DC Showcase: Constantine – The House of Mystery review

May 6, 2022 Jeffrey Lyles Cameron Monaghan, Camilla Luddington, Constantine the House of Mystery, Lou Diamond Phillips, Matt Lanter, Matt Ryan

Continuing the misguided mindset that gory violence is entertaining, Constantine the House of Mystery is the latest blood-soaked DC Animated adventure.

Interestingly, House of Mystery revisits the quasi-New 52 connected universe that seemingly ended with the bloodbath that was Justice League Dark: Apocalypse War.

After tinkering with reality for encouraging Flash to change reality, Constantine (Matt Ryan) has been banished by The Spectre (Lou Diamond Phillips) to the House of Mystery. It’s not the most pleasant destination as Constantine suffers through one gruesome horrific death after another.

Making it worse, Constantine’s allies including the love of his life, Zatanna (Camilla Luddington), keep transforming into his demonic murderers.

Matt Ryan was one of the best casting choices made in the DC Universe. It’s a shame Warner Bros. continually tries to walk back one of its smarter decisions in having him play Constantine. This is likely Ryan’s final turn in the role and as usual, he raises the material up with his performance.

It’s unfortunate writer Ernie Altbacker skews more toward over the top carnage to tell the majority of the story. There’s a clever and fitting payoff, but it’s overshadowed by the repetitive dismembering and bloodshed.

House of Mystery isn’t a full-length film. It’s only 25 minutes, but mostly tells all the necessary story beats. It did feel like the kind of feature that would have benefited from a post-credit scene however.

House of Mystery is the feature of this anthology, which also includes shorts starring Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth, The Losers and Blue Beetle.

The best part of this selection is it spotlights characters that rarely get any love or attention in the modern era DC Comics.

Kamandi is a fun adventure of a character that doesn’t have any superpowers and is only special due to his unique survival status.

It’s not the most complex story as Kamandai (voiced by Cameron Monaghan, Gotham) tries to survive a series of trial for a familiar trophy. The art design alone warrants a look since it’s highly based on the style of Jack “King” Kirby.

The Losers features the World War II-era team of soldiers battling on an unexpected war zone. This adventure would be far more enjoyable if the writers didn’t decide a massive body count was necessary. The Losers aren’t the kind of characters that benefit from an expendable approach. Along with the gratuitous violence that doesn’t do any good this is the least enjoyable of all the shorts.

Finally, Blue Beetle (Matt Lanter) takes on a more fun-spirited approach like a 1970s cartoon show. The vintage Steve Ditko style actually works well with this presentation.

Ted Kord teams with The Question (David Kaye) to tangle with some thieves. And it wouldn’t be much fun without fellow Charleston era heroes Captain Atom (Jeff Bennett) and Nightshade (Ashly Burch) as well.

As an eclectic grab bag of DC characters, this DC Showcase is worth checking out, but it would have been a stronger recommendation if Constantine and The Losers weren’t as needlessly violent.