Before Spider-Man, Sam Raimi Made a Perfect Superhero Movie Everyone Forgot About
A daring fusion of superhero genre and noir tragedy, this film is a reminder of how inventive and daring comic book movies used to be.
It is generally accepted that there is a comic book behind every superhero movie – after all, viewers owe the appearance of Batman, Superman, X-Men and Avengers to this genre.
However, superhero stories are not always based on comic books – sometimes there is a problem with the rights, and sometimes it is the director's desire to tell his own original story.
35 Years Ago, Sam Raimi Created His Own Superhero
Director Sam Raimi, famous for The Evil Dead, dreamed of making his Hollywood debut with an adaptation of the comic book The Shadow, but could not get the rights to the character created by Walter B. Gibson. The Batman comic book was also unavailable for him at the time.
Sam then created his own superhero, inspired by the Universal Studio horror films of the 1930s, and cast Liam Neeson, Frances McDormand and Larry Drake in the lead roles.
What is Darkman About?
Dr. Peyton Westlake is on the verge of a great discovery – he is finishing experiments to create artificial human skin. But a gang of criminals led by the sadist Robert Durant breaks into Peyton's lab and blows it up, along with the doctor.
Miraculously surviving and disfigured beyond recognition, Peyton decides to take revenge on the villains. Now he appears not as Dr. Westlake, but as the menacing and sinister Darkman. However, after becoming nearly invulnerable, Darkman lost everything he held dear.
Darkman Is One of the Best Roles of Liam Neeson's Career
Before he became an action star, Liam Neeson delivered a haunting, multifaceted performance in Darkman. His portrayal of Westlake is both tragic and terrifying – a brilliant man reduced to a monster, clinging to remnants of his humanity.
Neeson conveys raw emotion beneath layers of grotesque makeup, making Westlake's pain palpable.
Unlike later superhero films, where villains tend to be one-dimensional, Darkman blurs the line between hero and monster thanks to Neeson's nuanced performance.
Darkman Was a Success that Spawned Sequels and Comics
The story of a disfigured genius who uses masks and takes revenge on gangster boss Durant for the face he lost paid for itself three times over at the box office, prompting Universal to release two sequels (which Raimi had nothing to do with), video games, books based on the series, and, of course, Marvel Comics.
Today, Darkman is a cult character, and if Raimi had taken on Batman or The Shadow, we would not have gotten the dark noir superhero. The director got his chance to work with comic books a decade later – the result of his efforts was the Spider-Man trilogy.
