Prince of Darkness
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Movie Reviews of Prince of Darkness
Movie Review: Wade through a lot of '80s cheese, and you'll find a pretty creepy movie.
Summary: 4 Stars
Over his long career, John Carpenter made a few classic movies and a pretty fair amount of junk. Classics include HALLOWEEN, THE THING and to some, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and most questionably BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA. Junk includes THE FOG, CHRISTINE, THEY LIVE, GHOSTS OF MARS, etc. (ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 is its own peculiar little gem...not sure I can label it a classic.) The other day, I decided to take a LONG overdue 2nd (or perhaps 3rd) look at the John Carpenter film that originally gave me the biggest chills of all. I knew even in 1987 that it wasn't a great movie...but there was something about it that just gave me the willies. So when I watched in 2009, it was a giant cheese-fest of `80s clothing and hairstyles, with a typically grating John Carpenter score and barely passable performances. BUT it also managed to give me the creeps.
In a rundown catholic church in the middle of skid row, a small, secret group of priests and nuns have kept hidden and secret an odd glass vessel that contains a swirly, glowing green viscous liquid. This liquid has special properties, and a renowned priest (Donald Pleasance) is convinced that the container is barely holding in an evil presence capable of ruling the world.
He goes for help to a scientist, philosopher and former debate opponent (Victor Wong)...hoping that a scientific explanation might assist, as the religious implications are too great to bear. Wong assembled a group of grad students to help, and they bring all their equipment and all their skepticism to the church one evening...determined to figure out what they're dealing with.
I'll cut to the chase...the liquid appears to be Satan, trapped but very close to escaping. His goal is to provide doorway for his father, the "Anti-God" to come into our world. You can imagine that the consequences of this would be dire.
What I LIKE about the film is the combining of science and faith. The faithful are suitably freaked out...but gradually, each and every scientist is just as scared. Before long, everyone trapped in the church has become a horrified believer. The scientists figure out the "scientific" basis for what Satan and his dad are brewing up...but it's not less terrifying for having a scientific basis...it's MORE terrifying.
Some of the students begin to experience dreams, in which computerized voices claiming to be from the future, are sending messages back to the present in an effort to encourage a change in what is about to happen. It is these images that gave me the biggest willies back in the `80s, and they still work for me today. For me, Carpenter simply latched on to a way of presenting this idea that got to me in a way I can't explain.
PRINCE OF DARKNESS is not only a "Satan returning to earth" film...it is a slasher movie. At first, it is the homeless vagrants that are bowing to the will of Satan who refuse to let anyone leave the church. The "leader" of these bums is played by Alice Cooper, of all things. There are plenty of gory deaths, including the first death by impaling on a bicycle that I can remember seeing. While the gore is not up to the standards of today, it is convincing enough to avoid shattering the feeling of creepiness. Bad things happen to most of the characters in the film.
I use the word "characters" loosely. It's mostly a group of young adults from various demographic groups, playing completely predictable parts. It's a sort of a kick to see Jamieson Parker just months before he became a star of SIMON & SIMON (remember THAT dreadful TV show?). He has a porn star mustache and the clothes and hair that no doubt made him a "hunk" in his day, but make him look like a goofball today. Victor Wong looks great in his part as the scientist, and he invests his role with conviction...but isn't entirely convincing. Donald Pleasance, a Carpenter favorite, seems a little lost here, as though he was never able to make much sense of what he was supposed to do as an actor. Although he had another 7 to 8 years of acting ahead of him...he's clearly in the twilight of his career and it's a little bit sad to see.
PRINCE OF DARKNESS is hardly a great film, at least when I look at it as objectively as I can. Cardboard characters, gore, and a silly story about an anti-God. Alice Cooper as a zombie-like homeless killer! Yet I can't bring myself to toss it on the garbage heap of forgettable junk...there is a talent for understanding what is frightening lurking just below the cheesy surface. If you're willing to spend 90 minutes of your time on a gamble that this film may not work for you as it did for me, I will recommend it. But you've been warned...you'll either laugh and fall asleep OR you'll get a decent case of the willies.
