In The Crow: Wicked Prayer, Jimmy Cuervo is out on parole after serving a sentence for killing a rapist. Now that he is free, Jimmy has plans to marry his girlfriend, Lily and start a new life away from his home town.
But on the day of his planned proposal, Jimmy and Lily cross paths with recently escaped convict Luc ‘Death’ Crash, as well as his sadistic girlfriend Lola, and their gang members, Pestilence, Famine, and War. The gang have plans to conduct a satanic ritual, with Lily playing a key role.
After hanging Jimmy and Lily from the rafters, Lola cuts out Lily’s eyes. Luc and Lola then kill Jimmy and Lily, before the rest of the gang take their bodies to the local dump, and place them inside a discarded freezer.
Later that night a mysterious crow visits the dump and begins to peck at the fridge. Suddenly the door opens and Jimmy steps outside.
Revived, Jimmy seeks out Luc and his gang. His aim is to get revenge…while dressed as the least convincing goth you ever did see.
Directed by Lance Mungia, The Crow: Wicked Prayer stars Edward Furlong, Tara Reid, David Borneanaz, Dennis Hopper, Tito Ortiz, Danny Trejo, and Macy Gray (yes, Macy Gray). The film is based on the 2000 novel of the same name by Norman Partridge, which itself was inspired by The Crow comics by James O’Barr, and it is the fourth entry in The Crow movie series.
The movie is also the second entry in the series after The Crow: Salvation to essentially go direct-to-video. The movie did play for one week in US cinemas back in 2005, but that was all, and then it was sent straight to video stores and retailers.
And what does this tell us? Well it tells us The Crow: Wicked Prayer is probably rubbish.
And do you know what? It is!
Or rather, it is incredibly slow, painfully dull, and monumentally boring. For 99 minutes it just goes on, and on, and on – and then on some more.
The film also has one very significant problem: Edward Furlong is dreadfully miscast as Jimmy Cuervo. As the Jimmy/the Crow, Furlong looks less like a supernatural vigilante and more like a disgruntled My Chemical Romance fan.
It doesn’t matter how many times people run from him in terror, or who he beats up, he has all the physical threat of a limp carrot. This isn’t just bad casting, it’s complete nonsense on an epic scale.
Outside of the Furlong debacle, what doesn’t help the film is the way it essentially side steps the title character to focus on chief villain, Luc. Luc is played by former Angel actor, David Boreanaz, he gets a great deal of screen time in this picture, and is arguably more of a prominent figure than Furlong.
In fairness, it’s not all that surprising Boreanaz is front-and-centre of the movie. Back in 2005 he was fresh off his long-running stint on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and was a big draw for audiences.
But making him so much of a focal point in this film is a mistake. It throws the movie completely off balance (is this even a Crow film?), and it further robs Furlong of any screen presence – not that he has any anyway.
To add to all this, the script is dire, some of the creative choices and camera work are questionable, and the action scenes are shit. The overall tone is awful and the less said about Macy Gray’s brief cameo, the better.
To put things simply, The Crow: Wicked Prayer is trash. It is long-winded garbage.
The only positives are Boreanaz, who always delivers, and Tara Reid who is surprisingly decent in the movie as Lola. Both actors do the job they signed up for and both are worth watching, even if the rest of the film isn’t.
Oh, and it’s also worth mentioning The Crow: Wicked Prayer does attempt to do something different, so it isn’t just a carbon copy of what came before. It might be crap, but it does at least try.
However, this is low-rent, bottom of the barrel stuff. It is a far cry from 1994’s The Crow, and has all the emotional investment of a wet tea bag.
Anyway, should you have too much time on your hands, or you have lost complete control of your senses, The Crow: Wicked Prayer is available on digital platforms.
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