Spawn
Directed by Mark A.Z. Dippé
- action
- adventure
- fantasy
- horror
- science fiction
- thriller
The story
After being murdered by corrupt colleagues in a covert government agency, Al Simmons makes a pact with the devil to be resurrected to see his beloved wife Wanda. In exchange for his return to Earth, Simmons agrees to lead Hell's Army in the destruction of mankind.
What it’s like
Dark, grimy, and saturated with fire-orange and sickly green, Spawn lives in its night-time city and its hellscape, with the glow of sodium streetlights, neon and lurid infernal red doing most of the lighting. The camera is restless in the action, with fast cuts, low-angle swoops and bursts of handheld chaos, and the seams of its early-CGI effects show in the way its demons and cape-like shadows move. The score leans on heavy industrial guitars, synth pulse and booming percussion, so the soundtrack hits harder than the quiet moments do. Its vibe is gritty, lurid and pulpy, a comic-book noir with a dash of gothic horror. It suits a late-night, low-lights watch with friends rather than anything gentle or contemplative. Violence is frequent and bloody, with fistfights, gunfire, explosions and a few grisly body-horror images, plus some crude language and dark, unsettling imagery, though the gore is more stylised than relentless. A tortured soul slowly confronts his own damnation. It is for viewers who want brooding, over-the-top genre spectacle and don't mind a rough edge.
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