Darkman

Summary

“I want… the pink elephant.. for my girlfriend.”

Sam Raimi is one of my favorite filmmakers. I have him to thank for my love of horror films. That love for horror films began at a young age when I caught a late-night showing of Army of Darkness on television. I have continued to follow his filmmaking career in the years since that experience more than a quarter century ago. I have also frequently returned to many of his films, because I love them. The Hudsucker Proxy, Evil Dead II, and Army of Darkness in particular I have revisited very frequently. His films never fail to put a smile on my face with their mixture of darkly comedic, goofy, and grotesque ideas. I purchased Shout! Factory’s previous release of Darkman on Blu-ray, but for some reason I never got around to revisiting the film. I had seen the movie years earlier as a teenager, but had not seen it since. I was excited to see the film in Shout! Factory’s brand new 4K UHD release. Watching the film the other night, I had a blast revisiting it.

Down by the pier, Robert G. Durant (Larry Drake,) along with his crew of hoodlums, meets with Eddie Black. Eddie explains to Durant that he will not sell his property or be pushed around by Durant or his goons. Eddie has Durant and his men seemingly surrounded. Through the use of a cleverly concealed weapon Durant proceeds to kill all of Eddie’s men. He then makes some points to Eddie by using a cigar clipper on Eddie’s fingers. Across town at a lab, Dr. Peyton Westlake (Liam Neeson) and his associate Yakatito (Nelson Mashita) work on a program for developing synthetic skin. At ninety nine minutes into the test, the synthetic skin cells fragment and fall apart. They are having trouble getting over that hurdle in their experiments. At home, Peyton is in a loving relationship with Julia Hastings (Frances McDormand). Julia is an attorney and she has found some documents regarding some payoffs to the zoning commission conducted by some folks at Strack Industries. As she leaves that morning, Peyton runs her down to suggest getting married. She wants to think it over. At Strack Industries, Julia talks to Louis Strack Jr. (Colin Friels) about the payoffs to the zoning committee which she discovered in the incriminating memo. Louis explains that sometimes a few actions are taken that cut through red tape in order to achieve his vision of building out the city. He suggests that she leave the memo with him. Julia explains that the memo is not with her. Louis asks Julia if the name Robert Durant means anything to her. He explains that Robert Durant is a crime boss, but he is in real estate as well, and that memo may make her an enemy of him. Julia leaves Louis’s office. At Westlake’s lab, while continuing to work on the synthetic skin, the power goes out. The dark helps the synthetic cells stay stable while Peyton looks through a microscope.  It’s the breakthrough they have been waiting for. Now they know that the skin’s photosensitivity is the issue. Unfortunately, they don’t know that Robert Durant and his thugs are inside their lab. Robert’s hoodlums kill the lab assistant and horribly burn and disfigure Peyton. They search for the document at the lab before they leave Peyton for dead and set an explosive reaction to occur from the flick of a lighter. Julia arrives at the lab just as it explodes. The explosion propels Peyton’s body out of the lab and all the way to the river. Julia believes Peyton to be dead and buries what they find of him. At a hospital, a burn doctor (Jenny Agutter) discusses a John Doe burn victim in their unit. Through medical advances in surgery, they cut the nerves in Peyton’s spinothalamic tract. His body can no longer feel pain, but the surgery is not without side effects such as augmented strength and intense emotions. Breaking out of his restraints, Peyton forages for clothes in a dumpster. He finds a trenchcoat. He sees Julia, but approaching her, she is frightened away by the heavily bandaged man who can barely speak. He seeks refuge in an abandoned warehouse and begins accumulating the tools he will need to rebuild himself and seek the revenge that he deserves.

Made for $14 million, Darkman was a great success grossing $48 million and spawning two direct-to-video sequels. Darkman was created by Sam Raimi when he could not license any of the superhero properties that he wanted to direct. It is much easier to enjoy Darkman’s charms when you consider it as essentially a comic book film, even though the character of Darkman was completely from Sam Raimi’s imagination. Sam Raimi went on to direct three Spider-Man pictures (two of which are considered to be some of the best comic book movies ever) and recently directed Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Darkman is the type of fun and inventive film that would please any comic book lovers. 

When I was growing up in the Nineties, I was obsessed with Marvel Comics’ The Punisher. I would go to the comic book store every month to get the latest issue. It was a golden age for comic books and Darkman would have fit in on the shelves of any comic book store from that era. In fact, Marvel Comics released a three issue adaptation of the film. Like any good comic book, Darkman is filled with fantastic ideas. The whole premise of synthetic skin and the ability for the hero to essentially disguise himself, but only for limited amounts of time, was very clever. Like many fantastic ideas in science fiction, some of the ideas have come or will come to fruition. I was taken aback to see what resembled 3D printing of body parts in a film from 1990. 3D printing of organs is very much a possibility in the near future, and Sam Raimi was thinking about it back then.

