Spawn (1997) – WTF Happened to This Horror Movie?

The episode of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? covering Spawn was Written by Mike Holtz, Narrated by Tyler Nichols, Edited by Juan Jimenez, Produced by Andrew Hatfield and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Almost everything about Todd McFarlane’s Spawn is purely adult fare. Even then… it’s not something you’d ever consider everyone’s cup of tea. Sure, there’s a superhero with a killer costume. But he’s from Hell and happens to be surrounded by folks who you’d imagine also keep residency there. But money is money, the MPAA is the MPAA, and you can always count on Hollywood to Hollywood. So Spawn the movie would become the walking, talking, movie version of cognitive dissonance and unleash its Hellspawn upon the world packaged as a crowd-pleasing, special FX-driven, easily digestible PG-13 film for the masses. How did it turn out? That’s what we’ll find out today on What The F*ck Happened To Spawn?

In 1992, thanks to a generous work ethic and tenacity, Todd McFarlane worked his way up the ladder within Marvel comics. He climbed the ranks due to some fascinating artwork, particularly on the character of Spider-Man. But when a difference of opinion about things like Spider-Man taking on murderers, the assaults of children, and violent moments such as villain X-Men villain Juggernaut being stabbed in the eye with a sword… McFarlane was butting heads with those around him and beginning to feel unnecessarily censored. This led to his divorce with what he calls the “three-piece suits” of the industry and to form his own umbrella company alongside six other artists… Image Comics. The second product of his newfound company was Spawn. The story of a mercenary who dies and makes a deal with Hell’s Malebolgia (a name derived from Dante’s Divine Comedy that actually refers to a place rather than an individual… but who cares, it sounds effing cool) that he will become a Hellspawn for Satan’s army if given the chance to see his wife, Wanda, again. That deal turns out about as valid as buying crypto from a popular sports drink hawking Youtuber with curly blond hair… and he’s brought back five years later, his wife now married to his former best friend, forced to walk the earth as this new, crispier version of himself while fighting both bad guys and his morality. 

Spawn was released in May of 1992 and initially sold 1.7 million copies… a record-breaking amount for an indie comic book that is still being published today. Between this, an Emmy-winning late-night R-rated HBO animated series released the same year as the movie, and McFarlane’s industry-ruling toy company… it’s fair to say the man took on the entire top heavy comic book industry… and won.  After the record-breaking success of the initial comics run, a movie was inevitable and the next logical choice. But it wouldn’t unfold easily.

Originally, after the success of the comic book in 1992, Columbia Pictures first approached McFarlane wanting to make a film but weren’t willing to give McFarlane enough control over his property. So, in pure McFarlane fashion, he instead sold the movie rights to the house that built Freddy Krueger: New Line Cinema for a single crisp dollar bill in return for creative input and merchandise rights. Like the deal Al Simmons made however, there was one caveat. Spawn, the same property about to unload an animated show featuring naked hookers, bad guys in pink thongs, and copious amounts of gratuitous violence… would have to be PG-13. The majority of Spawn’s audience at the time, despite its adult content, was under seventeen after all.

The deal was made and though originally agreed upon as a 20 million dollar movie, the special effects led the budget to boom to over 40 million. Most of these FX were helmed by the infamous Industrial Light & Magic FX group, of which I’m willing to wager had something to do with your favorite special FX moment of the 90’s. From Twister to Last Action Hero….ILM was probably involved. 

The way Producer Clint Goldman tells it in the DVD commentary, they were working on Jim Carrey’s The Mask at the time and Goldman explained to McFarlane that he was working with (New Line Cinema’s) Mike Deluca, who loved comic books. “What if I show it to him and what if me and Mark (meaning fellow ILM employee Mark Dippe) were the producer/director? And he said ‘Do it’.” And so Mark Dippe, who had never directed more than a music video previously, was the director of Spawn. A movie that had at one point allegedly been considering Tim Burton and The Crow’s Alex Proyas. To be fair, his previous work in special FX had been astounding. Ranging from Jurassic Park to The Hunt for the Red October. So, for a special FX-driven movie where even the cape required a holy sh*t package… it sort of made sense. The director himself would later remark on the choice, saying, “It was an insane first movie for us to make. Here we are, first-time film directors, and we’re given 40 million dollars. It was stupid. It’s embarrassing.” To the group’s credit, though some of these shots definitely didn’t pan out, it’s still easy to see where the 40 million dollars went. The crew worked with over twenty different FX companies in different countries that would be working around the clock. McFarlane said that at any hour of the day, someone was working on the movie, leading to very little sleep for him and the Producers. 

The film started with seventy-five visual FX shots that ballooned into over four hundred. At one point, Producer Clint Goldman came up with a plan to cut seven days of shooting from seventy down to sixty-three to get the studio to afford them to create the location of Hell for the film that was originally slated to just take place in a dark room. It was very apropos for our story that New Line made them sign a contract promising they would receive the money back on this particular cost-cutting venture, which Goldman would recall “was like signing a form with the devil himself.”