Movie Review: Existentialist, Lovecraftian Horror by Carpenter
Summary: 4 Stars
The current state of the horror genre is, how shall is say, pretty sad. It has come to the point where horror movies now seem exclusively targeted at teen audiences, with the choices being poor slasher flicks inspired by "Scream" (which was ironically supposed to parody that type of movie), potboilers of grue and gore such as Hostel, Saw and Turista, that rely solely on brutal cringe-wankery, and poorly executed existential horror movies such as Pulse and Stay Alive which try to be "edgy" by referencing computers and video games. Sadly, movies of the last type seem to be now made mostly by hacks whose idea of subtlety is making actors look around with a panicked expression and shout "what's that?" while "scare music/sound effects" are triggered.
It wasn't always like this, however. In the 1980s, John Carpenter made what was coined one of his "apocalypse trilogy" movies, Prince of Darkness (the others were The Thing and In the Mouth of Madness). At its core, Prince of Darkness is an existential horror movie, in that its goal is to question the very nature of what is real, and man's place in the universe. Considering that two of the main characters have the last names of Marsh and Danforth, it's no surprise that horror buffs will make the connection between this movie and H.P. Lovecraft's nihilistic style. The basic storyline is as follows (spoilers to follow): A dying priest passes on a cryptic diary to Father Loomis, played by Donald Pleasance. In an attempt to unravel the secret of the Brotherhood of Sleep, Loomis enlists help from the scientific community, in the form of quantum physicist Dr. Birack, his graduate students, and other academics, who all congregate in a run-down church. In that church's basement is an encrusted cylindrical device of incredible age, filled with a menacing, perpetually moving green liquid. The academics, including sort-of lovers and main characters Brian Marsh and Catherine Danforth, get to work analyzing both the cylinder and an accompanying book, which turns out to be the "true" story of Christianity.
While there are zombie-style horror elements, the most terrifying thing about Prince of Darkness is how it turns around what people assume due to religion. It turns out that not only was Jesus a mentally unbalanced extraterrestrial, but that the universe is not watched over and controlled by a benevolent God, but rather an evil intelligence existing in the mirror image of our universe- an "Anti-God" whose son is Satan, and who is resurrecting Satan in our universe to bring its father back here to do Very Bad Things (tm). The green liquid form of Satan ends up infecting people like a virus, while something (presumably the Anti-God)is affecting the nature of reality outside the church, as well as controlling a small army of mentally ill homeless people surrounding the church. To add to the fun, the people inside the church start to have a recurring dream that seems more like a video transmission than a normal dream.
The film does have its faults, notably a muted level of acting that sometimes borders on the wooden, as opposed to the across the board natural performances found in The Thing. In addition, while the movie has a pretty nice slow build, the climactic sequence is rather abrupt in its approach. I also found the "possessed homeless" threat to be little more than an excuse to keep the characters trapped in the church. Still, the sheer chutzpah of a storyline that dares to be so outright "sacrilegious" (the Catholic Church is essentially branded the world's most egregious group of con men in this storyline) must be given proper due. It also helps that both Dennis Dun and Victor Wong from "Big Trouble In Little China" give lively performances. While I've seen this movie called "boring", I'd challenge that assertion. After all, how boring is the concept that our entire existence remains at the whim of pure, cosmic evil, without any counterbalancing benevolent spirituality? In the end, the sheer atmosphere of this movie helps keep it entertaining.
Movie Review: It is evil. It is real. It is awakening.
Summary: 4 Stars
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
Movie Review: John Carpenter's Lost Little Gem...
Summary: 4 Stars
I remember reading up on this movie on the Retrocrush website, and being curious about it. One day I decided to give this movie a rental chance. Well after watching the movie twice, I can safely say it's now a part of my collection. PRINCE OF DARKNESS is a lost little gem in the catalog of director John Carpenter. While some of you will ultimately be perplexed by it's scientific elements, the movie is ultimately a suspense/horror film with many good elements contained within its confines.
