The real-life tragedy that inspired The Crow

The Crow is a kick-ass comic-book movie that’s infamous for the on-set death of young star Brandon Lee. But the title character was also inspired by another tragedy.

The Crow celebrates its 30th anniversary today. As dark as superhero movies get, the story revolves around rock singer Eric Draven, who is murdered by thugs on Devil’s Night, only to be resurrected a year later to wreak his revenge. 

Shot by music video director Alex Proyas as a gothic nightmare — and featuring a soundtrack that’s metal AF — the movie was a box office hit, grossing nearly $100 million from a budget of $23 million.

But The Crow’s 1994 release was overshadowed by star Brandon Lee’s death, the actor being fatally wounded by a prop gun during filming, which inspired some to call the movie cursed. 

How tragedy inspired The Crow

That’s because a decade prior to that tragedy, another death inspired the character of The Crow, with creator James O’Barr channeling the grief that followed into his work. 

Speaking to Shadows on the Wall at the time of the film’s release, O’Barr said: “When I was 18, my fiancé was killed by a drunk driver. I was really hurt, frustrated, and angry. I thought that by putting some of this anger and hate down on paper that I could purge it from my system.”

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And so the story of Eric Draven was born, with O’Barr crafting the character while living in Berlin during the early 1980s. In comic book form, Eric is returning from a romantic trip with love-of-his-life Shelly when his car breaks down. 

The couple are then set upon by a ruthless gang who murder Eric, but not before they’ve assaulted and killed Shelly. A year later, Eric is brought back by a supernatural crow and embarks on a bloody rampage of revenge.

However, while O’Barr believed that writing The Crow would ease his pain, in reality, the comic had the opposite effect. “All I was doing was intensifying it,” explains O’Barr. “I was focusing on all this negativity. As I worked on it, things just got worse and worse, darker and darker. So, it really didn’t have the desired effect – I was probably more f**ked up afterwards than before I started.”

The emotional fallout from Brandon Lee’s death

That pain was compounded when Brandon Lee was killed on March 31, 1993, just days before the end of the movie shoot. 

“When Brandon died I had a very, very hard time,” says Barr. “The feelings of guilt and responsibility were enormous. The similarities of his death and Eric’s death in the book are so close that it almost lends itself to a supernatural interpretation. 

“Brandon was killed filming the scene in which Eric is killed. In the film and book, this occurs on the eve of Eric’s wedding. Brandon was going to get married after the film was finished, and the film was three days from completion. People were saying that it was destined to be. That it was fate.”

O’Barr didn’t buy into that theory, however, and found respite from his pain around the movie’s release. As the writer explains: “It was only after becoming friends with Brandon, experiencing his death, and seeing the film – perhaps 17 times now – that I finally reached what is currently called ‘closure’ while visiting his grave in Seattle.”

The character of The Crow has lived on since then through comic books and graphic novels, many of which O’Barr still pens. While this summer, The Crow returns, with Bill Skarsgard playing the title character in a big-budget reboot that hits screens in August.

To see where the 1994 adaptation of The Crow places in our list of best superhero movies head here. While for everything we know about the new Crow click here.