How To Watch The Crow Movies In Order Of Release? Watch Guide Explored

The Crow is a gothic franchise about love, loss and vengeance. Here is a guide to watching the five films in chronological order of their release.

By Sanjukta Choudhury

Published on Aug 25, 2024 | 04:59 PM IST | 73.3K

The Crow Movies In Order (Image Credit: IMDb)

The Crow is a Goth superhero movie franchise that spans five films in total. The series, based on James O'Barr's comic books, follows a group of people who are tragically murdered and then resurrected and guided by a crow to seek vengeance against their murderers.

The franchise begins with the movie The Crow starring Brandon Lee as the central character. Although the rest of the films in the franchise didn't receive much success, both commercially and critically, they still managed to capture the gothic essence.

All five movies, however, aren't exactly related to each other. Despite the basic premise revolving around the characters being murdered and revived, the movies don't share the exact same storyline and characters, except for the recent remake of The Crow (1994). However, with the remake of the first movie being released recently, and its 20th anniversary, there is no better time to watch the whole franchise and revisit the gothic nostalgia.

Let's take a chronological look at the The Crow franchise from the first to the fifth movie.

1. The Crow (1994)

The Crow follows rock star Eric Draven (Brandon Lee), who along with his fiancée Shelly Webster (Sofia Shinas) are brutally murdered by members of a street gang, on the eve of their wedding. After his death, Eric's soul is guided to the afterlife by a crow but is restless to return to earth to seek vengeance. With help from the crow, he comes back to life as a superhuman entity and hunts down the murderers who took his and his fiancée’s lives.

2. The Crow II: City of Angels (1996)

This installment follows Ashe Corven (Vincent Perez), who along with his eight-year-old son Danny (Eric Acosta) is mercilessly killed by a drug cartel. However, just like Eric in the first movie, Corven is resurrected by the supernatural crow and then sets out to seek revenge against the murderers.

3. The Crow: Salvation (2000)

The third film in the franchise follows Alex Corvis (Eric Mabius), a man wrongly convicted of his girlfriend Lauren (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe)’s gruesome murder. After dying from a painful execution in an electric chair, Alex is brought back to life by the crow, as a supernatural entity. He attempts to identify and hunt down the man who killed his girlfriend.

4. The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005)

The fourth film in the franchise follows the story of Jimmy Cuervo (Edward Furlong), who is brought back from death after a group of a satanic biker gang kills him and his girlfriend, Lily (Emmanuelle Chriqui), as a part of a ritual to awaken the Antichrist.

5. The Crow (2024)

The most recent addition to the franchise, this one is a remake of the 1994 Crow movie. Just like the original, this movie too follows Eric Draven (Bill Skarsgård) and Shelly Webster (FKA Twigs) who are brutally murdered by gang members. Eric is then given a chance to bring back Shelly in exchange for murdering Roeg, the crime lord behind their deaths. Following his resurrection he sets out on a quest to kill Roeg and save his true love. Despite having similar storylines, there are key differences in both movies.