Darkman

Last week, I caught up on season 1 of the great Starz series Ash Vs Evil Dead and was reminded of what a terrific filmmaker Sam Raimi is. Raimi is probably best known to most filmgoers for his Evil Dead or Spiderman franchises. In between those two however was a great film that was a nice blend of the horror he had in Evil Dead and the superhero action he brought to the Spiderman films, 1990's Darkman.

Liam Neeson stars as Peyton Westlake, a scientist on the brink of creating a synthetic skin for burn victims. When his attorney girlfriend Julie, Francis McDormand, acquires an incriminating letter that could bring down the mafia, they come looking for the document at Peyton's lab. Peyton, who knows nothing of the letter, is badly beaten and burned by the gangsters. After they find the letter, the set his lab on fire, leaving him to die in the ashes. But Peyton survives. Full of rage, Peyton uses his experiment to get revenge on the thugs. Unfortunately his synthetic skin has a short window of when it works.

Even though it did spawn a franchise of sorts, direct to video, Darkman was never the big hit that it should have been. Following on the heels of the very successful Batman and Dick Tracy films, I think most people were expecting a superhero epic. It was even marketed that way. But Raimi has basically crafted a love letter to the classic Universal horror films.

Neeson is terrific in the title role. He shows incredible range between the vengeful rage that the character is feeling and he also conveys the sadness over the freak that he has become, knowing that he will never get back the life he once had. People seem to forget what a terrific actor Neeson is. I know that nowadays he has taken, pardon the pun, the mantle of the Charles Bronson, middle aged action star. But you have to remember, this guy was Oscar Schindler. And even though some might look at Darkman as cheese, Neeson turns in a powerful performance. The rest of the cast is good too, especially Larry Drake as the heavy. Drake at this time was playing a special needs character on L.A. Law. After playing this role, people saw him in a whole new light. I think his part in this is what got him the lead in the horror film Dr. Giggles.

Darkman is a terrific blend of action and horror.

It's available on dvd and blu ray.