The Crow: Wicked Prayer DVD Review

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Title: The Crow: Wicked Prayer

Region: One

Genre: Live Action Comic Book Inspired Revenge/Action Flick

Stars: Edward Furlong, Tara Reid, David Boreanaz, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Dennis Hopper, Marcus Chong, Tito Ortiz, Yuji Okumoto, Dave L. Ortiz, Rena Owen, Danny Trejo, and Macy Gray

Writers: Lance Mungia, Jeff Most, and Sean Hood

Inspired By The Novel “The Crow: Wicked Prayer” By: Norman Partridge

Based On The Comic Book Series and Comic Strip By: James O’Barr

Director: Lance Mungia

Feature length: 99 minutes

Extras: Audio Commentary Tracks, Deleted Scenes, Storyboards, Featurettes, Galleries, and Previews

Languages: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Captions and Closed Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles

Packaging: Keep Case

Chapter Stops: 14

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Year of DVD Release: 2005

Home Video Distributor: Dimension Home Video

MPAA Rating: R

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

The original feature film adaptation of “The Crow” was popular and noteworthy for more reasons than I could list here and it has inspired a short lived syndicated TV series, various books, comics, and three feature film sequel/spin-offs. Both a novel as well as James O’Barr’s comic book series and comic strip inspired this particular film in the franchise with a purposeful eye toward doing something somewhat different than the previous installments. Edward Furlong portrays Jimmy Cuervo, an ex-con completing his probation for the death of a man his age that had been manhandling his girlfriend Lilly (Emmanuelle Chriqui) and in his rage over protecting the woman he loved, Cuervo beat him to death. While serving his time he came into contact with Crash (David Boreanaz), a charismatic madman seeking a way to become Satan incarnate. Though Cuervo never joined Crash’s cult, the guilt by association did not do anything extra to help him cope with his parole within the desert reservation borders. On the last day of his parole, Cuervo goes to visit Lily with the intention of making their love permanent and leaving the area forever that night when his parole is over, but fate places him and his girlfriend in the clutches of Crash and his gang who brutally murder them in a Satanic ritual.

That night as Crash prepares the finalize his transformation into the antichrist, the crow reanimates Cuervo as an angelic like avenger to prevent Crash’s evil plans and to put to rest the restless souls of Cuervo and his girlfriend. My expectations for this film were quite low. I liked the original film, but hated the sequel and I have never seen the third film “The Crow: Salvation” or watched the TV series “The Crow: Stairway To Heaven.” To add to my low expectations was the terrible cover art used for the DVD packaging, which in my opinion made Furlong look like a cross between an angry mime and a Transylvanian from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” However to my surprise “The Crow: Wicked Prayer” is an engaging and above average straight to video film in part because it has a certain element of camp to it that reminds the viewer to relax and enjoy it because in the end it is just a movie and an entertaining one at that.

It’s not better than the first film, but it is much better than “The Crow: City Of Angels” with a style that is very different from the first two films. Cuervo would rather be dead than be forced to avenge his and his girlfriend’s lives and is tormented by the memories of their deaths. His mission is to extract two lifetimes and one pair of eyes and his heart from the people responsible. Tara Reid’s character literally cut out his girlfriend’s eyes while she was still alive and Crash hung them both and cut out Cuervo’s heart. Being a reanimated being isn’t easy even with the powers of an archangel. Cuervo has difficulty understanding his new abilities and gets little sympathy from those around him, even once they find out he has returned with the power of the crow. Tara Reid provides the eye candy and does a good job chewing up the scenery as well as making fun of her own tabloid image by referring to herself in character as “white trash” while David Boreanaz basically does his maniacal “evil Angel” bit from television and genuinely lets loose and runs with it. Dennis Hopper has a typically off kilter cameo along with Macy Gray. Danny Trejo lends his considerable character persona playing a reservation spiritual leader and father of the murdered girl. The action is pretty straight forward and the film has none of the gloss of the first two features and even if some of the character action is so inexplicable that it is stupefying, I still think that if your expectations are low and you take the film at face value, you should find “The Crow: Wicked Prayer” to be quite an entertaining DVD to check out.

Though the disc is not marked as a part of the Miramax/Dimension “Collector’s Series” that the three previous films on DVD were, “The Crow: Wicked Prayer” is chock full of extra value material that includes no less than four feature length audio commentary tracks. All feature Writer and Director Lance Mungia with the first one shared by Producer Jeff Most and the second commentary shared with Cinematographer Kurt Brabbe, Film Editor Dean Holland, and Sound Designer Steven Avila. The third commentary track includes Music Composer Jamie Christopherson while the final commentary track is shared by the film’s star Edward Furlong, who admits to being uncomfortable doing DVD commentaries. Some of the audio commentary tracks are very screen specific while others are more conversational. The general impression that I think is easy to understand from watching the supporting featurettes as well as listening to the audio commentary tracks is that the film was really a labor of love for all involved.

The supporting materials include a making of documentary (29:45), a featurette on the cars used in the film (2:34), a storyboard to completed scene comparison (4:31), a videotaped conversation between the filmmakers (3:43), two letterboxed deleted/extended scenes (4:15), an interview with the composer (3:29), a motion photo gallery (1:30) and a regular production still photo gallery. Home video previews before the main menu that include “Sin City,” “Hostage,” and “Cursed” as well as additional previews for “Wes Craven Presents Dracula III: Legacy” (: 59), “Hellraiser: Hellworld” (: 57), and the upcoming home video releases for the latest entries in “The Prophecy” series (1:27) wrap up the bonus content on this DVD.

“The Crow: Wicked Prayer” is presented in a clear anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio with a well rounded and somewhat aggressive English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack as well as English Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles encoded onto the dual layered DVD as options. The menus are all standard interactive still frames that are easy to navigate.

I enjoyed “The Crow: Wicked Prayer” a lot more than I expected to and I hope you all will too now that it is available on DVD-Video at retailers on and offline courtesy of Dimension Home Video.

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