Synopsis:

Darkman Lives!' is the first in a soon to be series of pulp style edits. In this edition of the film, MusicEd921 has converted the film to black and white, excised some of the sillier moments, created a new introduction for Durant, and many more other cuts to bring this film closer to its pulp routes.

Intentions:

Something about the movie Darkman has always been a little off to me. It had a lot of potential and I wish Sam Raimi continued to build on it, but it was a weird mix of horror, comedy and superhero elements that didn't quite gel with this particular character. The film plays like what it would be like if you had a modern Phantom of the Opera superhero, so I embraced that approach and tried to bring it closer to that feeling.

Change List:

- Whole film converted to black and white - 1930's Universal logo added as an homage to the old Universal monsters - Brand new opening title sequence - Cut the warehouse opening (moved to later) - Durant's brief introduction will take place when Stracks mentions Durant to Julie - Trim lab fight so that not too long after Pauly grabs Westlake's hand as he goes to answer the phone. Now Westlake grabs phone, Pauly grabs Westlake's hand then we cut to Pauly as he is winding up to punch Westlake - Fix continuity of Rick cocking the gun to kill the lab tech after the previous shots showed it ready to go. Now Durant says ventilate him, it cuts to Rick cocking the gun, closeup of Westlake then to the lab tech and then back to Westlake as the gun goes off. New gunshot sound effect added - Fix continuity of the rocking bird (whatever it's called). When Westlake makes it to the desk it looks like it is really on its way down now as opposed to before - Cut funeral. We fade to black after explosion, lingering on Julie. The transition from the explosion to the funeral always looked corny to me. There's nothing really important about the funeral part other than that they couldn't find Westlake's body. - Cut anger flash in hospital - Cut Westlake seeing Julie on the street. - Insert clip from Darkman II opening with Westlake seeing his grave stone - Cut anger vision when Westlake sees Rick at the party - Trim the pacing of Rick's death - Trim a little of Westlake going mad in his lab yelling at the cat. No more song and dance. - Cut Julie saying she doesn't know about being with Peyton if he was scarred. That didn't resonate well with me. - Cut Durant stopping by the car seeing Ted before encountering Westlake - Edit carnival scene. No more rubber fingers. - Cut Strack's dead wife joke to Durant - Cut "you've got to be shitting me!" - Cut terrible shot of Westlake jumping down from the roof onto Rudy - Cut "you've been a bad boy!" - Trim Darkman falling from the helicopter - Cut Darkman crashing through the building during a meeting - Cut Darkman running on top of truck and getting hit by the Raimi Oldsmobile - Trimmed Darkman on top of truck that Durant drops him on. Durant doesn't continue to fire aimlessly and it takes too long for Darkman to hook onto truck. - Cut POV from the screw gun - Cut anger vision when Stracks talks about dating Julie - Cut Bruce Campbell cameo. We now end after Julie can't find Westlake with a nighttime shot of the city and Darkman standing on a rooftop looking out at the city as he does his "I am Darkman" speech. The shots for this were lifted from Darkman II. Very superhero-ish.

Additional Notes:

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Other Sources:

- Darkman score by Danny Elfman - Darkman II

Special Thanks:

BionicBob