Cursed Films (2020): Season 1, Episode 4 - The Crow - full transcript

- I think the one film that
really hit me hard,

that came out of those
formative years

of me being a cinephile
was The Crow.

I was in high school.

I was a big fan of the
James O'Barr comic book.

I remember travelling
to New York to meet the man

and have my graphic novel
signed.

- I first came across
the comic, The Crow,

when it was...

a very small printing
of its first edition

and immediately was engrossed
in the story



of this first issue.

- Its plot is about a guy
who is killed too soon,

and he comes back
and he exacts vengeance.

- It's just about a guy
who was in love with a woman

and, you know, she gets killed

and you come back from the dead

and, you know, you avenge her
death.

And as a high schooler,
that uh...

it was just angsty enough
to connect with me.

- The Crow is kind of a hand
of God

that allows that person,

who's been taken to heaven,
to return

to put something horrible right.

Within that lies a beautiful



underlying story of love and...

the conviction that if a...
loved one is harmed,

there is an opportunity
to extract justice

for those who have lost people
dear to them

through tragic circumstances.

So that began my odyssey
to option material,

develop it and turn it into
a feature film.

We started filming

on February 1st, 1993

in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Everyone was invested
a thousand percent

in trying to make, you know,
a film

that would stand shoulder
to shoulder

with any studio release

on a fraction of the budget.

- I think there's plenty
of material

if you wanna find a curse

in the making of the movie
"The Crow".

When they set up pre-production
offices,

they had a voicemail message
that said,

don't make this movie,
bad things will happen.

- On the very first day
of principal photography,

two of our electricians had
a very un...

a... a terrible accident.
- Everything's ready to go.

Remember, they only shot
at night.

So night had fallen.

- They were driving their...

uh, pickup truck with
a cherry picker.

- He backed his cherry picker
up into a live wire.

He caught on fire.

- He had ended up hitting
the high-tension wire,

a high electric wire that, uh,

would, uh, carry the voltage

to run all the lights
and the backlot set.

- He was rushed to the hospital.

He had second and third degree
burns all over his body.

He didn't die.
He lost his ears.

But it was a terrible tragedy

and then they had to start
shooting.

- We went through the storm
of the century.

Reporter: The hurricane is now
at its peak

with winds reaching speeds

of more than 115 miles an hour.

- That was a terrible hurricane

that destroyed our backlot set.

Word had gotten back to people
in Hollywood and...

there was an article
from Entertainment Weekly

that called what was going on
in our location

"the curse of The Crow."

One of the staff in the
production office

decided to make an ill-timed
comment

that things have happened,
but...

she said, it's not like anyone
has died.

- When I had learned that they
were making "The Crow",

I followed that like crazy.

You know, I read Fangoria,
I read Entertainment Weekly.

I was following everything that
was going on with Brandon Lee.

- What we needed for the role
was...

someone who was a true athlete

and a great actor.

We'd got an opportunity to see
"Rapid Fire".

We were absolutely sold.

The only person we made an
offer to was Brandon Lee.

- Brandon Lee was trying to
make a name for himself,

was trying to kind of come out
from the shadow of his father,

and was making films which,

in the realm of action films,
weren't so bad.

"Rapid Fire",
"Showdown in Little Tokyo".

He, like his father,

had so much potential.

You were seeing his star rise,

and then...

he got robbed,

just like his father did.

I'm Lance Anderson
and I worked on "The Crow"

as a Special Make-Up Effects
Artist.

My job was to take care
of Brandon,

to do all of his make-up
throughout the film.

This is the original script

that I've kept.

It has a lot of my original
continuity shots.

This is establishing make-up.

As it progresses, the make-up
starts to get...

more worn.

This is when he falls out
the window.

- It's kind of strange looking
at those photos.

- Yeah.

- We hired the immensely
talented actor Michael Berryman

to play the role of the skull
cowboy,

which was a...

character that appears
intermittently

in James O'Barr's comic,
"The Crow".

- Well, I got a call
from my agent

and went to a meeting,

and the next thing I knew
I was flying to um...

North Carolina, to Wilmington.

I spent hours and hours
and hours

getting a full body cast
and head cast.

- We made this suit for
Michael Berryman

and it had a complete bodysuit
sculpture

for the whole ribs
and the whole thing.

