They’ve gone and Jokerfied The Crow

Bill Skarsgård, his mullet, and a flurry of stick-and-poke tattoos bring a Gen Z edge to the Gen X superhero

By Matt Schimkowitz | February 29, 2024 | 12:36am

Aux News Crow

Bill Skarsgård and FKA twigs
Photo: Larry Horricks

At this point, Alex Proyas’ The Crow is a known more for make-up and tragedy than story. Though it unleashed a slew of direct-to-DVD sequels and gave an all-time great pro wrestler a killer gimmick, it’s hard to imagine anyone being particularly precious about the character. He’s a cult favorite and that low-key status in the superhero landscape probably gave producers some wiggle room to do things a little differently for the 2024 remake. However, it really seems like Bill Skarsgård’s makeup is a little too indebted to Jared Leto’s Joker.

That’s not to say it looks terrible. It’s hard to tell how this will play on screen, especially with a talent as formidable as Skarsgård behind the makeup. But it’s hard not to feel a little disappointed by the lack of corpse paint. That said, at least there’s no discerning “damaged” tattoo—although his nipple does serve as one of tattoo’s eyeball, and the nipple is crying, so that’s kind of cool. Other tattoos of note: The word “Boy” and a centipede crawling out of his groin. You know what? As long as someone utters Jon Polito’s catchphrase from the movie, it might be pretty good.

Here are some more glamor shots from The Crow:

The film, which co-stars singer FKA Twigs and Danny Huston, isn’t a remake so much as a “reimagining of the original graphic novel by James O’Barr.” The plot is basically the same as Alex Proyas’ 1994 movie. Draven and his girlfriend are murdered, and he’s given a chance to return to the living world to seek revenge on his killers and, hopefully, bring her back from the dead.

The Crow and his sobbing nipple of justice hits theaters on June 7.

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