PRINCE OF DARKNESS picks up a group of high-level education students who are on a quest in a church that is hiding a dark secret: it has a past linked to the dark master himself. Donald Pleasance plays his role with dignity as a priest helping out in the investigation into a container of mysterious green acid-y liquid, which happens to be Satan himself, according to some of the sypnosis' I have read. Without warning, one of the students walks in on a leakage where a pool of green "mystery liquid" is on the ceiling, and suddenly it sprays into her mouth, turning her into a possessed servant of evil. Many of the towns homeless population have turned (watch for a nice turn from Alice Cooper as a silent servant of evil), the students are trying to fight off the evil...it spreads if someone infected spits directly into the mouth of their next victim. The plague spreads around in somewhat pedestrian fashion, but it's no less effective than the last. The last person affected, the blonde, turns into a hideous thing (she's supposed to be Satan himself) and things turn real ugly. Many of the unaffected are having dreams that are really creepy. The dream is a sequence where some film footage, while grainy, captures the church's frontside with a dark figure in the doorway which is Satan himself. It makes for a very creepy and menacing development within the group's dream pattern. Is this some kind of sign the group needs to heed warning to? Now it's up to the priest and the remaining survivors to stop the ultimate anti-god from crossing from a mirror into the real world. The special effects are what they should be for a movie of this caliber, and while Carpenter's direction for the most part is quite good, I wished for more in the way of gore and monster effects - that girl could have been so much scarier than she was made up to be, but we'll settle for what we get. The ending left the movie wide open for a sequel, as our main man has the same dream sequence, but sees his lost girlfriend standing in the doorway instead of the devil, ultimately making her the next evil. He walks toward the mirror in his room and proceeds to put his hand to the mirror, where the movie cuts to the end credits.
To this day, no sequel has been made and there are no current plans for any sequel to this film. It does give the movie a potent ending, though. It ultimately will leave you hungry for the next move, which of course we may never find out.
For what it is, PRINCE OF DARKNESS is a pure gem from the mastermind behind HALLOWEEN and THE THING. Carpenter's unknown and overlooked film has good suspense and decent scares, with the rigid cast keeping things real. PRINCE OF DARKNESS will always be underrated, but for those fortunate enough to witness it, it will be a much appreciated discovery.
Movie Review: Father Sam Loomis...your brother
Summary: 4 Stars
With the rare Saturday off Sid could only think of one way to bring in the weekend with some late night Friday B. Now originally the plan was to go with a MST3K for some laughs but was quickly overruled when Prince of Darkness showed up in the mail. Honestly it's hard to pick against another John Carpenter movie that Donald Pleasence aka the immortal Dr. Loomis stars in. This time Loomis dropped the trench coat and pursuit of Myers to sport some priest garb and take on the devil himself. Seems like Loomis just can't help himself from trying to rid the world of the ultimate evils. Guess Myers was a trial run to get himself ready to take down the Prince of darkness himself. Really who else would you want to handle this matter?
Right off the bat this baby got 80's horror goodness written all over it with some creepy music and possibly the longest credit intro ever. We start off with a priest who kicks the bucket leaving father Loomis in charge of this church where pure evil is being locked up as plasma form in the basement. Loomis knows he can't keep the evil locked away for much longer an enlists the help of a theoretical physics professor, who looks like Mr. Miyagi's older uncle, and his students to figure out how to keep the devil contained. Thankfully the main student is a guy that looks like he stepped off the set of a Chuck Norris look a like contest so naturally the world would be ok. He must have summoned powers from Chucks mustache to thwart off Satan..with the help of father Loomis of course.
Prince of darkness was a nice combination of a legit movie with some really hilarious b elements. The characters becoming possessed provided non stop entertainment as they weren't the slightest bit scary but 100% hilarious. It made Sid feel like he'd seen pieces of this at one time because it did appear somewhat familiar. Our guess was this must have been on Monstervision back in the 90's and we had watched some of it on an old school Saturday night while searching for movie channel vavum. All it all it was great to get a dose of Loomis outside the Myers arena. After seeing him in the Last Warrior and Prince of darkness his versatility proves to be something of epic proportions. As of now he may be looking at a lifetime achievement award at this years Woody Awards ceremony.