Constantine: City of Demons—The Movie

In the DC Universes, nobody inspires more confidence than Superman, but magic represents his second greatest weakness after Kryptonite. Occult detective John Constantine is far less reliable or trustworthy, but he is still your better bet to exorcize a demonic possession. Unfortunately, his oldest long-suffering friend Chas Chandler must ask his help for exactly that reason in Doug Murphy’s DCanimated feature, Constantine: City of Demons—The Movie, which would make appropriate viewing today, even though it feels a little awkward to celebrate Constantine’s birthday if you know the sad circumstances of his birth.

Indeed, Constantine endured his share of trauma, which made him the miserable sod fans know and love. Having survived his tragic family life, Constantine embraced his magical lineage, but his first foray into dark magic ended in disaster. As a result, he was admitted to Ravenscar Mental Hospital, where loyal Chandler still regularly visited him.

Eventually Constantine’s swagger returned and his mastery of the occult arts grew. Consequently, Chandler understands his old friend will be more help than modern medicine when his daughter Trish falls into a supernaturally induced coma. Given their shared history, Constantine cannot deny him. Unfortunately, that is exactly what the responsible demon was counting on, as he explains when he lures Constantine to Los Angeles.

City of Demons might be the goriest DC movie ever (and it is hard to think of anything from Marvel that comes remotely close). Regardless, if you enjoy demonic horror, this film delivers. At least it is a film now. City of Demons was compiled and expanded from an original CW Seed series, but it never feels episodic.

It also features the lead voice of Matt Ryan, who also played Constantine in 2014 live-action series, which pleased fans at the time. He definitely expresses the right attitude and fatalist resignation. Damian O’Hare compliments him nicely as the more earnest and emotional Chandler (perhaps because he understands the Constantine character, having previously voiced him on the Justice League Action series). In fact, the voice-over cast is unusually strong, notably including Laura Bailey as Asa, the Nightmare Nurse (a Hippocratic demon recruited by Constantine to watch over Trish), and Rachel Kimsey, as the Queen of Angels.

City of Demons is a great introduction to the titular character and another example of why DC animated films are better than most of the recent live-action comic book movies. This is exponentially more entertaining than Blue Beetle or Kraven the Hunter. It is also much darker, by an equivalent magnitude. Very highly recommended, Constantine: City of Demons—The Movie currently streams on Max in Brazil.