He basically wore a giant suit

and articulated fingers.

- It was very difficult to wear.

And then on my head,
I had a mandible jaw

that was acrylic

and it was bolted front to back

with a top piece that had...

these little servo transmitters.

And these little paddles
would move the flesh

underneath the latex.

- It was pretty extensive
make-up.

- I've been asked where did the
skull cowboy originate from,

and it obviously came out
of the...

creativity of James O'Barr.

James wrote because...

it was part of his therapy.

His fiancée was killed by
a drunk driver.

And in order to remain here
on this earth,

in this physical plane,

he had to come to grips with it,

and so he wrote.

Sometimes, in life,

you can take from what you have
experienced

and bring a piece of that
into the character

that you're developing

and it can help you heal.

It can help you...

have a cathartic experience

and it enhances the performance.

- There had been lots of press
material

touching on the cursed nature
of the film.

That perhaps it was
a continuation

of the curse of Bruce Lee,

who died under mysterious
circumstances

while shooting a film.

- Pretty much everyone's
discovered Bruce Lee

after he passed away.

Then you start doing research
on who he was...

- Whaaaaaaa!

- ...and then, as you look into
how he passed away,

that's when the theories start.

There's theories that
there was a hit on him

from the Chinese Mafia

for betraying martial arts'
secrets.

One of the interesting
fantasy theories

is that Bruce Lee was struck

by a death blow.

And a death blow is a specific
type of strike...

- Ahhh!

Agh! Oh!

- ...which its impact doesn't
take effect

until days, weeks, months,

years later.

There's one theory that
Bruce Lee's passing

was part of the Lee family
curse.

Bruce Lee's parents

lost their first male son.

This was attributed to a belief

that there was a curse
or a demon

after the males in
the Lee family.

- You had an older brother,
you see.

He died in childbirth.

The demon took him away from us.

The first-born man child
is very valuable.

- He was sometimes dressed
in girl's clothing,

sometimes referred to
by a female name,

again, in order to deflect

and break the curse on
the males of the family.

- We dressed you in dresses

so the demon wouldn't know
I had another son.

But now he knows!

And he's coming for you.

- In "Dragon: The Bruce Lee
Story,"

Bruce Lee is portrayed as
being haunted by a demon,

this kind of dark figure
in Samurai armour,

and there's a scene where
he's trying to protect his son

in these kind of dream-like
pursuits.

- Brandon, run!

Dad's gotta go! Gotta go!??

- The actual circumstances
around Bruce Lee's death

are much more banal.

Yes, he was found dead at the
apartment of a young starlet,

who he may or may not have been
having an affair with.

While at this apartment,
he took a painkiller.

He went for a nap

and didn't wake up.

They attributed his death

to having a hypersensitivity

to this particular painkiller.

Recently there's been
a biography published -

"Bruce Lee: A Life"
by Matthew Polly -

and he puts this theory forward

that it was a heat stroke

which killed Bruce Lee.

Leading up to the last year
of his death,

he had his sweat glands removed

because he wanted to look good
onscreen.

A month or so before the day
that he passed away,

he actually had a seizure
and a stroke,

and so...

this potentially could just be
the reverberations

of the previous misdiagnosed
heat stroke.

- "Game of Death" is Bruce
Lee's final film.

He doesn't live to finish it.

And that's already a weird
parallel

with what happens to
Brandon Lee in "The Crow."

- Get ready for the reverse
angle.

- It gets even weirder
when you consider

that Bruce Lee's character
is shot

on the set of a film
in "Game of Death",

which is exactly how his son
dies in 1993.

- Gentlemen, these are blanks.

Only aim upward.

There's a wad of paper
that comes out

and can injure someone.

- Okay, roll sound!

Action!

Cut!

- It was the night of...

March 30th, 1993.

We were day 47

out of what had then grown
to 52 days

and nearing the end of
production.

In the scene, Eric Draven has
just returned

and the villains are already
in the home

and have been treating...

Sofia Shinas's character,
Shelly, very violently.

- I was down in the trailer
getting a rig

that I had rigged for Brandon
to wear,

where a knife is thrown at him

when he comes through the door.

And I built a harness.
They would throw the knife

and then the knife would be
embedded in his chest.

