Bill Skarsgård is the only cute Skarsgård out of the many tall Swedish Skarsgårdian actors who haunt our screens. He’s big-eyed and gaunt and sweet-looking, as opposed to father Stellan with the small shifty eyes, who’s a natural in villain roles, and hulking brother Alexander, who played the Viking berserker of Robert Eggers’s The Northman. Which makes it interesting that boyish Bill Skarsgård is best known for his evil clown Pennywise in It (2017) and his fancy-pants baddie in John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) — and he’ll soon star in another Eggers film, playing the not-at-all-cute role of vampire Count Orlok in the upcoming remake of Nosferatu.

If I seem to be avoiding the actual topic of this review, which is the “reboot” of The Crow, starring Bill Skarsgård in the old Brandon Lee role of Eric Draven aka the Crow, it’s true — I am. I’m sick of reporting on the dismal films of August, that cinematic dumping ground between whatever would-be popular high-summer releases are available each year and the “return to quality” films of the fall.

The Crow is so despised, critics have run out of adjectives reviling it. How many ways can you say a movie stinks?