The Screen Scribe

If Catholic guilt and Matrix-era Keanu Reeves had a baby, it would look suspiciously like Constantine. Directed by Francis Lawrence in 2005, Constantine is a gothic supernatural noir loosely inspired by DC’s Hellblazer comics. Keanu Reeves plays John Constantine, a chain-smoking exorcist and occult detective with terminal lung cancer who’s spent his life banishing demons back to hell in hopes of earning his way into heaven. Spoiler alert: it’s not working out so well.

The story follows Constantine as he gets tangled in a murder mystery with apocalyptic stakes when he teams up with Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz), a police detective investigating her twin sister’s suicide. Their journey into the seedy, sulphur-scented underworld of Los Angeles reveals a brewing war between heaven and hell, with Tilda Swinton’s androgynous Gabriel and Peter Stormare’s oily Lucifer stealing every scene they appear in.

What makes Constantine such a guilty pleasure is how unapologetically stylish it is. The plot meanders in places, and Reeves’ casting was controversial for fans expecting a blond British cynic. But none of that matters when the film looks this cool. Lawrence bathes the film in green-black shadows, giving LA a post-industrial hellscape aesthetic, while the action sequences deliver gun-fu exorcisms, holy relic shotguns, and demonic exorcisms that feel tactile and grimy rather than cartoonish.

Keanu plays Constantine with weary deadpan stoicism, radiating enough nicotine-stained nihilism to sell the character’s fatalism, even if he’s far removed from comic book Constantine’s sardonic wit. The supporting cast elevates the entire production: Swinton’s Gabriel is ethereal menace personified, and Peter Stormare’s white-suited, tar-dripping Devil remains one of cinema’s most unsettling portrayals of Satan.

The score by Brian Tyler and Klaus Badelt infuses dread and melancholy, enhancing the gothic grandeur without descending into camp. Sure, the theology is patchy, and the ending goes full Catholic wish fulfilment, but Constantine is a rare supernatural action thriller that feels lived-in and mythic rather than just edgy for its own sake.

At its core, Constantine is stylish trash, and I say that lovingly as this is one of my all-time favourite films. It’s a film about a man damned by his own good intentions, wrapped in angel wings, sulphur smoke, and Keanu’s eternal stoicism. If you want a comic book adaptation that isn’t obsessed with quips or billion-dollar franchises, this one’s your demon-slaying ticket to hell and back.

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