Raimi had wanted for years to adapt and make a film version of The Shadow. However, the studios he shopped the project around to balked at the idea: He was still somewhat unknown at the time, and there wasn't much confidence behind the comic strip's popularity.
Raimi, in response, chose the next best thing--he created his own version, blending elements of the original comic book hero, Phantom of the Opera, and even a little of The Elephant Man for pathos. What came about from it--spawning two very bad sequels in the process--was a film demonstrating a filmmaker's inspiration, but one pumped through his own vivid, wild imagination; and it makes for one of the most original entries into the comic-book movie canon in the last 25 years.
Still the studios had no love for this film in its finished form. They slated it for release in August 1990 at the end of the summer release cycle. You know, the same month of the year they released "Coyote Ugly"? But the film was a success garnering almost 50 million on a 16 million dollar budget.
Liam Neeson plays Peyton Westlake, a scientist on the verge of inventing synthetic skin from a series of photographs of the subject. Thus disfigured people could wear his synthetic mask and be moved toward a more normal life. Peyton's girlfriend, Julie, a journalist, has found a memorandum indicating a developer she knows made a Mafia payout in connection with a development he is building. She makes the mistake of telling said developer that she has this proof of his crime, but that she doesn't have it on her. So evil developer has his psychopathic buddies go to Peyton's loft/lab, blow up the place while taking the memorandum, and in the process Peyton's assistant is blown to bits. Peyton is burned beyond recognition but lands in the nearby bay.
With no ID, as a John Doe, Peyton is given really good treatment by the hospital which takes the drastic step of severing nerves that allow him to feel pain, else he would spend all of his time screaming in pain from the burns. He escapes from the hospital, and meanwhile his assistant is buried as Peyton. You'd think family or friends would come looking for the assistant, but I guess that's another film.
So Peyton continues his work on skin regeneration, with his lab now acting as a kind of batcave, and things are urgent because Peyton needs this cure for himself as his face and hands are horribly disfigured. As things are he has only 99 minutes before the artificial skin decomposes. And this works for some good fun for the next part of the film, because Peyton wants revenge on top of a cure. Plus he needs money. He finds a chance for revenge and money by posing as the different people who "killed him" and then just counting on the worst instincts of these thugs - and they have plenty of them - to turn on each other.
But then a mistake - Peyton lets Julie know he's alive -wearing artificial skin of course - and that memorandum that was the whole point of ruining Peyton's life? It turns up on a desk, with the coffee stain Julie put there herself at Peyton's loft, right before he died. And now Julie knows Peyton's "death" was no accident. I'll let you see how things work out from here.
The real revelation here was Larry Drake as evil Robert Durant. He strokes a small furry pet wearing gloves and an apron that says "Kiss the Cook" while maintaining his collection of human fingers he has taken from people who do not pay their debts to him. The reason he was a revelation? For years before this he had played a mentally handicapped man who has been working at the law firm showcased by "LA Law". It was a kind of last request from his dying mother to the firm so her son would have a purpose in life. To go from that gentle persona to a heartless monster shows Drake had range most people did not think he had.
Give it a try. The special effects have aged a bit, but the human factors make it still relevant.
Raimi, in response, chose the next best thing--he created his own version, blending elements of the original comic book hero, Phantom of the Opera, and even a little of The Elephant Man for pathos. What came about from it--spawning two very bad sequels in the process--was a film demonstrating a filmmaker's inspiration, but one pumped through his own vivid, wild imagination; and it makes for one of the most original entries into the comic-book movie canon in the last 25 years.
Still the studios had no love for this film in its finished form. They slated it for release in August 1990 at the end of the summer release cycle. You know, the same month of the year they released "Coyote Ugly"? But the film was a success garnering almost 50 million on a 16 million dollar budget.
Liam Neeson plays Peyton Westlake, a scientist on the verge of inventing synthetic skin from a series of photographs of the subject. Thus disfigured people could wear his synthetic mask and be moved toward a more normal life. Peyton's girlfriend, Julie, a journalist, has found a memorandum indicating a developer she knows made a Mafia payout in connection with a development he is building. She makes the mistake of telling said developer that she has this proof of his crime, but that she doesn't have it on her. So evil developer has his psychopathic buddies go to Peyton's loft/lab, blow up the place while taking the memorandum, and in the process Peyton's assistant is blown to bits. Peyton is burned beyond recognition but lands in the nearby bay.
With no ID, as a John Doe, Peyton is given really good treatment by the hospital which takes the drastic step of severing nerves that allow him to feel pain, else he would spend all of his time screaming in pain from the burns. He escapes from the hospital, and meanwhile his assistant is buried as Peyton. You'd think family or friends would come looking for the assistant, but I guess that's another film.
So Peyton continues his work on skin regeneration, with his lab now acting as a kind of batcave, and things are urgent because Peyton needs this cure for himself as his face and hands are horribly disfigured. As things are he has only 99 minutes before the artificial skin decomposes. And this works for some good fun for the next part of the film, because Peyton wants revenge on top of a cure. Plus he needs money. He finds a chance for revenge and money by posing as the different people who "killed him" and then just counting on the worst instincts of these thugs - and they have plenty of them - to turn on each other.
But then a mistake - Peyton lets Julie know he's alive -wearing artificial skin of course - and that memorandum that was the whole point of ruining Peyton's life? It turns up on a desk, with the coffee stain Julie put there herself at Peyton's loft, right before he died. And now Julie knows Peyton's "death" was no accident. I'll let you see how things work out from here.
The real revelation here was Larry Drake as evil Robert Durant. He strokes a small furry pet wearing gloves and an apron that says "Kiss the Cook" while maintaining his collection of human fingers he has taken from people who do not pay their debts to him. The reason he was a revelation? For years before this he had played a mentally handicapped man who has been working at the law firm showcased by "LA Law". It was a kind of last request from his dying mother to the firm so her son would have a purpose in life. To go from that gentle persona to a heartless monster shows Drake had range most people did not think he had.
Give it a try. The special effects have aged a bit, but the human factors make it still relevant.