The best part of Dwight H. Little's Marked for Death is its villain, the maniacal Jamaican drug-dealer and Obeah practitioner Screwface. Basil Wallace's performance transforms Screwface from just another generic action movie villain into a force to be reckoned with. There's one scene in particular that blew me away: after learning that Steven Seagal's character, Chicago DEA agent John Hatcher, had thwarted his men and embarrassed his organization, he howls, "I want Hatcher dead. I want his family dead. And if you can't kill him, I go kill him, and then I'm gonna kill you." Now, that line by itself isn't very special. In fact, it seems like an inferior version of Robert De Niro's famous line in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables (1987). But Wallace's performance is so spot-on that it comes across as genuinely terrifying. The rest of the film is standard Steven Seagal fare: after his family is attacked by Screwface's men, Hatcher sets out to bring down their organization by any means necessary. But honestly, I don't care about Seagal's character in this film very much. I want more Screwface. He is almost too good of a villain for this movie.
6/10
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