Based on the comic book by acclaimed comic book artist Todd McFarlane this was another movie I happened to find by chance on VHS. I’d read a couple of the Spawn comics years ago (Well decades ago) as a teenager. But realistically I was going into this with virtually no memories and a fresh mental palate. One cool thing about this film was Martin Sheen as Al’s commanding officer.
THE PLOT OF SPAWN
The plot follows Al, who is an elite American soldier. He is sent on one last mission but double crossed by his superiors and murdered. He awakens in the afterlife in Hell. Al (Now technically a hell spawn) returns to his home after 5 years to find his wife re-married with kids and realises that his old life is now a thing of the past. He becomes friends with a creepy clown who acts as his ‘guide’ in the afterlife. During a flashback it turns out he has promised to lead the armies of hell, in return for seeing his wife again.
Of course our new hero the spawn now seeks vengeance against his former commander who is now an arms dealer.
THE VERDICT
I’ve been watching horror movies since the 80’s and these effects looked cheesy for back then let alone the later 90s. As a movie, Spawn is an ok watch. It’s a bit of fun but in my opinion not much more than that. It’s got a cool heavy metal soundtrack and some cheesy-ness, but it’s not going to go down as a classic. The effects also left me underwhelmed in a big way.
Spawn as a comic book was a great concept. Something about this missed the mark. It’s a bit of a shame too, as there was a lot of money thrown into this one, and an all start heavy metal / hard rock soundtrack. I think it could have been spent a little better in my opinion. At the end of the day people vote with their wallets and this did quite well, probably being one of the biggest horror movies of that year. Shows the importance of a good publicity campaign I guess.
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