Sam Raimi
Darkman

Payton Westlake (Liam Neeson, among others from "The English Patient") is an excellent scientist who has been studying a synthetic skin polymer for years. However, the experiment has a problem; the masks created with this system "melt" after exactly ninety-nine minutes in the light.

Westlake is madly in love with his girlfriend Julie (Frances McDormand, Oscar winner for Best Actress in 1997 for Fargo), so much so that he asks her to marry him. But there is a hitch; Julie leaves behind some documents in her boyfriend's laboratory that prove beyond a doubt a "shady deal" between businessman Louis Strack Jr. and the powerful mobster Robert J. Durant (a stunning Larry Drake). Durant then goes to Westlake, and after brutally killing the amiable assistant Yakitito, he horribly disfigures Payton and destroys the laboratory by blowing it up. Miraculously surviving, Westlake is admitted to an experimental clinic for severe burn victims, where the nerves transmitting pain to his brain are severed, resulting in sporadic but intense adrenaline surges that multiply his physical strength. After escaping from the hospital, he pieces together the remnants of his old laboratory in an abandoned factory and, after reconstructing his face, will contact Julie (who had believed him, naturally, dead and buried) and, by repeatedly infiltrating among the criminals who sentenced him to a life of eternal suffering, will force them to kill each other until the spectacular final confrontation first with Durant, then with Strack.

Produced in 1990, this film is one of the great classics of Sam Raimi, unjustly overlooked when discussing the films of this talented director. Although there are some flaws; the plot fundamentally flows smoothly but is somewhat monotonous, even though Neeson is truly talented and convincing and Larry Drake is indisputably in great form. Raimi nonetheless crafts a "comic book-style film" where the protagonist's anger over his condition takes center stage, even over his love for Julie (unlike many films of the genre where a happy ending is expected).

The two TV sequels (Darkman II - The Return of Durant and Darkman III, with Arnold Vosloo - "The Mummy" - replacing Neeson) are just dismal B-movies.