Superhero fans will find a forgotten representative of the genre at Amazon, for which horror master Sam Raimi invented his own hero. In 1990, the film became a hit in the cinema and got two sequels.
The superhero genre did not begin its existence with the invention of the MCU. Decades before, visionary directors brought their versions of popular comic book heroes to the big screen. One of the most exciting examples is the bloody Darkman by horror veteran Sam Raimi (Army of Darkness). The film is available to buy and rent on Amazon.
At Amazon: Horror master invented his own superhero for hit movie
Darkman revolves around scientist Dr. Peyton Westlake (Liam Neeson), who is working on artificial skin for burn victims. When he gets in the way of a conspiracy, criminals attack him and cruelly torture him with acid. Unrecognised, his destroyed body is later found and undergoes radical healing therapy, which gives Westlake superhuman strength but also makes him psychologically unstable. He seeks revenge.
Liam Neeson as Darkman
As Movieweb describes, exceptional director Raimi first wanted to adapt the legendary comic The Shadow for the big screen, but couldn’t get the rights and invented his own hero without further ado.
The film was largely well received by critics, who praised it in particular for its visual style (via Metacritic ). Darkman turned out to be a box-office hit despite its harsh depiction of violence (via The Numbers ) and spawned two sequels, Darkman II – Durant’s Return and Darkman III – The Experiment.
