Darkman
Directed by Sam Raimi
- action
- science fiction
- thriller
The story
Dr. Peyton Westlake is on the verge of realizing a major breakthrough in synthetic skin when his laboratory is destroyed by gangsters. Having been burned beyond recognition and forever altered by an experimental medical procedure, Westlake becomes known as Darkman, assuming alternate identities in his quest for revenge and a new life with a former love.
What it’s like
Gritty, saturated 1990 Los Angeles, shot with Sam Raimi's restless energy: canted low angles, whip pans, and hand-held lunges through tenement corridors, warehouses and rain-slick streets lit in sickly sodium orange and hard neon blue. Chiaroscuro dominates, with faces half-swallowed by shadow and the bandaged, wax-smooth mask of the protagonist rendered in grotesque close-ups that feel almost tactile. The score is a brassy, synth-stabbed orchestral pulse that lurches between operatic melodrama and cartoon mischief, and the practical effects, melting faces and gleeful stunt work, have a crunchy, unpolished physicality rather than a glossy digital sheen. The vibe is lurid, pulpy and gleefully unhinged: comic-book melodrama with a bruised, sorrowful heart. It suits a late-night watch with friends, a midnight double bill with horror-action fans, or a loud, pleasurable rewatch on a rainy evening. Pacing is brisk and jittery, with brief but frequent violence, shootouts, explosions and a few gruesome burn-related images that land as grisly rather than lingering; there is little sexual content. A wounded scientist, stripped of his face and his love, wrestles with rage and tenderness in equal measure. It is for viewers who relish B-movie kinetic energy and full-throated emotion, and who don't mind their thrills coming with a splash of grime.
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