Darkman landed on Home Video on February 14th, 1991, after an August 24th, 1990 theatrical release.
In a post-Batman (1989) world (which itself is a post Miller-Moore world), Sam Raimi’s pulpy homage to Universal horror helped usher in a new wave of 90’s comic book cinematic heroics. The tone was set, Dark was in.
I was a huge Sam Raimi aficionado after the first 2 Evil Dead movies, and this seemed like his first real step towards big tentpole studio legitimacy. So naturally, I was going to support the hell out of this one – I saw it in theaters twice, bought the Marvel comics adaptions, bought the film, and hung the gorgeous John Alvin poster proudly. I’d found my niche with Darkman, it was a stylish and Kinetic throwback to tragic monster-heroes worthy of Stan Lee and James Whale. Basically, everything I loved thrown into a blender. While the movie did ok at the box office, the remainder of the franchise found itself going straight-to-video with Arnold Vosloo shemping for Liam Neeson in the titular role. Larry Drake would, thankfully, stay on board to chew up any available scenery.
But while Darkman never quite became the blockbuster franchise launcher Universal might have hoped for, it carved out a cult following among those of us who appreciated its gonzo mix of horror, heroics, and hammy melodrama. Raimi would go on to Spider-Man, Neeson to Taken, and Vosloo to The Mummy – but for one glorious moment, we had a bandaged, resourcefully brooding super-antihero screaming at the sky and punching through manhole covers. And it was glorious. More so, it was better than the sum of its parts. -Pop