All the impression of a very cheaply made film. Poor storyline, poor serfs and very little in the acting stakes. Quite a disappointment.
Wanted to watch this because it had a half decent cast. I like English film-making and quirky films, .. However The Crow was let down a bit by an undeveloped script and seemed overly long in places. There's a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in flashback (prolepses and analepses if I remember my film terminology correctly) but it's not massively revelatory or even very interesting.. It's clearly made on a shoestring as the film effects aren't particularly good. I thought it had great potential, but I'd quite do it for me.
"We don't own the land, the land owns us," is a quote that gives you a good impression of the message 'Crow' is giving us. These days, much fiction takes it upon itself to preach to us about one thing or another. Sometimes we agree with what is being said, other times, not.
'Crow' is described as an eco-horror and the balance between the two is finely tuned. Wyndham Price has co-written a fine script, by turns wistful, mesmeric, spiritual and an unsettling warning about what might happen if you mess with things better left alone. Alicia (Elen Rhys) is our most sympathetic character - ignored and treated as the trophy wife she initially seems to be.
I found this film great fun, and extremely well directed by Price. Only the depiction of the forest itself is an issue - it's too clean and laundered. Crow and his tribe would, you imagine, be living in fuller, more unkempt greenery befitting the nature of the story. Other than that, my score is 8 out of 10.