It’s easy to look at some moments in Spawn, particularly the shots of Malebolgia in Hell that look particularly rushed and wonder what the Hell happened. Pun intended. The answer to this question mostly seems to be a mix of budget, time, and one hell of a hard visual story to adapt for the big screen. Still, many special effects achievements throughout the film are often thrown out with the bath water: The Violator transformation, for instance, was an extremely effective sequence that was created in the same vein as some of your favorite T-Rex moments from Jurassic Park, leading to a pretty kick-ass fight scene overall. This sequence alone took the team eight months to film. 

Not to mention, the crew was also dealing with multiple other big-time productions shooting at the same time (which I believe because let’s be honest, the mid-nineties were putting out banger after banger, film-wise) which led to the Spawn crew not being afforded sets big enough to accommodate their visions. Many times they would have to build the sets to the roof and even be forced to remove the ceilings to make things fit, creating an “endless horror” just to get their lighting squared away. 

And again… there’s Spawn’s cape. An organism and special effects nightmare in itself to the point where McFarlane at one time was open to the idea of Spawn not having the cape at all in the film. They had tried to have the cape be a physical object that was literally being moved at all times but it looked terrible. And so, CGI was the way to go but it was very expensive and their spots had to be chosen carefully using a brand new “Dynamation” system. All of these challenges are probably part of what led to more than half of the final effects shots being delivered a mere two weeks before Spawn debuted in the theater. 

Speaking of challenges, writing Spawn to a PG-13 film format couldn’t have been an easy job itself. But not one too big for Halloween 4, Wrong Turn writer, and super sweetheart of a human being, Alan McElroy. New Line had read a screenplay he’d written titled Bat Out of Hell about a man on the run from three of Satan’s bounty hunters and felt it was in the tone they’d wanted for Spawn. McElroy also collaborated with McFarlane on multiple Spawn comic books as well as writing for the animated series. McElroy says himself, “Often when people come up to me and say they weren’t happy with the movie, I tell them to check out season one of Spawn the animated series”. The writer mentioned he was able to write freely and in his own voice on the show, dropping in ideas that they were unable to add to the film. 

As far as the titular character himself, legend would have it that a laundry list of actors that included everyone from Wesley Snipes to Samuel L. Jackson were considered for the role that would eventually go to martial artist and actor Michael Jai White. Of the choice, McFarlane would say “We met with a lot of very talented actors. The thing about Michael that sold me… Spawn is not a very jovial guy. He doesn’t tell a lot of jokes. There’s a certain intensity and anger and power even in the way he moves and holds his head. There was something very magical about Michael’s presence and that’s what it was for me. The first time he came to read it struck me immediately.” 

White would call the character of Al Simmons “the most tragic character I’ve encountered in any cinematic production”. He would also have to endure two to four hours of make-up each day that included a full glued-on bodysuit, eye-irritating yellow contact lenses, and a mask that restricted his breathing. And that was nothing compared to what his nemesis was facing… When you think short, fat, gross, bald clown you probably think of a few actors I won’t name because goddammit that’s hurtful. But you probably don’t think of The Pest’s John Leguizamo. McFarlane did, saying the character of Clown/Violator, “needed to have this macabre, fearsome, maniacal, terror combined with a ridiculously perverse comedy”. 

Leguizamo would have to endure showing up at 5 AM for eight-hour makeup sessions that they were eventually able to get down to about four hours. Which didn’t make up for the extremely hot and heavy fat suit that, while wearing and even while walking….he would have to squat in. On this topic, McFarlane said, “Sometimes when you’re doing a long take and I’d yell cut and he’d just fall down. His legs were so tired.” Leguizamo, who once accidentally urinated in the suit because it took nearly an hour to remove, would compare the experience to wearing a full-body condom.

Martin Sheen was cast as Jason Wynn (a play on the word “win” itself, as the character was obsessed with power), the government villain of the bunch who would spend his days chain-smoking black ciggies and putting them out in what might be the coolest ashtray in movie history, surrounded by a scorpion fish bowl. Sheen was all game for a role that had the Departed and Apocalypse Now actor walking around delivering over-the-top bad guy monologues with his Just For Men died black beard and leather-clad lady sidekick. During the commentary, the first-time director consistently praised Sheen for being an amazing professional and a huge help to him on the set. Sheen said he took the role because when he told his Grandson bout the option, he exclaimed, “Spawn is the coolest fucking thing around! You GOTTA do that movie!” and like any good Grandpa… he was in.

The character of Cogliostro was cast in the form of Excalibur actor Nicol Williamson. Cogliostro was in real life an occult free-masonist in the 1700s… but in the Spawn universe was Spawn’s mentor and part-story narrator. The late Williamson was known at the time for his eccentricities as Producer Clint Goldman would recall, “quite a character and a great guy to go out with late at night because he can hold his liquor with the best of him”. He would also say, “His very first day he sort of let it be known he was a madman. It was one of those freakish moments where it was like ‘Oh fuck, what am I gonna do? But then all of a sudden the next day we’re best friends.”, and that “I feel very fortunate about being able to get (him) because not only is he a very fantastic, brilliant, Shakespearean actor… but he also had a great understanding of medieval figures.”

