The 1997 film Spawn is an interesting entry for the genre. The film itself tried to invoke the tone of thrillers like Se7en with industrial style music throughout and defective framing and fonts during the credits. But the writing and directing were handled by Mark A.Z. Dippé— director of such classics like Big Stan starring Rob Schneider and Garfield Gets Real. The result is a mixed bag of a film that viewers either love or cringe while watching.
This being said, beneath the mess of a script are moments that might elevate Spawn to a guilty-pleasure status. Much like Venom, this comic book movie entry might fail but it does so with style. Since the future of the Spawn reboot remains in question—plus a Mortal Kombat character appearance is on the horizon—we figured it's time to look back at the fascinating first attempt and whether it earns a "Great Guilty Pleasure" badge. Here are five reasons why the 1997 Spawn movie is a great guilty pleasure and five reasons why it's not.
10 Guilty Pleasure: An Industrial Rock-Fueled Soundtrack
There was a time when a movie's soundtrack was all part of a film's marketing. Singer/Songwriter Seal had his "Kiss from a Rose" play nonstop on the radio during the release of Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever. 2002's Spider-Man echoed Chad Kroeger and Josey Scott's powerful ballad "Hero" throughout the airwaves for months.
Spawn did not have the same fanfare for its soundtrack but some of its playlist still airs on rock stations today. Specifically, Filter's hypnotic rock collaboration with The Crystal Method titled "(Can't You)Trip Like I Do." To top it off, it featured inventive collaborations between artists such as Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine) with Prodigy, Korn with The Dust Brothers, and the signature song "Long Hard Road Out of Hell" with Marilyn Manson and Sneaker Pimps. One might say the music made the movie seem better because of the rock jams. The soundtrack also made a solid first-week release at No. 7 on the Billboard 200.
9 Not A Guilty Pleasure: Dated Special FX
Unfortunately, Spawn is a victim of its time with special effects that were decent during its release but barely pass for a PlayStation video game today. This is not a slam against the hard work executed by all the visual effects artists because they were probably bound by the $40 million budget constraints. That said, when considering two decades of technical visual achievements with films like Avatar and The Lion King remake—it was inevitable.
It's also worth noting that director Mark A.Z. Dippé began his career working in visual effects with ILM on projects like The Abyss, Jurassic Park, and Back to the Future Part II. His efforts with Spawn were admirable and some of the practical animatronics used in the film still hold up. Sadly, Spawn lacked the Spielberg financing to make the film feel timeless in the CGI department.
8 Guilty Pleasure: Top-Notch Makeup Effects For Its Time
Juxtaposed to the dated visual effects was the outstanding makeup work on display. The physical transformation of Michael Jai White as Al Simmons alone is horrifyingly impressive. The actor himself praised the work to the AV Club back in May of 2015, explaining the difficulties of conveying a performance through all the prosthetics, he did a fantastic job doing so.
While his performance may be exhausting, John Leguizamo's role of Clown/The Violator made the actor nearly unrecognizable with the artistic makeup design. Between his ghoulish chubby physique and the clown makeup. Leguizamo's evolution behind the camera was impressive to behold. This was all thanks to a stellar makeup and creature effects crew which also included The Walking Dead's Greg Nicotero and Robert Kurtzman.
7 Not A Guilty Pleasure: John Leguizamo As Clown/Violator
As stated, the makeup and conceptual design of John Leguizamo's Clown demon was spectacularly realized. Oftentimes, his performance is chilling with a Harvey Weinstein sleaziness in his mannerisms. The thought of this character makes one need a shower. And Leguizamo himself showed dedication to the nastiness of Clown by actually eating maggot pizza—yes, that was real.
And yet, Leguizamo's over-the-top slapstick tendencies begin to wear out their welcome before the movie comes to a finish. For example, Clown dancing in a cheerleader outfit singing "S to the P to the A to the Awn" is funny because of Leguizamo, but it feels like a performance for an entirely different film. With the addition of fart jokes and sex humor, Leguizamo's Clown/Violator becomes tiresome. But maybe that was the point.
