting the rest of the film with him so, a stand-in helped to complete the rest of the scenes his character Eric Draven was in. They used digital effects to paint his face onto the stand-ins, and used these in the final scenes.
Brandon Lee’s character Eric Draven was a rock singer in a band who also plays guitar; his fiancée gets raped and killed the night before Halloween. As time passes around one year later, a crow taps on his gravestone awaking the angel of death returning him to life beholding the spirit and life of the crow. From this point on all hell breaks loose in the city. The crow helps track and hunt down those who killed him and his fiancée Shelly Webster who is played by Sofia Shinas. One of his best friends Sarah figures out what is going on. She was played by Rochelle Davis, who never returned to the screen. This was her only role, and will always be remembered as the little girl with the skateboard. She did come back to the set following the death of Brandon Lee to film the scene where Eric Draven says “Sarah, I do care” with the stand-in body double.
Ernie Hudson best known as Winston Zeddmore from Ghostbusters (1984) plays Sergeant Albrecht who assists Eric in his pursuit while trying his best to uphold the law. Michael Wincott who has a flare for playing villains plays Top Dollar who is the leader of this criminal element within the city. Ling Bai plays Myca who is his woman and by his side trying to help destroy Eric and the crow. Anna Levine plays Darla the drug addicted prostitute mother of Sarah. David Patrick Kelly whom I remember in Dreamscape (1984) as Tommy Ray Glatman with Dennis Quaid plays T-Bird in this film, he uses his wicked wild ways to get what he wants. Angel David is Skank, Laurence Mason is Tin Tin, Michael Massee is Funboy, Tony Todd is Grange and Jon Polito is Gideon the Pawn Shop Owner.
I watched this film in the theatre on its release date, and there was a sense of sadness at the theatre as people looked around at one another before going into the movie. It was haunting to see Brandon Lee in each scene. It was very much like art imitating life. If you like vengeful films, then you will surely enjoy this one. The tagline for the film was “It Can’t Rain All the Time”. There have been two other films released in this series The Crow: City of Angels (1996) and The Crow: Salvation (2000).
