Customer Reviews

Prince of Darkness

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

An ancient evil has awakened, and it is in liquid form! Father Loomis (Donald Pleasance) receives a key from another, now deceased, priest, and with this key opens himself up to a whole new realm of knowledge that the Roman Catholic church has kept secret for quite some time now. Father Loomis enlists the aid of a brilliant physicist, Prof. Howard Birack (Victor Wong), and some of his graduate students to help him unravel this archaic mystery. Without knowing exactly what they are getting themselves into, several experts in the fields of chemistry, biology, and ancient texts set out to investigate the undisclosed enigma.

Deep within the sanctuary of a run down church lies a dirty little secret few know about. The Prince of Darkness, son of the devil himself, is being held captive in liquid form, and is guarded by only a few lucky priests and nuns. However, the time has come for the Prince to awaken and bring forth his father to wreak havoc. As the Prince, and thus his father, gains his strength, many of the more weak-minded are turned to do the biding of the dark lord. The zombie and bug counts rise as the plot thickens, and this group of science professors and students are in a race against time to stop the forces of evil from inflicting their ill will on the unsuspecting public.

Unfortunately, this film tends to be hidden in the shadows behind Carpenter's more famous "Halloween" and "The Thing." However, that does make this film all that much more of a gem. This is truly one of his great cinematic accomplishments, complete with his own score, a great cast, and stellar effects for the time. The characters are fairly well developed, yet Carpenter manages to accomplish this without dwelling on this aspect of the film. Instead, he submerges the viewer into the intrigue and story line, which there is plenty of.

The plot is completely original, which is something hard to come by in this particular genre. Though Carpenter enlists certain elements that may be stereotypical, such as the Romero-esque zombies and the notion of all-encompassing evil attempting to over-take good, Carpenter adds his own unique twists. One thing that's absolutely superb with regards to this film is that it never devolves into a gore or suspense filled vacuum, completely devoid of meaning. Hidden within the blatant horror facets are religious undertones as well as a love story. Though it may seem that this would not work well for a film of this genre, Carpenter pulls it off as only a horror master could. Interspersed throughout the film one can also find excellently cheesy comic relief, mostly in the form of poor jokes presented by Walter (Dennis Dun).

All in all this movie happens to be one of my favorite films, by one of my favorite directors. Thought the DVD is completely bereft of extras, I highly recommend this film to any fan of the genre!

Prince of Darkness SHOULD have been a horrible movie. It has alot of things wrong with it. For instance:

-The opening credits are boring and take a LONG time to roll by.
-The first half hour of the movie, nothing much happens.
-There is a "romantic" subplot that is about as exciting and fun as eating paint chips.
-The budget is clearly really small, even for a Carpenter flick.
-It has a lot of scientific/spiritual mumbo-jumbo dialogue, which is bount to put people off in what is mostly a ZOMBIE MOVIE.
-The plot is outrageous, even by horror movie standards.
-Almost all the actors are recycled from older John Carpenter movies like "Big Trouble in Little China."
-Satan in a jar... 'nuff said.
-Alice Cooper... 'nuff said.

Having said all that, this movie really creeped me out. It has some good scares, some gross-outs, and some chilling moments. The ending was flat-out nuts, in a good way. This movie doesn't measure up to Carpenter's version of "The Thing," but it is a good and original chiller all the same.

On to the DVD... the sound and picture quality are excellent, but you get practically NO extras whatsoever. And I think this movie deserves the "Special Edition" treatment like "The Thing" and "The Fog" got.

I'm going to get this out of the way, by stating up front what is wrong with this movie:

-The opening credits take WAY too long. What was he thinking? Start the movie, get a beer, come back 5 minutes later.
-Related to #1, the movie is slow to start and the pacing seems a little uneven. Not much happens but talking for a while. If you expect a continuous slash-o-rama, you will be disappointed.
-The premise is a real doozy, and might bounce some people right out of the movie before anything even gets started.
-Like alot of Carpenter movies, this one has a small budget, and it sometimes shows.
-If you don't like John Carpenter's soundtracks, well, this has got one, only more so.

Having said all that, I am forced to admit that "The Prince of Darkness" is one hell of a horror movie. Not quite on par with the damn-near-perfect "The Thing," and in fact a very different kind of horror movie, but a killer movie on its own merits. It is also more thought-provoking and intelligent than almost anything wearing the "horror" label. It makes great use of the "everything you know is wrong" premise to really screw with your head, and if it doesn't freak you out once or twice, you just ain't human.

