Prince of Darkness
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Movie Reviews of Prince of Darkness
Movie Review: Q: Is Evil Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral? A: Liquid!
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
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)!
*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?)!
*A trademark extra-creepy crawly Soundtrack composed by John Carpenter!
*Sexy physics grad-student pick-up lines and a happening romance between Parker and heroine Lisa Blount!
If I'm making this sound more campy than horrifying, then I don't mean to, because "Prince of Darkness" is Carpenter at his very best: sure some of the acting is a little raw (but remember: if you can afford lots of b-movie actors, you get more gory kills!), but the editing, sleek cinematography (by first-timer Gary Kibbe, who went on to become a regular Carpenter crew-member), and sleazy set design come together to underscore the film's subtext of Evil as dry-rot.
This is a brutal, relentlessly gory, and completely merciless little horror movie that doesn't pull any punches, and it does a fine job of painting its bleak, genuinely malignant atmosphere. There are some truly nasty touches here that will stay with you long after the credits roll: for instance, the 'radio broadcasts' (from another dimension? from the future?) gave me the crawls. If you like your Ultimate Evil with a side-order of nuclear physics, then "Prince of Darkness" is certain not to disappoint.
Movie Review: Have you seen Susan, the radiologist?
Summary: 5 Stars
I haven't seen Prince of Darkness in over a decade. Still, the memory of the chills the movie evoked in me lingers. I first saw it in a run-down, claustrophobic movie theatre in Champagne, Illinois during a midnight showing and let me tell you, John Carpenter had the people shrieking their hearts out and jumping out of their seats (yep, including me). I had so much fun I went back the following night just to witness the unsuspecting viewers re-enact my conniptions. There's one scene where Jameson Parker's character is in bed and turns around...well, I just dare you to not have a reaction. Prince of Darkness may be my favorite John Carpenter flick, with great respect to Halloween and Escape from New York.
Here's a quick plot breakdown: theoretical physics professor Howard Birack and his students join conflicted priest Father Loomis in investigating something kept in the basement of a deserted Los Angeles church. That something, it turns out, is Satan in captive soup form, having been guarded for countless years by a clandestine sect of the Church. But now, Satan is finally strong enough to re-emerge and once again walk on our world...Can old time religion and quantum physics vanquish the Prince of Darkness?
I really like Jameson Parker (of Simon & Simon fame) as Brian Marsh. Parker plays his low-key grad student with a quiet gravity. His selling point to the audience seems to be that he's so head over heels in love with Catherine. More than any other character in the film, the movie watcher will empathize with Brian Marsh and feel for him as he undergoes his share of harrowing experiences. Lisa Blount's red-headed Catherine Danforth is the girl of Brian's dreams and Lisa does her best in her one-note damsel-in-distress role but, really, she doesn't get a lot of opportunities to shine. Donald Pleasence emotes greatly as Father Loomis, a priest who has lost his faith and must now challenge Old Scratch himself. Victor Wong and Dennis Dun are fresh off Big Trouble in Little China and bring their respective sage and sidekick routines into the fray. Two fun characters. Lastly, Alice Cooper has a murderous cameo as a creepy street person.
This is a gem of a horror movie, with touches of humor and a surprisingly potent love story. There isn't a dull spot, not a shot wasted, from the initial set-up to the apocalyptic world-at-stake finale. John Carpenter fiendishly uses every scene to instill a sense of dread and foreboding within the viewer. The jagged, black-and-white dream sequences are particularly eerie and unsettling. Carpenter himself scores the movie (as he often does) and his synthesized music is very effective here, tremendously helping to nurse and escalate the sense of tension and fear.
By the end, you'll ask yourself - how far would you go to save the one you love? The nerve-wracking ending leaves open the possibility of a follow-up film but it doesn't look like John Carpenter wants to make it. Shame, that. But see this one. You'll never look at a mirror in the same way again.
Movie Review: Underrated Masterpiece!
Summary: 5 Stars
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!
Movie Review: One of Carpenters best a cult horror classic.
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Movie Review: You're receiving this broadcast in the form of a review
Summary: 5 Stars
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.