‘Constantine: The House of Mystery’ Blu-ray Review
Features the voices of: Matt Ryan, Ray Chase, Robin Atkin Downes, Grey Griffin, Camilla Luddington, Damian O’Hare, Lou Diamond Phillips | Written by Ernie Altbacker | Directed by Matt Peters
Constantine: The House of Mystery is essentially a series of previously released DC animated shorts tied together with an all-new short based on the adventures of John Constantine in the titular House of Mystery (which was also the name of a DC comic back in the day that introduced the likes of Swamp Thing). Surprisingly, the animated short is actually set after the last series of DC animated movies, before the recent reboot in 2020, when the Justice League faced Darkseid and the Apokolips War and ended the then 15-movie run of animated DC features.
Constantine: The House of Mystery starts directly after the end of Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, with the heroes licking their wounds and realising the end of the world was still nigh. Casting a spell with the help of The Flash’s ability to reach Flashpoint, John Constantine wakes up in the eerie House of Mystery with no recollection of how he got there and seemingly no way to escape its grounds. Fortunately for Constantine, Zatanna and his friends are all there. Unfortunately for him, they have a bad habit of turning into demons and ripping him to shreds, over and over again!
What I truly, truly love about Constantine: The House of Mystery is that Matt Ryan STILL voices John Constantine. He was in the live-action but short-lived series Constantine, reprised the role in the Legends of Tomorrow TV show and has voiced the character in DC’s animated movies… Matt Ryan IS now Constantine. There can be no one else to ever play the character, Ryan knows how to play the character inside and out and his performance here is spot on as usual. What I also love about this short is that it also features another of one of my favourite DC characters, The Spectre, who we saw briefly in one of the Arrowverse crossover events and was the subject of one animated short waaaaay back in 2010, but who has been sadly overlooked IMHO.
Constantine: The House of Mystery also brings back other DC animated voice actors from previous Constantine-related animated features, including Camilla Luddington (Grey’s Anatomy) and Ray Chase (Licorice Pizza) who reprise their roles from Justice League Dark: Apokolips War as Zatanna and Jason Blood/Etrigan respectively, while Robin Atkin Downes (The Strain) and Damian O’Hare (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl) reprise their respective roles from Constantine: City of Demons, Negral and Chas.
In terms of story, Constantine: The House of Mystery is rather short on story, with Constantine getting killed over and over and over before three demons – all of whom think Constantine had sold his soul to – turn up to claim what they think is theirs. Of course, this is John Constantine, who ALWAYS has a trick up his sleeve and this tale proves just that! Speaking of this story, like the House of Mystery comics this short has a sting in its tail (or tale)…
The rest of this release includes three other shorts which have already been available on other DC animated movie releases, including Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth!, The Losers and Blue Beetle. The first of which Kamandi, is one of the best of ALL the DC animated shorts IMHO (thats’ saying something given how much I love Blue Beetle AND this short) and you can read more of my thoughts on that animated short right here. The only other extra is a 16-minute featurette called DC Showcase: One Story at a Time, which details the production of the shorts in this set, talking with the creators about the process and about the DC Showcase animated shorts series – though they don’t touch on more than the ones included here as a whole.
A great collection of DC animated shorts – featuring some of my personal favourites – Constantine: The House of Mystery is out now on Blu-ray and digital download from Warner Bros Home Entertainment.
