The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005) review

Dir. Lance Mungia

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★

There is no reason to watch The Crow: Wicked Prayer unless you want to see precious minutes of your life dissolve at the mercy of a maddeningly incoherent slog through the bowels of low-rent DTV filmmaking. It’s a broke man’s City of Angels, and bad enough that if your mind recalls anything about the 1994 film while watching it, it’s either out of longing or momentary mental relief.

Set near the heavily polluted Lake Ravasu, right on the border of a Native American reservation, the film revolves around the shuttering of a mine in order to accommodate a new casino. Luc Crash (David Boreanaz), leader of a satanic cult, along with his fellow minions, including UFC fighter Tito Ortiz and Tara Reid, Luc’s girlfriend, are among those using the controversy as a means to drum up chaos. They murder Jimmy Cuervo (Edward Furlong) and his girlfriend, Lily (Emmanuelle Chriqui), in brutal fashion. Cue the Crow, who revives Jimmy, who decides to use his powers to exterminate the satanic gang.

This cult knows how to party. It’s a mystery how they got so many familiar faces. Dennis Hopper joins the fun more-than-halfway thru as a preacher, who hangs on Luc’s every word, and there’s also Shark Tank‘s Daymond John in a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo during an incoherently established party. Of course, Danny Trejo makes an appearance as the surviving dad of Lilly, which is less a surprise and more of a predictability. If there’s a run-of-the-mill DTV movie to be made, you can almost assure Trejo will make an appearance.

Apparently, the fourth Crow movie was to star DMX, and focus on a rapper who leaves the industry for a woman, who is eventually killed in a drive-by shooting. File that under one of the more interesting concepts for a sequel to a pioneering 90s movie that, along with its late star, deserved a far better legacy than what other slimeball studios had in mind. Tis pity that Edward Furlong, whose film career was already in flux at this point, acts his ass off for naught. Wicked Prayer is a film that disrespects everything that came before it, and everything integral to a quality picture, including logic, purpose, coherency, suspense, and legitimacy.

My review of The Crow (1994)
My review of The Crow: City of Angels
My review of The Crow: Salvation
My review of The Crow (2024)

Starring: Edward Furlong, David Boreanaz, Tara Reid, Marcus Chong, Tito Ortiz, Yuji Okumoto, Dennis Hopper, Dave Baez, Danny Trejo, Emmanuelle Chriqui, and Daymond John. Directed by: Lance Mungia.