When people think about director Sam Raimi, there are certain movies that come to mind as being among his best. The first three Evil Dead movies come to mind, as does The Quick and the Dead, and even Drag Me to Hell. His Spider-Man trilogy also easily makes the list and, for many, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man 3 are not only among Raimi’s greatest films but his greatest superhero films, too. They’re great movies, to be sure and are examples of films in the superhero subgenre that are also just great movies in their own right, but if we’re being honest, none of them are actually Raimi’s greatest superhero movie. That distinction belongs to a film that was released 12 years before Tobey Maguire suited up as the iconic hero and 36 years later, it’s still one of Raimi’s greatest works.
If you guessed that the movie we’re talking about is Darkman, not only are you right but you are a movie fan of taste. Released on August 24, 1990, Darkman stars Liam Neeson as Peyton Westlake, a scientist who is attacked and left for dead after his girlfriend Julie (Frances McDormand) ends up on the wrong side of corrupt developer Louis Strack Jr. (Colin Friels). Peyton survives but is horribly disfigured and gains superpowers thanks to experimental treatment. The downside is that the treatment has the side effect of making him mentally unstable. His life radically changed, Peyton is consumed with a need for vengeance and becomes a vigilante, hunting down those who harmed him. The film was a hit and ended up becoming something of a franchise (there were two direct-to-video sequels without Raimi or Neeson’s involvement as well as books, comics, and more) but it’s that original move that remains some of Raimi’s greatest work and the reasons why are pretty simple.
While the premise of Darkman might sound a little wild, it’s one that actually comes from a really interesting place. In the years leading up to Darkman, Raimi had wanted to make a film about The Shadow but never could get the rights to the character from Universal. So, what do you do when you’re denied access to the story you had hoped to tell? You come up with your own story instead. Raimi ended up developing Darkman from a short story he’d written, pulling in inspiration from other great works and characters, like The Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and even Batman. The result is a character and a story that is both familiar and entirely new — and it works perfectly as Raimi takes the story to screen.
Raimi is very well known for his specific filmmaking style. It’s something that we see in its more chaotic early form in Evil Dead and by the time we get to Spider-Man is more polished and, in some ways, more formulaic. Darkman sits right between the two in his overall filmography. The film as a result lets us see the evolution of Raimi’s style as it matures, but isn’t as polished as we when he takes on Spider-Man. Because Darkman is his own creation, Raimi is able to go all out and it creates a unique, exciting visual experience. The elements that are present in Spider-Man that fans laud as being cinematic perfection all start here with Darkman, just in a more pure form.
And it all works. Raimi’s filmmaking style is heightened here in ways you don’t necessarily expect; the story being based on something original lets him lean into horror more than you might have otherwise gotten had he been able to make a The Shadow movie. Add to that genuinely good performances from Neeson and McDormand and you have something that comes together to make a movie that at the time felt like nothing else and still stands out as being a bit unique. Superhero movies would pop off in just a few short years as Raimi brought the lessons of Darkman to Spider-Man. We know where superhero movies have gone since then — and Raimi has even been a part of more contemporary films, thanks to his helming of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — but nothing is as unique, as good, and as completely unrestrained the way Darkman is. It’s Raimi at his absolute best — and that makes this his best superhero movie yet.