Miko Hughes was cast as a character, not from the comics, named Zack, who was meant to show us Spawn’s kind side and bring his compassion to the forefront. Zach along with Wynn’s aforementioned leather-clad compadre Priest (played by Melinda Clarke) were both characters created for the movie that were later incorporated into the animated series. Priest was actually supposed to come back to life at the end of the film and continue her villainous run, but alas budget and time constraints left her on the banquet floor. Multiple changes from the comic book to the screen were changed including D.B. Sweeney’s Terry Fitzgerald character, who was originally a black man in the comic book. McFarlane says this was done because the studio wanted to avoid having too many black leads, as they wanted to avoid giving the idea the target audience was the African American demographic. Bad Boys actress Theresa Randle was cast to play Simmons’ long-lost love Wanda Blake and we were off to the races.

Despite how you feel the film turned out, the Soundtrack started some shit itself: If there’s one thing I miss about the 90s (and I miss a lot about the 90s) it’s the amount of effort that used to go into selling a movie soundtrack. Spawn: The Album was a perfect example. The album featured everyone from Metallica to Silverchair in the rock and metal genres and even paired the rock acts alongside electronica and techno acts like The Crystal Method and Prodigy. This resulted in a memorable soundtrack right up there with the 90s likes of Scream, The Crow, and Judgment Night. The album would debut at #7 on the US Billboard 200 and become certified gold in three countries….and platinum in Canada. The Crow composer Graeme Revell created an original score as well, mixing his own band’s industrial music sound the the composed music of the film for a memorable and unique sound. So, the soundtrack included… the name Spawn had been surrounded by success in every medium up until now. How will the movie itself fare? Financially… pretty, pretty good. 

Releasing the same Summer as Men In Black, a week after Air Force One and Good Burger, and on the same date as Air Bud… the film came in second to Harrison Ford’s Die Hard in a Presidential Plane action flick and pulled in nearly half of its 40 million dollar budget on opening weekend. Spawn eventually raked in a worldwide total of nearly 88 million, more than doubling its budget. 

The critics weren’t so kind. The film even today sits at a lowly 17% “Rotten” score on the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes. Lead actor Michael Jai White even expressed his dissatisfaction with the film (despite a willingness to come back for sequels), saying, “There is no footage of me ever saying that I liked Spawn. I have never said that I thought that was a good movie”. Leguizamo was a bit more understanding of the situation, saying, The thing that Todd McFarlane brought to the comic book industry, which he saved in the early 1990s, was the edge. The darkness, the vulgarity, the violence. I think the movie would have profited from more violence, more vulgarity, and being darker. Let it be truer to the comics.” Roger Ebert was shockingly one of the few critics to come to its defense saying that although the plot was sappy, the film verged on surrealistic art and was an unforgettable visual experience

Arguably, McFarlane and crew were working with one hand tied behind their back with the MPAA breathing down their necks and the studio insisting on a PG-13 rating. When one takes in the comic book and the animated HBO series, it’s clear this is an R-rated story at its very core. We’re dealing with the worst of the worst of Lucifer’s army here, not Rita Repulsa and Goldar from the Power Rangers, respectively. During the DVD commentary, McFarlane would constantly point out changes that would be demanded from the MPAA including everything from Clown squeezing the cream from a donut to showing the skid marks in his underwear after a fart joke. And of course, copious amounts of violence. God forbid there be violence in a movie about a burned-to-death mercenary fighting demons from Hell.  This resulted in an R-rated director cut being released to DVD that carried with it two hundred and twenty picture changes and infinite oral changes with a total remixing of the entire film which would later be released on Blu-ray as well. Though some would argue the film still feels the same, you could also argue that had they had the opportunity to make it true to Spawn from the beginning, it would have likely been much different entirely. The future may hold just that possibility…

Just recently Blumhouse head Jason Blum tweeted out a picture of the newest Spawn script titled King Spawn. The script is written by The Fighter and Joker writer Scott Silver as well as Malcolm Spellman, and Matthew Mixon. Noticeably missing is a McFarlane writing credit, and although McFarlane previously expressed the desire to direct the next Spawn film, a search is currently on for a director. This, after a Spawn follow-up has sat ironically in development Hell for nearly twenty years, with Jamie Foxx attached in the lead role and at one point even having Jeremy Renner on board to play Detective Twitch; A role that is an important character in the comic book and animated series, along with his cohort “Sam”, that was left out of the 1997 film, save for a brief cameo at the end. Who knows? Given King Spawn’s serious subject material, the lessons learned from 1997’s Spawn, and the recent success of multiple R-rated comic book films such as Deadpool and Wolverine… fans may just yet get to see the character in live-action the way he was originally intended on the big screen, haunting us the way the show once did on late night HBO when McFarlane would pronounce “And now… Spawn… turn off your lights”.

And THAT my friends, is just what the f*ck happened to Spawn. For now.

A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!