Inter-relationships and resignifications of the biblical discourse in the movie The Crow (1994)

Abstract

In this article, it proposes to investigate the relations of meaning that The Crow (1994) establishes with myths explored by the biblical discourse. The movie text is tainted by the narrative about the betrotheds Eric Draven and Shelly Webster, both brutally murdered by a gang, on the eve of their wedding. A year after the tragic incident, Eric Draven is resurrected by a raven, who will guide him and guard him until he finds all the killers and, after his revenge, finally can rest in peace. From the myths we have compared, we see relationships between The Crow, the story of Jesus Christ, and John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), which recounts the fall of Lucifer and the corruption of man by sin. We use as a theoretical framework the French semiotics, through whose assumptions we address the relations between the selected texts and the consequent interferences on the (de) construction of their senses.