So I was down there getting
that ready

and they told me they need me
on set.

And the director said,
we're changing that scene.

He's gonna come through the door

and he's gonna get shot.

- Eric puts himself between
these villains

and Shelly.

And Michael Massee, as Funboy,
takes a gun

and fires at uh...

the character of Eric Draven.

- The camera was in the wrong
position

when he came through the door
and it didn't look like...

he was aiming the gun
at Brandon.

So they either moved the actor

or they moved the camera
or something

to get a better angle,

so it looked more realistic

that he's being shot.

When he came through the door

with the grocery bag,

they do the shot,

and then he drops down

and everybody waits for him
to get up.

And he didn't get up.

He just... stayed there.

He just didn't move.

And somebody says,

I think he's really hurt.

And uh...

Call a medic, call a medic.

The medic came...

and uh...

he's been shot.

And I just... I felt all
the blood rush...

rush out of my body

and I just dropped down

and everybody was - around me -

was doing the same thing.
They were just shocked.

- Yes. Um...

I...

I don't wanna talk about going
to the hospital.

Can we, can we...

Um...

- We went to the hospital

and we waited around for hours.

And then they came out
and told us

that he'd passed on.

It was... one of the most
horrible things

in my life

to see that happen, to be there.

- Michael Massee was...

I mean, to put it mildly,
beside himself.

He was... broken
by the experience

of, um, having pulled
the trigger.

Ah, I don't think he could
have...

taken on any greater
responsibility

on his own shoulders.

Although it was not,
by any means,

his fault, plain and simple,

and it wasn't his job
to be responsible

for that particular weapon.

- "Chinese Mafia executed
Bruce Lee"

and "then his son."

I mean, that's where things
were going,

you know, with the tabloids.

"Blood on the Set."

Um, "What Really Happened?

How could a bullet end up
in the gun?"

Well, it wasn't the bullet.

It was a dummy's head.

The dummy head was loc--

was still in the chamber

and it blew it out.

- What occurred was that

there was a dummy bullet

loaded two weeks before

that had lodged a real bullet

in the barrel of the gun.

- These are different calibre
dummy rounds that we have

and the whole goal to making
dummy rounds

is to make an imitation round

that would lead the viewer
to believe

that it is a live round.

So this is the dummy round
and this is the live round.

Even though this is a dummy
round

and it's had the gun powder
removed,

the primer hasn't been removed
or struck.

When we do a dummy round,

it's always important to remove
the primer cap from the centre.

What happened on "The Crow" was

when they put the dummy
round in,

they forgot to remove
the primer.

And what happens is, again,

that primer has enough force
to dislodge the lead round

and actually push it into
the barrel.

We're actually gonna pull
the trigger

and it'll have just enough force

to lodge the round in there.

So you can see in there
our dummy round.

We'll index it.

Three, two, one.

So just with that simple
action, that little snap,

the cap's gone off,
no gun powder,

but what we'll be able
to prove is

the hung round inside
the barrel.

Inside that barrel,

we have the obstruction.

But if you look down the barrel

you'll notice that there's
no light coming through.

So that would tell me that
there's an obstruction.

In this case, a lead round,

a hollow point.

That's the one thing they
didn't do.

They didn't check the barrel
for an obstruction.

The problem with that is,
when you put a blank in there,

then after whatever's in there -

be it rock, dirt,
or a hung round -

that round comes out flying
at 3 to 5,000 psi.

So when we're ready,
I'll put a round in here.

It's gonna be a blank,

a half-load blank.
This is it.

There's no lead projectile.
It's just crimped at the end,

but it's got powder.

The crimp's hot, but this
produces enough powder

to push this lead round
into that board

through two inches of plywood.

So when we're ready.

Three, two, one.

The round's gone off.

I can go check down range.

We can actually see the round

that punctured through it.

Right here.

That's your round.

That was the hung round that
got pushed into the barrel

with, uh, with just the primer
cap.

And what you can see is...

I don't know if you can see
the striations,

but it actually fired the round.

So this would definitely be
a lethal round.

This would be something
you don't get up from.

- After this...

tremendous tragedy unfolded,

we, as filmmakers, um,

our initial response was that,
um,

we, we couldn't film, uh,
any further without Brandon,

even though we were
at the end of...

um, our, our schedule.

