100 Greatest Superhero Stories Ever
By Steve Lam
Image Courtesy of Renaissance Pictures
#89. Darkman
Medium
Live-Action Feature Film
Release Date
August 24, 1990
Credits
Director: Sam Raimi
Writers: Sam Raimi, Chuck Pfarrer, Ivan Raimi, Daniel Goldin, Joshua Goldin
Cast: Liam Neeson as Peyton Westlake / Darkman, Frances McDormand as Julie Hastings, Colin Friels as Louis Strack Jr., Larry Drake as Robert G. Durant, Jessie Lawrence Ferguson as Eddie Black, Ted Raimi as Ricky, Nicholas Worth as Pauly, Dan Hicks as Skip, Bridget Hoffman as Computer Voice
The Reason It’s Great
When you can’t make a comic book movie from existing sources what do you do? You create your own superhero. That’s exactly what director/writer Sam Raimi did and he ended up with Darkman. The visionary filmmaker gave audiences a completely unique character that had roots in both horror and comics.
The origin story is classic comics. Scientist Peyton Westlake is working on a revolutionary synthetic skin, but it’s only stable for 100 minutes due to photosensitivity. His girlfriend is soon targeted by a corrupt developer after she finds incriminating evidence against him.
The developer sends his henchman to retrieve the evidence, but they only find Peyton. Like all evil villains, the group torches the place and the resulting explosion leaves Peyton severely disfigured. A procedure at the hospital relieves Peyton of all sensation, even pain. However, it gives him enhanced strength and mental instability.
He soon goes on a one-man revenge mission targeting the henchmen and their boss. Using his synthetic skin, he finds ways to frame them and also visit his girlfriend. The caveat is that the skin always breaks down within 100 minutes.
The film was well-received by audiences and critics, and later spawned two sequels. Marvel Comics would also make an adaptation of the original film, and Dynamite Entertainment created a crossover story that pitted Darkman against the Army of Darkness—another creation of Raimi’s.
Darkman was also a proving ground for Raimi because, years later, he would become the director of the first Spider-Man franchise—of which one of the movies is on our list.