Sunday, May 09, 2004 / 4 of 5 / Another good one from Carpenter. There is a certain niche in the horror genre that mixes religion and science well. Event Horizon, and Prince of Darkness are prime examples. I always enjoy this offering from Carpenter, it has his trademark minimalist musical tone set throughout, like the throbbing of a heartbeat. It also has his weird bent on conflict through identity issues, people are taken over and used to attack the others. And of course there is the shocking image of a bad guy standing in full view in the shadows, unmoving ala Halloween. A disparate group of grad students including physicists, language people, biologists, etc. are brought together to an abandoned church to investigate a mysterious cylinder which may well contain Satan. About to be loosed, he seeks his father an 'anti-God'. An interesting take on the theory of opposites in the universe, never mind that the dogma of an omni-powerful monotheistic God makes that possibility moot. Carpenter staple Donald Pleasance plays the latest in the line of priests to learn about the monstrous lie propagated by the church that evil is not in fact a sleeping physical entity. Cat and mouse games ensue in the church as the group gets trapped by homeless people under the power of Satan. Recommended.

Reality check:
Major Problem #1: this film features what is perhaps the most annoying opening credits sequence of any film ever made. The opening titles intercut between black screen with white text credits and silent scenes, backed only by Capenter (and Howarth's) superb soundtrack. But, it does so for an excruciatingly long time. I recall, vividly, seeing this film as a free movie presented by a local rock station, and most of the audience was either drunk, or stoned, or both. And the comically long dance between text credits and silent set-up scenes became fodder for the fiesty crowd, who began to moan, groan, laugh, scream, and throw popcorn as one of Carpenter's greatest miscalculations paraded on for a what must have been at least 10 minutes, an eternity in film time! Get to the movie already!
Problem #2: after a promising beginning (except for the opening titles fiasoc) and a middle great enough to put any horror fan in opium exctasy, the film does, unfortunately, degenerate into a Zombie movie (which has, perhaps, more relevance today, what with the whole Zombie revival of the last few years [Resident Evil, Hose of the Dead, 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead]). But, besides any recent relevence, this degeneration to a mindless shuffling zombies flick is a slap in the face to the film's brilliant build up which contains a combination of Quantum Theory, Theology, and Alien Conspiracy on such a level of Magnificense as to put the X-Files and The Prophecy to shame.
But more to the point of why I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. . .this is NOT the kind of film that you watch and, promptly, forget. There is a mythic resonance and subtle religiously horrific texture that permeates to one's subconscious and stays with the viewer, like the insistant and intrusive forced tacion dreams from the future which appear in the film, and never ever leave you.
The swirling container which imprisons the Prince of Darkness standing in the candle fillled basement of the church where the alter would stand in a chaple, the terrifying truth that science has proven that reality is not at all what we thought it was (a fact which has yet to sink in to the popular consciousness despite being realized more than half a century ago), the subtle acting (which is well above average for a b-movie) of Carpenter regulars like Pleasance and Wong, the brilliant cinematography which is painterly and artistic to its very core, and, perhaps more than, or, perhaps the sum of, it all, is the amazing score by Carpenter (with collaborator Alan Howarth) which achieves an electronic depth and ressonance beyond anything previous to, at the same time of, or to come in film scores.

This is the kind of movie that, in the right hands, could be "remade" into a stunningly brilliant masterpiece, but will, most likely never be.
But all problems aside, all positive and negative, by all you hold holy, fact or fiction, real or unreal, if you are a fan of horror, sci-fi, or carpenter, you simply MUST see this film.
And be very cautious when you dream, if grainy video images of the front of a church shot on a shakey home camera dance before your eyes, for gosh sake, wake yourself up before you see what opens the front doors and reveals itself. Or it might just be the end of the world. . .

Something evil is awakening in the ancient basement of St. Goddard's church, something that has lain dormant and for eons, until now...

Between Big Trouble in little China (1986) and They Live (1988), John Carpenter released The Prince of Darkness (1987), a chilling story that asks the question is the devil a concept created by humans or is it a real, living, breathing entity?

After the death of an elderly priest, one who turns out to be a member of an ancient and once powerful sect within the Catholic Church, a key is found among his meager possessions by Father Loomis (Donald Pleasance). The key unlocks a door within a deserted church, a door that leads to an older area containing a large cylinder with a greenish, swirling liquid. Father Loomis, sensing the stirrings of the contents of the container, contacts Professor Howard Birack (Victor Wong) and enlists his aide in determining the true nature of what is within the cylinder. Professor Birack gathers a group of graduate students to investigate, including Brian Marsh, played by Jameson Parker, who many may remember as A.J. Simon from the television show Simon & Simon.

