Prologue
Eric Draven, Shelly Draven and their daughter Holly are
driving into the mountains for a camping trip. Once they arrive, a strange
woman approaches them. Shelly takes the initiative and approaches her while
Eric stays behind with Holly. From Eric’s vantage point they seem to be
arguing. The old lady leaves.
Later that night, Eric is playing the acoustic guitar while
Shelly and Holly sing along. Out of the darkness, a group of black robed
figures appear.
Shelly: Oh god, Eric, I’m so sorry.
Eric: What is this?
A coven of witches, led by Shelly’s grandmother make ritual
sacrifices of Eric and Holly. The ceremony empowers Shelly with dark magicks
and by the time they finish Eric off (cutting his throat) she is drunk on the
power and an active participant in the torture and killing of her husband.
Act 1
Eric is left in the woods in a shallow grave marked by a
rock with a pentagram carved into it. One year later, The Crow shits on the
pentagram then lands and begins pecking at the rock, breaking the symbol.
Eric rises from the grave screaming in rage and confusion.
He dons a tattered black robe hanging in a tree and begins the long walk to
civilization. As he goes, he remembers the betrayal, his murder and his
daughter’s murder.
A trucker picks him up off the street and takes him home. He
finds his house deserted and boarded up. As he explores it he finds most of the
photos and things of sentimental value disheveled, some shattered, but still
there. Anything of value has long been looted, auctioned or vandalized.
He pulls a trunk down from the attic crawl space marked
Halloween. From it he dons the robes of his station. He uses grease paint and
lipstick to make his face into a ghostly harlequin.
He goes into his garage and pulls out in a jet black, 1947 Mercury
Sedan. It’s in poor condition, but the engine rumbles as though the crow
brought it back from the dead with Eric.
Act 2
Eric pulls up to his Mother-in-Law’s residence and slips
around behind it. He peers in the window and sees three women sitting drinking
tea together. He has flashbacks as he recognizes them from the coven. Just
before he smashes through the window, they kick over the table and reveal a
shotgun, blowing Eric back into the garden. His Mom in law ducks out the back
while the other two press the attack. One muttering strange incantations that
give Eric visions of demon’s tearing at his clothes, the other filling him full
of buckshot. He lays in the garden, apparently dead. The two witches approach
him. The shotgun wielding witch nudges him with her toe while keeping the gun
trained on him. Eric’s eyes pop open and he slaps the barrel, causing the witch
to spin and shoot her companion. Before she can draw back down on Eric, he
holds a piece of shattered glass to her throat from behind.
Eric: Let’s talk.
Cut to police coming on the scene and finding two murdered,
middle aged women and evidence of an epic gun battle. Albricht sees the Sedan
pulling away.
Sgt. Albricht of the County Sheriff’s Department is
interviewing the neighbors and is doubting the description of the melee. The
detectives arrive on scene and find one of the witches hung from a nearby tree,
spinning slow circles. Her back faces camera and reveals a crow has been carved
into her flesh, tatters of dress flutter in the wind.
Cut To
Draven is in the bell tower of a church, hanging the second
witch off the ledge.
The Crow: WHERE IS SHE?
Witch: I don’t know, oh save me Dark Lord, I don’t know
The Crow: Your totems have no power here! The playing field
has been leveled and you are weak without your coven. You have nothing left but
my mercy! Reveal yourself and be judged!
Witch: They meet at the bingo hall on 4th and
cedar. Please. Your mercy! Please
The Crow: Your faith is weak. My mercy is weaker. Tell your
master! Tell him after I finish with his servants I will deal with him.
He drops the witch from the bell tower. Her blood spreads
like wings around her.
Back at the police station, Albricht tracks down the Sedan
and the last registered address. Which connects to the report Shelly filed that
her daughter fell in the river and her husband drowned trying to rescue her. He
decides to investigate the residence.
Eric returns to his abandoned home and pulls out his guitar.
