Constantine
2005 · Directed by Francis Lawrence
Original language: English
- fantasy
- action
- horror
The story
John Constantine has literally been to Hell and back. When he teams up with a policewoman to solve the mysterious suicide of her twin sister, their investigation takes them through the world of demons and angels that exists beneath the landscape of contemporary Los Angeles.
What it’s like
Murky, smoke-stained Los Angeles rendered in sickly greens, sodium-orange streetlight and near-black shadow, with the city's sunlit sprawl turned hostile whenever the supernatural breaks through. Cinematographer Philippe Rousselot favours hard, low-key lighting, deep chiaroscuro and rain-slicked night streets, while the heaven and hell sequences swing to bleached whites and blistering reds, giving the film a glossy, comic-book sheen with a grimy undertow. Director Francis Lawrence keeps the camera busy with swooping crane moves and stylised slow motion, and the score leans on driving guitar and ominous choral swells. The mood is brooding and wry, a cynical antihero's noir with a churchy, confessional streak. The violence is frequent and stylised: demonic creatures, exorcisms, a few gruesome bodily horrors and bursts of gunfire, though the gore is more operatic than lingering, and some scenes of dread and jump-scare intensity recur. Pacing is brisk, the tone sardonic, and the emotional arc is a hardened, self-destructive man grudgingly reconsidering redemption. For fans of gothic urban fantasy and sardonic anti-heroes, not for anyone wanting something gentle.
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