Prince of Darkness
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Movie Reviews of Prince of Darkness
Movie Review: This 'water' is deadly....
Summary: 4 Stars
In the 1980's, John Carpenter was a horror icon with such productions as the Halloween series and the remake of Howard Hawks' "The Thing". A little-acknowledged masterpiece called 'Prince of Darkness' was made in 1987 and has been one of his finest creations.
The storyline revolves around a sinister secret that has been kept in the basment of an abandoned Los Angeles church. On the death of the last memeber of a mysterious sect, another priest opens the door to the basement & discovers a vat containing a green liquid in a perpetual state of flux. While reading the dead man's diary, the priest discovers some disturbing details & contacts Professor Howard Birack of a local university, who brings with him a group of graduate students to investigate it. Initially disturbing are the mobs of homeless people surrounding the church, but things get much worse as the students investigate. One student discovers the vat is locked from the inside; another finds that the liqid is producing differential mathematic equations (which did not exist when the contents of the vat were dated from); another reveals some strange facts from a translated book about Satan, Jesus Christ and something more chilling - the Father of Satan, an all-powerful anti-God. Soon after, the liquid begins escaping from the container & turns the students into zombies, who then murder their colleagues. Anyone who tries to escape meets a frightening fate; one meets a bloody end at the hands of a homeless man and a second dissolves into a mass of beetles after being attacked. The remaining students, the priest, and professor must find a way to stop the devil from releasing his father or face an unthinkable result.
Jameson Parker - best known as A.J. on the TV series 'Simon & Simon' - turns in a respectable performance as one of the graduate students; also giving stellar performances are Lisa Blount, Donald Pleasance & Victor Wong. One can almost see a touch of Dr. Sam Loomis from 'Halloween' in the priest played by Donald Pleasance.
The lack of extras on the DVD is a little disappointing; it's the only reason this DVD gets 4 stars instead of 5.
Movie Review: Campy, Scarey, Philosophical - What a combo!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is definitely one of my favorite horror movies from the 1980's. I saw it when it first came out and really enjoyed it. I recently bought this version on DVD and the movie has aged really well. I find myself reaching for it every 3-4 months, which is pretty darn frequent for an old 1980's horror movie (or any movie for that matter). As the plotline says above, the movie is about the re-emergence of Satan into our world and an ancient prophesy hidden from the public involving the release of his "father", an uber-powerful anti-God, into our dimension. It involves a sacred order in the catholic church that has kept satan bottled up in a weird contraption involving green liquid for centuries, and now the seams are starting to burst on this contraption and the priests are trying to figure out what to do about it. As a part of their analysis to figure out what's going on, the priests call in a professor from a local university who teaches physics / quantum theory to try and explain what is going on from the perspective of science. He lures his class of graduate students to come on a weekend project to study it with the offer of "extra credit". As you can imagine, things begin to go awry for the professor and the co-eds once they set up shop and start their analysis. All the while, anyone who falls asleep within the vicinity of this contraption begins having a recurring dream of the outside of the church and a voice mumbling, "This is not a dream, you are receiving a message from the future sent to you through tachyon emissions..." that goes on to warn of the impending doom. Spiritual and technical tie-ins abound, philosophical debate mixed with quantum theory, real wrath of God stuff. Plus the acting is pretty good (as measured on the sci-fi/horror acting-o-meter). The 80's hair-dos and clothes are worth the price of admission alone. Makes for great movie "camp" where camp was not intended - which of course makes the best camp of all. Great, great movie.Movie Review: Old Scratch knocking at the door
Summary: 4 Stars
For all its numerous flaws and failings: sloppy, lazy and too loose with all its promising potential in frights, suspense, characterizations, quasi-scientific and religious themes, this movie somehow still manages to succeed as a minor classic. If nothing else, a wonderful Halloween entertainment - for those not expecting too much in the way of gory FX and twisted action.
If only the visuals and feeling between the characters were as effective as POD's truly superior soundtrack -- what a keeper it could have been!
About that score: It is a refinement of the Halloween synth motif, simple yet layered, with an evocatively implacable rhythmn. Doom and gloom with plenty of synth sighs and choral color that perfectly matches the ruined church of the action's setting. If you give it a fair listen the damn thing will stick in your head for hours. Followed me home all the way from Times Square the first night I saw this sucker in the fall of '87!
Otherwise, there are many other qualities to admire about Prince of Darkness: The decrepit church's creepy corridors, the candlelit basement chapel, that cruddy ancient cannister, (yeah, even the fakish green swill is kinda cool!). I particularly dig that one low angle shot when a certain radiologist rises... Not to mention the video dream broadcasts - a great idea! (even though it was lifted from TIMESCAPE by Gregory Benford, Nebula Award winner of 1980).
But most memorable is the ending, heartrending for those who care to ponder it. There, in that last scene, is the essence of what honest, true horror has always been about. No way out? A choice that is no choice at all?
Thankfully, John Carpenter chose to leave off his imperfectly told story on so dreadful and perfect a note.
Movie Review: Also Known As The Two Hour MagLight Add
Summary: 4 Stars
This is the last decent film that John Carpenter ever made. It tells the story of a group of scientists who discover a strange capsule in the basement of an old church. The liquid contents of the capsule turn out to be the son of Satan and, in fact, Jesus and Satan turn out to be extraterrestrials. This of course, follows Arthur C. Clark's idea that any sufficiently advanced technology can look like magic.
Despite the seemingly corny premise, the film combines a mix of the kind of horror found in 'The Thing' and the humor of 'Big Trouble in Little China' which works very well. Though not the best of his films, it still is well worth seeing.
I should explain that that the title of this review comes from one of the funnier scenes in which one of the researchers is trapped in a closet with no hope of escape through the door. When the monster outside comes at him, he uses a MagLight to bash his way through the back wall of the closet into the next room. At the time, MagLights were new on the market and everyone I knew wanted one simply because they had seen the film. Thus, in my circle of friends at least, we often referred to the film as " 'Prince of Darkness' or 'The Two Hour MagLight Add' " in the voice of the narrator at the end of an episode of "Bulwinkle".
It should be noted that this is definitely a horror film and contains plenty of rotting corpses, bloody maulings and other grusome special effects. And things don't exactly come out right in the end. If you're easily creeped out, watch this film with plenty of friends and the lights on! Mwahaha!
Movie Review: Scary with Possibilities
Summary: 4 Stars
There are many great reviews on the content of this film, so I won't repeat them here. However, the one aspect of this film that made it one of the most frightening and one of the most memorable films for me was the science - in respect to people from the future trying to communicate with those in the present to warn them about the imminent arrival of Satan so they could change the future outcome. The technology in this future was limited, and could only come through as fractured messages and images during the dream state. I can imagine the frustration and desperation on the other end, as these technicians in the future try with the limited resources they have to make those in the present take action.
The image of Satan's silhouette in the church archway is one I will never get out of my head and it sends a chill down my spine everytime I see it.
Satan is ultimately stopped from coming into the world, at least in the first possible future, but the future technicians will have to start again at square one, as their past has been changed, but not in the way they were hoping for.
Which leads to all kinds of philosophical and scientific questions and possiblities. I can think of no other horror film, let alone a "B" film such as this, that ever inspired that kind of deep discussion.
This is a great, scary, eat-popcorn-watch-it-with-the-lights-off gruesome horror movie...but it also makes you think.