The Crow Movies in Order: The Complete Chronological Guide
In 1989, James O’Barr created the character of the Crow. The Crow debuted in a comic book O’Barr wrote as a means of dealing with the death of his fiancée at the hands of a drunk driver, which makes sense if you know the plot of the whole series. The Crow became an underground icon of the 1990s and has since gathered a cult following.
In this article, we are going to bring you all the Crow movies and series in the proper chronological order. Alongside the chronological order, we are going to bring you some additional info on the movies and the whole franchise, mainly through answering some burning questions, but also through the production info about the movies you’re going to receive.
How Many Crow Movies and Series Are There?
As of November 2021, the Crow franchise consists of four live-action movies and one television series, i.e., a total of five works. They are as follows:
- The Crow (1994), directed by Alex Proyas
- The Crow: City of Angels (1996), directed by Tim Pope
- The Crow: Stairway to Heaven (1998–1999), television series directed by Scott Williams
- The Crow: Salvation (2000), directed by Bharat Nalluri
- The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005), directed by Lance Mungia
The Crow Franchise in Chronological Order
This section is going to list the Crow franchise in the proper chronological order. The order doesn’t coincide with the actual release order, but we’ve opted to go with the plot as a relevant factor.
The Crow (1994)
Director: Alex Proyas
Writer(s): David J. Schow, John Shirley
Release Date: May 13, 1994
Running Time: 102 minutes
On October 30, in Detroit, Eric Draven and Shelly Webster are found in their apartment, the day before their wedding. Eric went through the window, dead instantly. Shelly is in critical condition after being tortured and raped. Eric and Shelly are buried side by side. Their friend, little Sarah, lays flowers for them, but a crow watches.
At nightfall, Eric returns from the dead. Disturbed, confused, he is guided by the crow to his apartment, abandoned in the state. Assaulted by memories, moments of happiness return to him, as well as his death, and that of his beloved. Mad with anger, he puts on make-up like a mask belonging to Shelly, and pulls out his gothic clothes.
Enraged and invincible, he is determined to take his revenge. Aided by the crow, he tracks down and kills all those responsible for Shelly’s death one after the other. The police, including the inspector who investigated their deaths, are on his trail. Eric also finds Sarah, whom he protects.
Aided by the inspector, he is determined to destroy the gang that runs the city. However, they understood the link between the raven and Eric. While the latter has made a real massacre, he is injured and the link with the raven is thus severed. Sarah is in danger but Eric does not give up.
The Crow: Stairway to Heaven (1998 – 1999)
Original Run: September 25, 1998 – May 22, 1999
Number of Episodes: 22
The plot of the pilot is based on that of the first movie, The Crow. Also in the television series, the musician Eric Draven returns after his murder with unearthly abilities among the living, where he is protected by a crow (the messenger of the soul).
He is condemned to linger on earth as a ruthless undead and to atone for all the injustices to which he once fell victim. Only then is it possible for him to be led into the hereafter as a so-called intermediate being (“Crow”). First, he avenges his death and that of his girlfriend – unlike in the movie – he has to stay on earth until there is a balance between good and bad (which he tries to establish in the following 21 episodes).
The last episode ended with a cliffhanger that was not disbanded because Universal Studios bought the producing film company PolyGram and was not interested in a sequel afterwards.
The Crow: City of Angels (1996)
Director: Tim Pope
Writer(s): David S. Goyer
Release Date: August 30, 1996
Running Time: 84 minutes
In an area of Los Angeles where drug lord Judah Earl (Richard Brooks) controls all of the mechanic Ashe Corven (Vincent Pérez) and his eight-year-old son, Danny (Eric Acosta), accidentally witness Judah’s gang of thugs murder a dealer.