He plays a few dissonant tones (it’s long since gone out of tune) and smashes
it into a mirror, screaming with rage. The bird caws loudly in response. As
Eric walks out of the home, he runs into Albricht.
Albricht: Police! Don’t move! I said: Don’t Move!
Draven: I thought the police always said “freeze.”
Albricht: Well I am the police and I said “Don’t move,” You
move, moon face, you’re dead.
Draven: Well I say “I’m dead and I move”
The stand-off escalates and Draven confesses that his wife
was responsible for the murder and she has allies in the sleepy town. The crow
distracts Albricht and Dravens slips away and dives into his car. A short chase
ensues and Eric manages to lose Albricht in the dark.
Cut to, Shelly, in her office on top of an Arts and Crafts
store is meeting with several other members of the coven including Shelly’s
mother. Shelly is angered that a totem has chosen Draven to be an agent of
righteous vengeance and blames her mother for escaping while their sisters
died.
Shelly: If we abandon each other, we will have no power to
defend ourselves. That said, mother dear, you must be punished for your
cowardice.
Shelly plucks out her mother’s right eye as the other
witches hold her down. They use it to cast a scrying spell to find Draven. They
are disturbed to see him about to attack their base of operations, currently
being used by a large number of witches to perform a blood sacrifice.
At the Bingo Hall, a small child is being tormented by
hooded and masked witches. Before they can kill her, the doors fly open!
Draven: BINGO BITCHES!
A battle ensues, the witches are well armed and have various
melee weapons and firearms. Draven shields the child with his body and after
the shooting stops he stands back up.
Draven: You gain power from the innocent! See what happens
when the innocent rise up! (To the child) Under the table, you are saved.
Draven moves from witch to witch, economically dealing with
them in quick succession.
After the carnage, Deputy Albricht finds more evidence that
the coven aren’t as innocent as they seem and begins to put it together.
Back at his house, Eric is waiting for him. They talk about
the nature of revenge, marriage and family. Eric admits that he doesn’t know
what he will do when he faces Shelly.
After he leaves, Albricht is taken captive by the witches.
Act 3
Eric drives out into the woods to find Albricht and the rest
of the witches. Shelly hexes Eric as he closes in. Eric relives the night his
daughter died and his own death, causing him to crash his car into a tree. He
wakes up tied down with Albricht, a sacrifice to the dark lord.
Shelly taunts him, telling him she always knew it would end
like this, that she hoped it would be different, but inside she always felt
Eric was weak and fit only to serve her. The crow (the actually bird) appears
and distracts the coven as they try to catch it.
SHELLY: Take it! Take its power! What we could do with such
a powerful totem is limitless!
The bird leads the coven on a merry chase as Albricht and
Eric work together to escape their bonds. Unfortunately, Shelly manages to wing
the bird with a thrown knife and it crashes to the ground. She picks it up.
SHELLY: This is all the power you ever had and now it’s
mine.
The bird attacks Shelly’s eyes, but she manages to bat it
away, suffering only cosmetic damage.
SHELLY: Is that it? Is that all you have left?
ERIC: No. I have this.
Eric grapples with Shelly, she stabs him, but he keeps
coming even without his healing abilities.
ERIC: What is wrong with you! OUR DAUGHTER! OUR DAUGHTER!
HOW COULD YOU!
Albricht dispatches the last witches with a tree branch and
goes to help Eric.
ERIC: No! This is my fight. My vengeance.
Without the coven, Shelly begins to wake up from power mad
reverie. She begs forgiveness, begs for death. Begs for Eric to rescue her.
ERIC: Live with it. Live with it every day. That’s the only
forgiveness you can have is the forgiveness you give yourself. I’m done
fighting. I go to our daughter’s side now. Albricht, take her away.
Shelly cries as Albricht cuffs her and Eric walks into the
woods, back to his shallow grave. He has another vision and sees his daughter,
holding her hand out to her. Together, they walk into the light.
