“he KILLed ouT of Love ANd reveNge”

CHRIS MOTIONLESS EXPLAINS WHY ERIC DRAVEN IS SUCH A STRONG CHARACTER

release, and grossing more than $50million domestically. Critics praised its dark visuals, although some felt it borrowed too heavily from existing films and wouldn’t have amounted to anything if it weren’t for fate’s cruel hand. ‘Were it not for Brandon Lee’s death… the movie itself would be little more than your basic heavy-metal occult revenge thriller, complete with rain-swept futuristic dreamscapes right out of Blade Runner and Batman,’ read one review in Entertainment Weekly.

Despite the ghoulish intrigue surrounding its conception (there had been a string of minor accidents on set even before Brandon’s death), much of its success was down to timing – alternative culture was bubbling below the surface, and it exploded with the movie, which was accompanied by a zeitgeist-capturing soundtrack featuring the likes of The Cure, Nine Inch Nails and Stone Temple Pilots.

“It hit the American market just at the right time, where people were discovering post-punk – or what was called industrial in America,” says James. “Things were happening with the music and the dark fashion, and then The Crow came out and pushed it into the mainstream. So now you were cool to be wearing eyeliner, whereas you were a freak two years earlier.”

The cultural climate may have shifted during the last 23 years, but The Crow’s legacy has endured in everything from the appearance of pro-wrestler Sting, to Rammstein’s painted faces in the Mein Land video, to the clothing on the shelves of Hot Topic, to the imagery of bands such as Motionless In White. Singer Chris Motionless saw the film in 2001, when he was 15, and beginning to immerse himself in goth and metal. His band have a song called Devil’s Night, and Eric’s look has long influenced his style.

“I think the aesthetic has loomed over my presence as a person for a long time,” he says. “I’ve circulated between four tried-and-true looks I’ve always loved, but the 90s one always seems to pull me back, because it’s the earliest influence. I think the strong, passionate love story is what really attracts people to The Crow. People were OK with him killing these people because it was out of love and revenge.”

The Crow spawned a series of forgettable sequels, but an upcoming remake from British director Corin Hardy, with Jason Momoa rumoured to be playing Eric, is set to revive it for a new era. Yet the legacy of the original film – and the comic book – lives on.