Judah’s men capture Ashe and Danny and after torturing them they are tied up, riddled with bullets, and their bodies were thrown to the bottom of the sea at the dock. Later, a young tattoo artist named Sarah (Mia Kirshner) has been having dreams about Ashe and Danny, and one day she is visited in her apartment by a raven, realizing that the story she lived in her childhood when Eric Draven returned from home will be repeated.
grave to get revenge on those who murdered him and his girlfriend. Sarah follows her premonitions to the pier during the night of All Saints’ Day, and witnesses Ashe’s resurrection. Sarah takes him to her apartment and explains that he has been resurrected to have the opportunity to punish those who killed him and thus avenge Danny.
She subsequently uses Danny’s paintings to imitate the way Eric Draven made up his face. A while later Ashe makes the first visit to Spider-Monkey (Vicente Castellanos), in his drug laboratory and interrogates him about who else was involved in their deaths, later, he murders him by setting fire to the place full of flammable chemicals with him inside creating a shock wave that causes debris to form the silhouette of a crow.
The Crow: Salvation (2000)
Director: Bharat Nalluri
Writer(s): Chip Johannessen
Release Date: January 23, 2000
Running Time: 102 minutes
Alexander “Alex” Frederick Corvis (Eric Mabius) is falsely accused of the murder of his girlfriend, Lauren Randall (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe), who received 53 stab wounds at the hands of corrupt police officers. Three years later, he is executed by electric chair.
Shortly after the execution, Alex is resurrected by a mystical crow endowed with supernatural powers, so that he can clear his name and avenge Lauren’s death. He peels the burned flesh off his face, revealing the raven look of him.
Alex follows the raven to Salt Lake City, and enters the evidence room of the police department, where he discovers the truth about Lauren’s murder. Alex has a vision of one of the killers, who has a scar on his arm, just like one he saw just before his execution. A
lex finds the knife that was used to murder Lauren and then heads to her grave. There, he meets Lauren’s sister, Erin (Kirsten Dunst), who believes that he is guilty. He tells her that she is going to prove her innocence somehow and disappears. Alex meets Tommy Leonard (David Stevens), the man who was paid to lie about Alex at trial.
Tommy tells Alex that the cops who murdered Lauren were Madden (Bruce McCarthy), Martin Toomey (Tim DeKay), James Erlich (Dale Midkiff), Stan Roberts (Walton Goggins), and Phillip Dutton (Bill Mondy).
The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005)
Director: Lance Mungia
Writer(s): Lance Mungia, Jeff Most, Sean Hood
Release Date: June 3, 2005
Running Time: 99 minutes
The film takes place in the barren landscape of an Indian reserve, where the local Indians of the mining town of Lave Ravazu, who lead a life with no prospects here, increasingly feel left alone by the state and industry. However, the local mine is to be closed so that the local Indian tribe can open a casino.
The outsider and ex-convict Jimmy Cuervo lives on the fringes of society with his dog in a scrap-ripe and neglected caravan. He has long been in a relationship with Lilly, the daughter of the tribal priest, whom he, much to the chagrin of her family, intends to marry.
Unfortunately, one day he and his mate fall victim to the charismatic and brutal leader of a satanic gang, Luc Crash aka “Death”, and his violent friend Lola Byrne. Crash, a childhood friend of Cuervo and a former fellow prisoner, carries out an execution with Lola in front of his three loyal gang members, as a result of which Cuervo and Lilly die.
The bizarre couple wants to acquire demonic powers by killing them, in order to conjure up the devil and to revive it in the body of Luc Crash. The death of the two is only supposed to be the beginning of this ritual.
However, the murdered youth returns with the help of the power of the Crow and before the completion of the apocalyptic ritual from the realm of the dead to seek revenge on the gang of Satanists running amok.
Do You Need to Watch the Crow Movies in Order?
Unlike some other franchises, The Crow franchise is only loosely connected. The movies are sequels to each other, but they are standalone sequels and you don’t need to watch them in any particular order. The television series is a reimaging of the events of the first movie, so they actually tell the same story.
Will There Be More Crow Movies?
As of November 2021, no official news regarding a new Crow movie has been released. There have been plans for a revival of the franchise, but as of 2018, these plans seem to be canceled. Namely, Corin Hardy was set to direct the revival with Jason Momoa starring, but both parties quit the project and since then, no news has been released about the project.
