Raimi Watch: Darkman (1990)

Watched:  09/27/2024

Format:  Amazon Prime

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Sam Raimi

Darkman (1990) was released just days after I moved from Austin to North Houston.  I was 15.  I'd never heard of Sam Raimi or seen Evil Dead.  It was the end of the 1980's, when we had movie ratings, but nobody really cared about using them for keeping kids out - it was more of a promise of what a movie could contain.  R meant a chance for gore, violence and boobs.  Maybe a few F-bombs.  

Mostly, I was interested in what was sold as a superhero movie, of an all-new character who had an edge to him.  And then a very weird, very cool movie unspooled in front of me.  

Darkman was thus, I think, my introduction to Sam Raimi, Liam Neeson and Frances McDormand.*  My memory is that I thought the camera work and editing were insane, Neeson had fully thrown himself into the role - which seemed like a lot, and McDormand made for a great love interest as a brainier-than-average "the girl" role in one of these movies.   

Rewatching the film, I did wonder how much was originally pitched - was it a modern Universal Horror Monster (for 1989 or so) in the vein of Phantom of the Opera?  And/ or a horror-tinged version of The Shadow?  And...yes! Wikipedia confirms this in the first part of the article.**  Knowing what I know now... it's a fun watch just to see those elements and how Raimi and Co. brought those things in.

The movie isn't a thinker.  It's mostly a 1980's-style revenge movie, something kids who grew up on NES would consider the video-game style of moving up levels to the Big Boss.  It borrows from the things I mentioned, but you can't avoid comparisons to 1980's hits like Batman and RoboCop - even if Batman was released literally while this was shooting.  Superheroes are superheroes and there's similarities.

I love the bits of Raimi-ism, like the optical shots showing up Neeson's inner-turmoil and the crazy scenes like the carnival sequence.  That whole bit is gold and blew my mind as a teenage film watcher.  So when I found out Darkman was the same guy who brought us Evil Dead when I was 18, a lot of bits clicked immediately.  

I know I watched this over and over - though I don't remember owning a copy.  Possibly I did?  My mom was weirdly generous at Walmart in the VHS section.

Watching it now, I admit - I liked it.  It's fun.  It's still weird and goofy and funny and full of good moments, and you can see McDormand trying so hard to make Julie into something, and Neeson thinking this is a real role, so he puts his all into it.  Larry Drake as Durant is simply underrated.  If you want to have that character in a movie, this is how you do it.  No one remembers the actual villain of the piece.  The stand out problem with the movie is that they felt Darkman should yell "Juuuuuullliiieeeee" every 10 seconds in the last 20 minutes.

Mostly, I'm struck by what an odd movie this really is.  It's a bit off-putting for mainstream tastes, but did well, because it does mainstream revenge fantasy stuff very well, while still having a weird main character whose main personality trait is "I'm @#$%ed for life" and liking Frances McDormand.  He's... almost as much a villain as the villains - just bumping dudes off with no warning and getting them killed.  It's pretty devious.  

But as a teen who felt hideous 90% of the time - as an adult, I see how this landed so well with me.  Fuck those people!  I'll go live in a warehouse and plot quippy revenge.

*this is wrong.  I knew her from Raising Arizona

**at fifteen, I was *aware* of The Shadow, but hadn't read, seen, heard or had exposure to the character beyond some art in catalogs.