The Crow: 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Steelbook

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I remember wanting to see 1994’s The Crow back in my late teens for two reasons, it starred Brandon Lee (son of Bruce Lee) as a cool, goth looking superhero, and for the awesome soundtrack that featured one of my favorite bands at the time, Stone Temple Pilots and their hit single Big Empty.

While it’s been released on DVD and Blu-ray numerous times, it had yet to make its way to 4K, until now with The Crow: 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Steelbook release. Original fans will already have this edition in their collections, while those new to this cult hit will see how and why both the film and its star has been so influential to all forms of media even now.

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The plot is a simple one and based on the graphic novel from James O’Barr, in which we follow the life of a rock musician named Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) who is murdered along with his girlfriend Shelly (Sofia Shinas) by a gang looking to have some twisted, evil fun on Devil’s Night.

One year later a mystical crow lands on Eric’s tombstone and raises him from the dead, giving him the chance to avenge the death of himself and Shelly at long last. It also grants him supernatural abilities such as being able to quickly heal from any injury, being able to find his enemies and see them through the crow’s eyes, making him an immortal boogeyman to the bad guys.

With the help of Sergeant Daryl Albrecht (Ernie Hudson), a police officer that also wants closure to Eric and Shelly’s murder case, Eric sets out to kill everyone involved with their deaths that will lead him to the gang’s leader, Top Dollar (Michael Wincott), who has his own plans for taking over the city and for dealing with Eric and his crow.

This is one of my all-time favorite movies and watching it again after all these years was like seeing it again for the first time. It still holds up pretty well, even with some of the dated special effects and the tricks they used to finish the film after Brandon Lee died while filming.

This is especially the case with the 4K UHD remastering with HDR color, as the movie has never looked cleaner and detailed as it does here, but not so much as to lose its cinematic look and appeal. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless audio is just as awesome, as every line of dialogue and sound effect rings through perfectly along with the rocking soundtrack of 90’s grunge at its best.

There’s also some new and previously released special features that die-hard fans such as myself will get a kick out of, starting with the brand new three-part documentary “Shadows & Pain: Designing The Crow”. Here production designer Alex McDowell goes into extensive details about designing the film, his experiences working with director Alex Proyas to bring the graphic novel to life, working with Brandon Lee and more.

Some will already be familiar with the older, previously released extras such as older audio commentaries, extended/deleted scenes (I loved finding out about the deleted Skull Cowboy scenes as it made me wish they could’ve kept the character in the final cut), behind the scenes footage and interview, and loads more. Then if you’re fortunate enough to get the steelbook release, the images of Brandon Lee as Eric on the inside and outside of the beautiful case are amazing.

Fans of this 90s hit will already have The Crow: 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Steelbook on their shelf, or still sitting in their 4K player as this is the best way to view this awesome film as it’s never looked or sounded better than it does here. The special features help serve to make this film even more iconic and ensures there will always be fans of this original classic, and maybe not so much of the sequels and reboots.