6 Guilty Pleasure: The Cape
Just like Doctor Strange, the character Spawn's cape has its own unique powers that stretch and bend beyond the laws of physics. It can make him invisible, assist him in floating through the air, and form shapes that destroy semis being driven by pesky clowns.
Despite the outdated CGI, there is something inherently awesome about watching this magnificent red free-flowing beast come to life on the big screen. The sequence where he falls through the roof and glides down to confront Martin Sheen as Jason Wynn with the cape engulfing the room can make any Spawn fan weak. Some viewers might have gross feelings for enjoying it but for its time seeing it brought to live-action was a visual wonder.
5 Not A Guilty Pleasure: Unintentionally Campy
The visual effects are not the only aspect of Spawn that aged like 20-year-old milk. The film was released in a time period before comic book movies hit their stride with Blade and X-Men changing the spectrum shortly after. If anything, Spawn was the bridge between the medium trying to understand the balance between seriousness and camp—and that having it feel cartoonish was not a priority.
The issue with Spawn is that the movie did not fully embrace the darkly violent tone of the source material--and frequently the acting, writing, and character development paid the price for its PG-13 setbacks. Speaking to ScreenGeek, Leguizamo himself gave his thoughts saying, "The movie would have profited for more violence, more vulgarity and being darker." It does not possess the same level of cheesy one-liners that were offered by Batman & Robin. This being said, Clown saying "Oops. A wet one. I hope I didn't stain my underwear. Look at that. Skid marks" comes pretty close.
4 Guilty Pleasure: Because Roger Ebert Says So
It's been discussed before here at Screen Rant but it's worth repeating that the legendary Roger Ebert gave Spawn a glowing review at the time of its release. The famous critic went so far as to call the experience of Spawn "an experimental art film" and "a visual experience."
Ebert at times made questionable recommendations such as giving positive reviews for The Happening and Speed 2: Cruise Control. But with Spawn, his articulate breakdown of how the film was aiming to break new ground for the genre is an extremely valid argument.
3 Not A Guilty Pleasure: One-Dimensional Villains
Outside of John Leguizamo's slimy character of Clown/Violator, every villain in Spawn felt like a cardboard cutout of a villain from a bad Steven Seagal movie. Martin Sheen is actually an incredible actor under the right director—specifically in films like Apocalypse Now and Wall Street. In Spawn, Sheen was a victim of generic bad guy dialogue with extremely basic motivations. And sadly, his skillset is mostly wasted on the role of Jason Wynn.
This is further hindered by Melinda Clarke's role of Jessica Priest who serves as Wynn's henchmen—or henchwoman rather. She only exists as a predictable kill in Spawn's future and if Clarke was a Star Trek character, she might as well be wearing a red shirt. Neither of the performers is at fault but are casualties of a '90s comic book screenplay.
2 Guilty Pleasure: One Of The First Successful African-American Superheroes
Before Black Panther and Blade, Spawn was truly the first good depiction of an African American superhero on the big screen—Sorry Blankman, it's true. And Michael Jai White absolutely owned the role of Spawn. Even now, it's hard to envision how Jamie Foxx could bring the same intensity and force to the role. The bass and viciousness in White's voice are just unmatched.
Still, as much as Spawn pioneered the way for Blade and Wakanda, the studio made some silly assumptions about the audience claiming that if all the characters were African American, White America would think it's only for a Black audience. So they placed D.B. Sweeney in the role of Terry Fitzgerald—who was African American in the comics. Thankfully, the MCU just smashed that belief to smithereens.
1 Not A Guilty Pleasure: Malebolgia Always Looked Terrible
Much of the film was ambitious visually for 1997, especially for such a modest budget. Malebolgia, the giant monster who serves a sector of Hell and created Spawn always was visually awful. The effort to bring said character to life was admirable because the visual effects were not sufficient then for such a task.
Still, despite an amazing voice performance from Peter Welker, the CGI hellfire monster had the appearance of a rendering gone haywire. Bear in mind, this is the same year Hollywood gave us Starship Troopers. Regardless, given the boldness of what everyone was trying to achieve, the half-cooked monster is just as forgivable as the movie itself.
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