And it was be--

because we...

just couldn't even fathom

moving forward at that time.

We heard from Brandon's fiancée,

Eliza Hutton, who he was
to be married to

a short time after
we completed photography,

and his mother, Linda Lee,

that Brandon was incredibly
proud of the work

that he had performed

and they said, you know,

if-if you are up to it,

we want you all to finish this.

- I didn't wanna come back,
but I kept thinking about...

this is Brandon's film.

This is a film that he wanted
to be

a launching pad for him,

and if I didn't go back
and do what I could do

to make sure this film
gets seen,

whatever I can do, uh...

I'll do it,

because if this film wasn't
seen, wasn't finished,

it'd be a shame.

They called me up
and they said...

they wanna use a double.

And Brandon's stunt double

looked a lot like him,

and they wanted me to make
a mask,

on the stunt double,

of Brandon's face

so they could use it
in the film.

That was really tough,
that was really tough.

To be honest, when the stunt
double wore that thing,

it freaked everybody out.

And I mean literally
freaked 'em out.

And the feeling that you get

when you're finishing a film

with an actor who's passed on,

it's not a good feeling.

It's a very morbid feeling

and it's-it's...

something you deal with
personally, you know.

You don't feel good about it,
but...

it-it just needed to be done.

That's all, it just needed
to be done.

- There were changes that
they had to make.

Instead of doing a lot of one
on-one dialogue scenes

between Eric Draven, for
example, and his girlfriend,

they had to do a lot in montage.

A lot was done in shadow.

They had to take out
one character,

uh, the Skull Cowboy.

They had shot just one
setup shot

of him with Brandon Lee

and that was in the beginning
of production.

They were gonna fly him back
at the end.

They never ended up doing that.

They, they had to write around

the convention of that
character.

- When I got the word
of what had happened,

I had so many mixed emotions.

The number one sense of loss
was being cheated

because Brandon was engaged.

Number one, for him and Eliza.

Number two,

this wonderful young man
that I'd been introduced to

just snatched away like that.

And then people are going,

"the curse of 'The Crow',"
you know?

Carolco Studios, there was...

an electrician...
somebody got electrocuted.

This happened. That happened.

This happened. That happened.

Don't you think...
Is it possible... Is it...

Really?

Really?

No.

The Crow was not cursed.

The Crow was created

out of love and loss.

In my opinion, Brandon died

because a studio cut corners.

They sent home the weapons
expert that we had.

It's a right-to-work state

in a union-busting environment.

And after so many weeks,

it is my understanding that,
contractually,

they could hire a local person
to do all of the,

uh, armaments and weapons.

That is my personal opinion.

Someone was overworked

and you miss one little oops

and something happens.

Makes you appreciate every day,

and then you should appreciate
every hour,

and pretty soon, every moment.

I'm at most calm
when I can appreciate...

each breath,

and especially appreciative

when I hear that beautiful note
of a heartbeat.

Life is very precious.

- It's hard with "The Crow"

to separate fiction and reality.

I think that people will
continue

to find curses with "The Crow".

They're gonna continue to find
some new element

to relate back to something

that maybe happened
to Bruce Lee or...

some of the other actors on
the film.

Like if something tragic
happens to one of them.

And I think people wanna cling

to those sort of curse legends.

They wanna have a story

that kind of justifies

something so tragic.

- From that is born just
a fascination

with trying to look at this

through a lens of possible
conspiracy

that could've netted this
tremendous loss

and this horrible accident.

Truly, I sympathize,

but the sideshow of looking
for conspiracies

within that loss,

I think, take away from
what he did.

I do believe that there's
a great film there

and it stands on its own merits.

And I'm proud of the film.

One can look to a number
of films

that followed in its wake

in terms of look and feel
and design.

It really did launch
a different approach

to futuristic films
and comic book adaptations

because it really is a very
unique piece

of art and filmmaking

with a central performance
by Brandon Lee

that is really,
truly incredible.

- It was bittersweet,

for me, personally.

The vengeful spirit of
Eric Draven,

the vengeful spirit of
the Skull Cowboy...

my dear friend Brandon...

You can't be prepared
for these moments,

but you can carry on

in honour of those that
have left us.