The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2014: Darkman (1990), directed by Sam Raimi

     

The Trailer

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The Appropriate Tune: "Darkman's Nose", by Monkey3

     Superhero movies are a strange and unwieldy beast. Over the last couple of years, with the enormous success of Christopher Nolan’s Batman films and Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, it seems that which was once the domain of nerds and other social misfits has become a multi-million, multi-media success story. Iron Man has three movies, Avengers made a billion dollars, and DC has a hit show about a guy who shoots arrows and isn’t Robin Hood. With this sudden, huge influx of popularity, you’d almost think that the idea of a superhero movie was a new and exciting concept, but of course it’s actually been around for decades. Of those films before the Superhero Boom period, most of the attention is focused on properties owned by either DC or Marvel, Richard Donner’s Superman, Tim Burton’s Batman, Blade, etc., because they’re the ones the most money. There were some pretty good outliers though, and one of them has made this list.

      After having been denied the opportunity to make a film based on either Batman or the Shadow (both of which would get their own movie around the same time), Sam Raimi, director of the popular Evil Dead series, decided in 1990 to release his own original film based on those two popular characters. The result, Darkman, centers around mild-mannered scientist Peyton Westlake (Liam Neeson), who is working on perfecting his formula for a revolutionary form of synthetic skin (the current batch only lasts for 99 minutes). When his girlfriend Julie (Frances McDormand) gets her hands on a document that incriminates the CEO of a major company with organized crime, Peyton is targeted by CEO’s gang, tortured and blown up along with his lab. Peyton miraculously survives, but the fires have horribly mutilated him, and the surgery used to save his life has severed his nerve endings, rendering him unable to feel pain (and also super-strength for some reason). His once-peaceful life now irrevocably altered, Westlake decides to use his newfound abilities and synthetic skin to enact brutal and bloody revenge against all the people who had wronged him. So basically the plot to Robocop and The Crow, but with a slightly goofier name attached to it.

      Part Batman, part Phantom of the Opera, Darkman is a movie that walks the line between serious brooding action and camp and occasionally stumbling along the way. But taking ridiculous shit and pretending that it’s serious business is the foundation of comic books, so in that case Raimi created a pretty accurate translation of the medium onto film. It’s not the best on the block, but it has a certain charm to it that I can’t deny, so I give it a thumbs up. If you’re looking for a movie or a costume this Halloween, why not try Darkman?