Val Kilmer left behind a lot of iconic movies, but there is one underrated gem that did not receive a very warm welcome from critics. The passing of Kilmer has led many fans to look back on his career, which was filled with incredible movies like Heat, Top Gun, and his beloved performance as Doc Holliday in Tombstone.
Kilmer was also in some less popular movies throughout his career. His one and only time playing Batman was in the Joel Schumacher movie Batman Forever, which many felt moved away from the spirit of the character. The Island of Dr. Moreau was also a notorious disaster.
However, there is one movie from Kilmer’s career in the 1990s that wasn’t well-received at the time, but holds up well decades later. Though it scored 51% on Rotten Tomatoes and was labeled “so bad it’s funny” by legendary film critic Roger Ebert, it is a movie far better than those reactions suggest.
The Ghost & The Darkness Is Actually An Underrated Val Kilmer Movie
The 1990s Animal-Attack Movie Is Filled With Thrills
The Ghost and the Darkness stands as one of Val Kilmer’s most underrated movies, a thrilling adventure with horror elements. Based on a true story, Kilmer stars as Colonel John Henry Patterson, who is put in charge of overseeing the construction of a bridge in Kenya, only to discover that the site is the feeding grounds for two man-eating lions.
While not a perfect movie, The Ghost and the Darkness is far better than the typical movie of this kind.
Though the movie was criticized for its realism and how it strays from the facts, it still delivers thrills and the kind of action audiences want from a killer animal flick. The lions are brought to life with a mix of real animals and impressive animatronics. They are made to be imposing beasts that cast dread over the entire movie.
The attack scenes are intense and bloody, especially one of the devastating third-act scenes in which the beasts rampage through a make-shift hospital on the building site. Kilmer’s military man teams with Michael Douglas as a renowned hunter, making for a fun team. It also delivers a great twist with the fate of Douglas’ heroic character.
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While not a perfect movie, The Ghost and the Darkness is far better than the typical film of this kind. There is nothing deep about the story, but it does manage to capture moments of horror and adventure that are done so brilliantly in Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. That alone makes it a worthy 90s thriller to seek out.
Why The Ghost & The Darkness Wasn’t Appreciated More In The 1990s
Critics Felt The Movie Was Tonally Flawed
The Ghost and the Darkness is actually a surprising Oscar-winning movie of the 1990s, but even that couldn’t raise its profile in the eyes of many critics at the time. There were certain smaller aspects of the movie that were criticized, including Val Kilmer, who earned a Razzie nomination for his performance.
Critics seemed to find that a movie about man-eating lions that doesn’t embrace its silliness is open for more criticism.
The main issue with how it was received seems to come down to the tone of an animal attack movie that takes itself too seriously. The Ghost and the Darkness is a grim and largely humorless movie, with the tone perhaps owing to the film being based on a true story in which real people died.
Critics seemed to find that a movie about man-eating lions that doesn’t embrace its silliness is open for more criticism. This was especially true in the way the lions were depicted as supernatural threats rather than simply animals. However, these are things the audience was on board with.
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The more positive reputation the movie has now likely comes from the people who grew up watching The Ghost and the Darkness. They didn’t care that the film wasn’t sillier, and they found it effective that the lions were larger than life. They held onto this view of the movie, allowing it to be rediscovered with this more forgiving view.