Like many of Sam Raimi’s pictures, Darkman works because of the manic energy that Raimi invests into the film. The camera makes some wild moves at times and there are some truly terrific sequences when the film goes nuts while Liam Neeson’s character is overcome with emotion. I love just how off the rails Raimi was willing to go with Darkman. The best example is the sequence at the carnival. It is a peak Raimi moment. It’s unbelievable. 

The film is a tremendous amount of fun to watch. Because Darkman was R-rated, Raimi could let his characters indulge in slightly rougher attributes than if the movie had been PG-13. Interestingly enough, this film shares that slightly darker edge with one of the few Marvel films produced at that time – The Punisher (the version starring dolphin Lundgren.) Some of the visual effects in the film look aged now, but I still have an affinity for that specific look that was crafted for the film. Darkman also has some truly remarkable stunt work including a really intricate sequence involving a helicopter. The film is aided by a great score by Danny Elfman, who was in between the two Tim Burton directed Batman pictures.

The actors in the film are all well suited to their roles. Liam Neeson has a commanding presence onscreen. It was fun seeing him let loose in one of his earlier roles before he became a household name. Frances McDormand is always a welcome addition to any film, and she handles the role of Julia without breaking a sweat. Larry Drake is lightning in a bottle as the villainous Durant. Drake feels like a comic book villian brought to life in the picture. He is perfectly cast. Colin Friels is well cast as the out of control real estate developer. Ted Raimi has a great cameo as one of Drake’s henchmen, and I also enjoyed seeing both Jenny Agutter and John Landis in quick cameos. Bruce Campbell also shows up in a significant moment.

I had a great time revisiting Darkman. The new 4K release by Shout Factory comes highly recommended.

Video

Shout!Factory presents Darkman in 4K UHD from a brand new scan of the original camera negative in 1.85:1 aspect ratio. This transfer was approved by director Sam Raimi and director of photography Bill Pope. Both HDR and Dolby Vision are offered. This is by far the best that Darkman has every appeared. Shout! Factory obviously has a lot of love for the picture, because the new presentation is leaps ahead of their prior Blu-ray presentation. Fine detail is very good and the color grading is true to the source. Any limitations seem to come from the original source, and for fans of the film, these limitations will not matter a damn bit.

Audio

The film features a very engaging DTS-HD MA 5.1 track that expands the original sound design alongside a DTS-HD MA 2.0 track which preserves the original stereo sound design well. I always opt for 5.1 tracks when possible. The surround track expands from the original stereo track, which typically would mean that the front speakers would be more in play than the back speakers. This did not feel like the case with Darkman. The robust score by Danny Elfman fills up the soundscape in similar ways to his work on films like Batman or Beetlejuice. The only times in which the surround field feels slightly less immersive is during some of the action sequences where numerous shots are fired. Overall, I was very impressed by how good the track sounded.

Supplements:

DISC ONE – 4K BLU-RAY

• Audio Commentary With Filmmaker And Darkman Superfan Josh Ruben
• Audio Commentary With Bill Pope

DISC TWO – BLU-RAY

• Audio Commentary With Filmmaker And Darkman Superfan Josh Ruben
• Deleted Scenes
• Audio Commentary With Bill Pope
• “Dissecting Darkman” – An Interview With Actor Liam Neeson
• Interview With Actor Frances McDormand
• “The Name Is Durant” – An Interview With Actor Larry Drake
• “The Face Of Revenge” – Interview With Makeup Designer Tony Gardner
• “Henchman Tales” – Interviews with Actors Danny Hicks and Dan Bell
• “Dark Design” – An Interview With Production Designer Randy Ser And Art Director Philip Dagort
• Vintage “Making-Of” Featurette – Featuring Interviews With Sam Raimi, Liam Neeson, Frances McDormand, And More…
• Vintage Interviews With Sam Raimi, Liam Neeson And Frances McDormand
• Theatrical Trailer
• TV Spots
• Still Galleries

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.5/5

Audio – 4.5/5

Supplements – 5/5

Overall – 4.75/5

Shout! Factory has done a wonderful job on their new 4K UHD presentation of Sam Raimi’s Darkman. Darkman is an extremely entertaining comic book style film. Because I grew up reading a ton of comic books, especially Marvel Comics’ The Punisher, everything about Darkman felt right. The hero’s abilities and his vulnerabilities are all well thought and Darkman faces some well written villains. Liam Neeson is great in the lead role, and Larry Drake runs off with the picture whenever he shows up onscreen as Durant. I had not seen the film in a long while, and I had a blast revisiting it. Shout! Factory have provided a new audio commentary to round out their extensive collection from their prior release while giving the film a big visual jump forward with their director and cinematographer approved 4K transfer. On a related note, the deleted scenes for the film run thirty seven minutes long and feature a number of subplots that were cut from the film, some of which flesh out Frances McDormand’s character arc more fully. Fans will want to upgrade and I imagine this will be the definitive way to view the film moving forward. This release comes very highly recommended.