When you’re a walking corpse who wears a cowboy hat, the last thing you’d expect is to get cut out of a movie like The Crow. But, that’s just undead showbiz, so what do you do from there?
Go haunt every movie trivia section and Crow-related article you can come across.
The Skull Cowboy has steadily gained recognition among fans since his memorable non-appearance in the 1994 film. Many reasons have been given for the character’s exclusion, such as the director, Alex Proyas, not being satisfied with the makeup effects, the character being redundant to the narrative, and the death of Brandon Lee leaving Skull Cowboy’s scenes incomplete.
Since then, the ghostly pile of bones has become a literal spectre of the silver screen, with his deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes images floating around the internet like a poltergeist of movie history.
Check out the Skull Cowboy’s unfinished clips below:
This scene takes place near the end of the film, with Skull Cowboy warning Eric that if he saves Sarah he will be meddling too far in the affairs of the living, thus rendering him mortal. In the final cut, Eric’s mortality is instead directly linked to his supernatural crow companion.
This sequence is intercut with scenes of the Skull Cowboy taking on his role as the story’s source of exposition. After the scenes were cut, an opening narration from Sarah was added to establish the setting.
Mr. Cowboy first appeared in the original Crow comic book series in 1989, periodically dropping in on the Crow and reminding him how miserable his life is.
In the film, Mr. Cowboy was played by Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes, The Guyver), with makeup effects designed by Lance Anderson (The Last Starfighter, The Island of Dr. Moreau).
After his near-famous experience, the Skull Cowboy makeup was kept in storage and when last heard of, was in the keeping of The Prop Store.
Since franchises are being resurrected faster than Eric Draven for sequels nowadays, perhaps they’ll dig the costume out someday and the character will finally get his big screen due.
For more behind the scenes photos of the Skull Cowboy, check out the gallery at Moon City Garbage Agency.
