Death Warrant (film)

Death Warrant
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDeran Sarafian
Written byDavid S. Goyer
Produced byMark di Salle
Starring
CinematographyRussell Carpenter
Edited byJohn A. Barton
Cheryl Kroll
G. Gregg McLaughlin
Music byGary Chang
Production
company
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer[2]
Release date
  • September 14, 1990 (1990-09-14)
Running time
89 minutes
CountriesUnited States[3]
Canada
LanguageEnglish
Budget$6 million[4]
Box office$46.7 million[5]

Death Warrant is a 1990 American/Canadian prison action thriller film directed by Deran Sarafian, produced by Mark di Salle, and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. The film was written by David S. Goyer while a student at USC, and was Goyer's first screenplay to be sold and produced commercially. In the film, police detective Louis Burke is going into a prison facility in California as an undercover cop in order to find out who was behind a mysterious series of murders, and finds himself locked up with his nemesis: Christian Naylor, a psychotic serial killer who calls himself "The Sandman," who sets out to exact revenge upon him after getting into prison.

Death Warrant was released on September 14, 1990. Upon its release, the film grossed $46 million against a production budget of only $6 million. The film received general mixed critical reaction from critics who found the direction, its storyline, villain, and the plot poor, but highly praised the acting as well as the action scenes and the thrilling atmosphere.

  1. ^ "Credits". BFI Film & Television Database. British Film Institute. Archived from the original on July 30, 2014. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
  2. ^ "AFI|Catalog".
  3. ^ "Death Warrant". BFI Film & Television Database. British Film Institute. Archived from the original on February 9, 2009. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
  4. ^ Thompson, A. (Aug 27, 1989). "Punch lineage". Chicago Tribune. ProQuest 1015813964.
  5. ^ Death Warrant at Box Office Mojo