Darkman by Randall Boyll

 

(pb; 1990: movie tie-in novel, based on a screenplay by Sam Raimi, Chuck Pfarrer, Ivan Raimi, Daniel Goldin and Joshua Goldin.)

From the back cover

“Once he had a normal life, a beautiful girlfriend, and a brilliant medical career─creating synthetic skin for accident victims. Then he was a victim himself, brutally attacked by sadistic criminals─his face and body burned beyond recognition.

“Now he walks the night, searching for the woman he loves. A man who looks like a monster, he hopes to salvage his scorched flesh. . .and take revenge on those who destroyed his life.”

 

Review

Darkman─like its counterpart film─is a fun, pulpy, comic book-y action flick with over-the-top, quirky characters and big, explosive, gory action as well as more than a few quotable lines. If you’re looking for a fast-paced, entertaining, sometime darkly funny, sometimes sad action-flick book, this is one worth reading, close enough to its cinematic version to reflect it whilst adding plenty of character-deepening and character-linked wrinkles to the R-rated superheroic storyline. Followed by four book-only offshoot novels, the first of which is Darkman: The Hangman.

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The film version was released stateside on August 24, 1990. Sam Raimi directed it, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Chuck Pfarrer, Ivan Raimi, Daniel Goldin and Joshua Goldin.

Liam Neeson played Peyton Westlake/Darkman. Frances McDormand played Julie Hastings. Nelson Mashita played Yakitito Yanagito.

Jessie Lawrence Ferguson played Eddie Black. Colin Friels played Louis Strack, Jr. Larry Drake played Robert G. Durant.

Rafael H. Robledo played Rudy Guzman. Dan Hicks, billed as Danny Hicks, played Skip Altwater. Ted Raimi, billed as Theodore Raimi, played Rick Desmond. Dan Bell played Smiley (a.k.a. Sam Rogers). Nicholas Worth played Pauly.

Aaron Lustig played Martin Katz. John Landis played “Physician.” An uncredited Jenny Agutter played “Burn Doctor.” Joel Coen played “Oldsmobile Driver.” Ethan Coen played “Oldsmobile Passenger.” Bruce Campbell played “Final Shemp.”

Hail to the Chin: Further Confessions of a B Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell with Craig Sanborn

(2017: memoir)

From the inside flap

“One of my dad’s favorite jokes about getting older was ‘I went out for coffee when I was twenty-one and when I got back I was fifty-eight!’

“I get what he meant now. Time flies. My first book, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor, was published back in 2001 and it chronicles the adventures of a ‘mid-grade, kind of hammy actor’ (my words), cutting his teeth on exploitation movies far removed from Hollywood.

“This next book, an ‘Act II’ if you will, could be considered my ‘maturing years’ in show business, when I began to say no more often and gravitated toward self-generated material. Taking stock of the overall quality of life, I fled Los Angeles and moved to a remote part of Oregon to renew, regroup and reload.

“If that sounds tame, the journey from Evil Dead to Spider-Man to Burn Notice was long, with plenty of adventures/mishaps along the way. I never pictured myself hovering above Baghdad in a Blackhawk helicopter, facing a pack of wild dogs in Bulgaria, or playing an aging Elvis Presley with cancer on his penis─how can you predict this stuff? The sheer lunacy of show business is part of the fun for me and I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

“—Bruce ‘Don’t Call Me Ash’ Campbell”

Review

Hail is an interesting, graceful, fun and smart-minded read, a mix of oddball occurrences, strange and educational encounters (often within Hollywood- or low budget film-based situations), charming self-deprecation and honest evaluations as well as the joys of, and contrasts between, Los Angeles and the boonies of Oregon. This is worth checking out from the library or purchasing for fans of Campbell and his expanding oeuvre.