Development and writing

Darkman III: Die Darkman Die is the sister picture to its predecessor, Darkman II: The Return of Durant.^[3] Both films were greenlit together by Universal Pictures in 1992, and developed alongside one another.^[4]

Darkman III was written by Michael Colleary and Mike Werb.^[5] The pair was concurrently polishing their spec script Face/Off, which was pitched before the Darkman sequels, but went through a protracted development across two studios, and ended up being filmed after them. Some narrative elements, such as a character taking his arch enemy's facial features and becoming close to the latter's unsuspecting family, are common to both Darkman III and Face/Off.^[6] Dark Horse Comics' Mark Verheiden, author of Timecop and its Raimi-produced film adaptation, performed some uncredited rewrites on Darkman III.^[7] Verheiden was also the original writer for the Dark Horse adaptation The Mask, to which Werb contributed major script revisions. It is unknown whether the involvement of both men on those two projects is coincidental.^[8]

Due to Larry Drake's prior commitments, the sequel he appeared in was scheduled to be shot last, and it was initially assumed that this would be its release order as well. For this reason, Darkman III was known as Darkman II during production.^[7][9] However, in a March 1995 interview, actress Roxann Dawson said she was unsure of the film's final title.^[10] It was eventually decided to switch the releases around and alter their numbers accordingly, which led to some minor inconsistencies in the now renamed Darkman III, as research concerning synthetic skin is less advanced than in its purported prequel.^[6]

Filming

Like The Return of Durant, Die Darkman Die was shot in Toronto, Ontario, and used much of the same crew. Principal photography started on November 15, 1993 and concluded on December 20.^[11] The crew then took a break before the shooting of the other instalment. The aggregate budget for both films was slightly less than US$7 million, with Darkman II: The Return of Durant taking up the better part of that amount at US$4 million.^[5]

May prioritized key set pieces to make the most of the film's modest means. According to the director, the final factory explosion in Die Darkman Die was the largest in Canadian film history up to that point.^[5] However, Verheiden also remembers that a relatively simple scene he had written, where an enraged Darkman bashed a thug's head into the hood of a car, was nixed as the required props and stuntpersons were too expensive.^[9]

Home video

Darkman III: Die Darkman Die was released on VHS tape on August 20, 1996.^[12] As per industry standards, the Laserdisc followed one week later on August 27.^[13]

Die Darkman Die was re-issued on DVD by Universal on January 5, 2004 in the U.S., as part of the budget priced "Universal Studio Selections" collection. It was devoid of features other than a chapter selection.^[14] An international pressing predates the domestic version. Listed with a release date of October 23, 2000 in the U.K.,^[15] it included a brief biography of lead actor Arnold Vosloo.^[16]

Shout! Factory released a Blu-ray of the film on November 7, 2017. It includes a new feature-length audio commentary from director Bradford May and a trailer.^[17]

Television

Like its predecessor, Darkman III received a primetime network TV showing on Fox on July 7, 1998, almost one year after Part II, and with similar results. It garnered a 2.7 rating and a 6 share.^[18]

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 33% approval rating based on a limited sample of 7 reviews, with an average rating of 4.2/10.^[19]

Jeff Fahey's dual performance as Darkman and Rooker was widely praised. Ian Jane of DVDTalk called the actor "fun as the crazed bad guy",^[20] while TV Guide commended him "for creating a new nemesis for Darkman who is not simply a retread of the first two films' sinister Durant".^[21]

The film's production values received mixed reviews. TV Guide said "The production boasts impressive visuals in the form of blue screen pyrotechnics and various makeup effects. It is clear that Darkman III is not a mere cash-in on the original's popularity". Ballantine Books's DVD and Video Guide was less impressed, commenting that it had to make do "without the outrageous stunts and hyperkinetic visuals that made the first film so memorable."^[22] Richard Scheib of Moria Reviews thought that "the low budget shows through at times".^[23]

The film's story was generally viewed as more ambitious than that of Darkman II, although some preferred the more straightforward nature of its predecessor. Alan Jones of the BBC's RadioTimes praised "a well-realised script accenting character as much as explosive gimmicks".^[24] Scheib wrote that "where Die Darkman Die does work is in the central character conflict it sets up. The story twists about on a unique dilemma—that of Darkman wearing a mobster’s face as a disguise but in so doing coming to provide the care and attention the mobster never gave his wife and child".^[23][25] Hock Teh of IGN also noted that "Darkman III surprised me in a good way by harking back to our hero's emotional state of mind so evident in the first movie."^[26] Jane, however, disagreed with the new direction, saying "[w]hile it's interesting to see how the story deals with Darkman's emotional turmoil by throwing Rooker's wife and child into the mix, the story this time around is pretty convoluted.^[20] Peter M. Nichols of The New York Times also found that "[b]y contrast [with The Return of Durant], the second sequel, Darkman III: Die Darkman Die, takes a campy approach to a story that seems to be tiring."^[27]