As the group begins to investigate, strange things begin to happen, homeless people gathering around the derelict church, the appearance of large amount of bugs and worms where the were none, etc. Soon various members of the group fall victim to the power of what is in the cylinder, and become pawns in a desperate struggle for the very soul of humanity.

I did enjoy this film much and all the little, well thought out, elements that enhanced the story, focusing on the characters just enough to allow the audience to develop empathy for them, but not getting bogged down. There were a number of characters involved, and some could argue they were mostly fodder for the horror, but it didn't always appear such. Some aspects of the story may be lost unless particular attention is paid as the plot unravels, but I found it fairly easy to keep up, as I think most viewers would. I really enjoyed the idea of the use of advanced science to validate what couldn't be seen for so many years. Sometimes the story dragged a bit, but it felt deliberate, as if Carpenter was trying to build suspense leading up to the final confrontation. The inclusion of the 'dream' messages was quite nice, as I missed that when I first saw this movie so long ago. As always, Carpenter also managed to inject a small amount of humor to ease the tension before shocking back into the reality of the film. Some of the effects were lackluster, but that was easy for me to overlook, as I was riveted to the story and thoughts of what would happen next. I don't feel this was one of Carpenter's best, but I think it's much better than people give it credit for, and deserves a bit more recognition that it has gotten in the past.

I was happy to see such a wonderful looking print used on the film, but I thought the audio could have been cleaned up a bit. Sometimes it got a bit 'soft', and I relied on subtitles to fill in the blanks. A trailer for the film is included, but that's it for special features. I would have enjoyed a commentary, but I am thankful that Universal saw fit to re-release this on DVD, as the original release has long since been out of print and much too expensive to acquire.

Cookieman108

Prince of Darkness is a movie where religion and science comes together. Before you say: "it has zombies in it so it must be cheesy," watch the movie and you'll see how surprised you'll be. A group of students, a preacher, and a teacher go into an abandoned church to study a container of liquid which is supposed to be Satan and at some point, Satan begans to control the environment around the church. What I liked is how this movie tried to explain what Satan is using science. Watch for Alice Cooper playing one of the homeless people. There's a love story, but at least it's not unrealistic or sappy like most love stories are.

The ideas aren't really that bad, but in my oppinion this movie is very badly made. The scenes are crappy and the movie is nor spooky nor gory.
Just crap in my eyes - NO ENTERTAINMENT

One of the reasons why I admire John Carpenter so much is that he never exemplifies himself. He doesn't overdo a film. He simply places his camera in a way that he believes will best move along the narrative. He is the anti-Michael Bay. Instead of trying to wow us with remarkably complex editing or camera moves that defy the laws of physics, Carpenter sticks to a very straightforward way of storytelling, using the natural wide scope of the human eye to give us what is always wonderful visual style. This is one of the reasons why "Prince of Darkness" works so well. Carpenter understands the material he has crafted, but he knows that his characters do not, so he keeps them, and us, in suspense, letting the web of what unfolds draw us in, and eventually he unleashes the spider.

There is an evil within a church. A secret that has been kept for thousands of years. Guarded by a mysterious section of the church, operating independent and even above the control of the Vatican, a monolithic vial of green liquid whirlpools beneath the streets. Encased within it are what remains of the spiritual presence of Lucifer, son of the anti-God. The Brotherhood of Sleep, as they were called, due to a mysterious dream that everyone within the building had, kept the secret for as long as they could. Now, in the months approaching where we enter "Prince of Darkness," the liquid has been gaining strength, organizing itself into a conscious entity. A team of scientists from a university, under the direction of their professor, are called upon by a priest (Donald Pleasance) to prove scientifically a series of equations written down by Christ himself.

This is the basis for what becomes a claustrophobic ride of paranormal occurrences. Scientists start disappearing, they fight among themselves once the purpose of their studies is revealed, and eventually all hell breaks loose when all pretense is cast aside, and the green liquid assumes a human form.

The characters are unimportant, though all well-developed and likable. Jameson Parker shows real screen presence in his role, and Donald Pleasance and Victor Wong give the story credibility through their mono-/dialogues. Carpenter's direction, as usual, is flawless. He presents the story and lets it tell itself. Along the way, he manages to get our pulse up and have us think a little about the validity of religion. His concept of Christ as an extra-terrestrial descendant sent to warn us of a possible future presented within the broadcasted dream is brilliant.

An underrated gem from an underrated director, John Carpenter's "Prince of Darkness" is a film a lot of people missed, but thankfully is finding its audience nearly 20 years later.