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Prince of Darkness | Year: 1987 Classification: Horror Directed: - John Carpenter Actors/Actresses: - Donald Pleasence - Lisa Blount Intelligent, Scary, and Underrated.... It baffles me why some critics have been so vitriolic in their reviews of this film. It's vintage Carpenter: eerie and memorable score, atmospheric cinematography, a steady sense of dread and tension, and a truly interesting plotline: a group of graduate students are recruited by their professor (Victor Wong) into spending a weekend in an abandoned L.A. church to study an ancient canister discovered in the building's basement. A secret diary reveals that a mysterious sect of priests were committed to safeguarding the canister and its contents. Well, turns out the last of the group just croaked, and the "thing" inside the bottle is actually Satan's spirit. And he's getting antsy and wants out. In a bad way. Uh-oh.... This films has a very interesting premise. We've heard time and time again about the Second Coming of Christ. "Prince of Darkness" puts a decidedly more sinister spin on things. The film consistently maintains the claustrophobic dread that Carpenter was famous for, and the cast (especially Pleasence in a nice come-back role,and Jameson Parker and Lisa Blount as lovers in a surprisingly touching subplot) are all excellent. Granted, this is B-movie cheese, but it's extremely well-made B movie cheese. Give John Carpenter some credit. If the critics truly want to savage a flick of his, they oughta watch "VAMPIRES" or "ESCAPE FROM L.A." While "Prince of Darkness" isn't his best (that title goes to "Halloween" and "The Fog") it deserves an honorable mention. Give it a chance, and you won't be disappointed. Q: Is Evil Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral? A: Liquid! John Carpenter's "Prince of Darkness" is vintage Carpenter and one of the Master's greatest and most underrated outings, serving up a masterfully ghoulish, take-no-prisoners, heavy on the red sauce and liquefied pure green Evil little howler of a horror movie. Consider "Prince of Darkness" as a fine Carpenterian wine (a merlot, of course---a deep *red* merlot), well aged---after all, 1987 was a good year, and this film is a fine vintage. The bouquet? Rich and heady, a fine distillation of "Assault on Precinct 13" and "The Thing." With that in mind, let's pop the cork on "Prince of Darkness". When the last, venerable priest of an ancient and mysterious Catholic order dies, Father Loomis (played with aplomb by the great Donald Pleasence---possibly playing the brother of Mike Myer's shrink?), sent to gather the priest's effects and secure his crumbling parish church, discovers something green, liquid and nasty bottled up in the church basement, and it's not detergent. Father Loomis calls in a team of physics students and linguistic researchers, who begin to suspect something Evil is afoot in the church basement, and It has plans of its own. Let the Smackdown commence! In this corner: A team of physics grad students led by Parker Jameson (A.J. Simon from the TV series "Simon and Simon, of course!) and veteran character actor Victor Wong (from Carpenter's other camp classic "Big Trouble in Little China", here hamming it up and chewing scenery with furious abandon and with the help of a spooky eye), and of course with Pleasence bringing in the ecclesiastical heavy weapons.<BR> <BR>AND in this Corner: Evil, incarnate as puke-green liquid encased in a translucent cylinder in the base of a decrepit L.A. church, and its zombified homeless minions, who are in turn led by Alice Cooper with extra ghoul make-up. Welcome to my nightmare, indeed! As silly as all of it might sound, Carpenter has made a nasty, atmospheric, stylish and grippingly effective little horror movie, one that still disturbs me when I watch it---this is not a movie for the fainthearted. But more to the point, it's loads of fun; just look what you get--- *The Ultimate Evil---in a Can! It spews, it congeals, it defies gravity, and it infects its victims and makes them behave badly, right down to belching and personal remarks. This is nasty stuff, folks! *Donald Pleasence, Jameson Parker, AND Victor Wong in the same movie---and all over-acting (which in itself should bring about the end of the world)! *Some of the most merciless, nasty kills this side of "The Thing"---including death by cockroach swarm and my personal favorite, death by Bicycle (chain that thing, son)! <BR>*Zombified homeless people, including a creepy-crawly Alice Cooper and a nice turn by veteran character actor Joanna Merlin (what's...that....in her alms cup?)!<BR> <BR>*A trademark extra-creepy crawly Soundtrack composed by John Carpenter! <BR> <BR>*Sexy ph One of Carpenters best ¿ a cult horror classic. I remember seeing this in the theatre when it first came out and there is no mistaking that this is one terrifying horror movie, not because Carpenter can knock up a load of blood on the screen but because it has brains and all the hallmarks of classic Carpenter suspense. If you are a Carpenter fan then you probably know that his earlier shoestring budget works are better than his recent big budget crap fests - The Thing, Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween and The Fog are what makes Carpenter great. Prince of Darkness is no exception to that rule. The film concerns a secret Christian sect, called the Brotherhood of Sleep, who have kept something evil locked up in one of their churches downstairs in a large glass vessel. When the final brother dies he passes on the secret to Father Loomis (Donald Pleasence) who in turn decided to call in some physics students from the local college to find out what is in the vessel. Soon the students find themselves up against an evil that is waiting to be reborn, and also up against themselves as the evil takes hold of them (sort of turning people in zombies that spray evil water out from their mouths). The single most amazing thing about the Prince of Darkness is the whole atmosphere. There is very little blood at the start and yet the feelings that are evoked by the wonderful set designs, music and lighting will have the hair on the back on your head sticking up. When the blood does come it is not as shocking, however there is one scene of a dead man outside standing in beetles that gave me sleepless nights for weeks. Imagine that thing standing at the end of your bed at night! This is not just a horror film either. There is lots of quasi-science going on, including theories on things like tachyon particles that can transmit messages through time (in fact the Brotherhood of Sleep all the have the same dream). So in reality this movie's genre is a horror/sci-fi rather than just horror. Although the film has certainly dated, it is still leaps and bounds ahead of the horror we put out these days. We like horror films that think a little and Carpenter used to do that for us. Oh how times have changed for this once great author, but let's not be too judgemental because of what he has already given us. Certainly Prince of Darkness ranks up there as one of the tenses and weirdest horror films of all time. Alice Cooper also has a cameo as a possessed wino! Now how can you say no to seeing that! Bottom line is to let this film take you. Sure it is nearly twenty years old, but it is just so damn original that you have to give the man top marks. A cult classic in every sense of the word and certainly DVD ownership is a must for early Carpenter fans. As a note Screenwriter "Martin Quatermass" is actually John Carpenter. Buy Prince Of Darkness at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Prince Of Darkness Search with the Priority Search Engine on Prince Of Darkness This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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