Prince of Darkness (1987)
Directed by John Carpenter
Starring Donald Pleasence, Lisa Blount, Victor Wong, and Jameson Parker
A priest invites a group of graduate students and professors to help him investigate an old church in Los Angeles. Specifically, the priest needs help understanding an artifact in the basement. It is a large, ancient cylinder filled with a churning green fluid. The students settle in and start running tests, the priest and professor discuss religion, and a swarm of homeless people surround the church. As people leave, the hobos are led by one of their own (Alice Cooper in a cameo) to kill those who try to exit the grounds. The contents of the container make its intentions known when it opens of its own accord and attacks a grad. Those who come into contact with the liquid become possessed by an otherworldly force. Meanwhile, the team experiences the same odd dream when they sleep. They see a message from the future showing a dark figure leaving the church. The scripture left with the cylinder reveals something disturbing: the green fluid is Satan and he is trying to bring something more evil into this world. It all comes to a head when the infected corner what remains of the team and put their plan in action. Their lord will come and the church shall be his entrance.
The second film in Carpenter’s Apocalypse Trilogy, Prince of Darkness is a flawed wonder. It showcases Carpenter’s ability to create atmosphere and maintain it, adding to the tension systematically until the climax. But, it is also filled with logistical and aesthetic choices that really hinder the enjoyment of anyone paying attention. For every one thing this movie does right, it does three things wrong.
The story is a mixed bag, but mostly the mix is good. There is a heavy influence felt from Quatermass and the Pit and Lovecraft stories. The unknown evil that infects man and turns him against himself is a big part of this movie and it is terrifying. What the movie gets most right is that sense of something greater than our heroes’ comprehension actively working to set itself free. The art design and the special FX help sell the mood. The mysterious fluid is shot convincingly, never quite becoming unintentionally funny. The early kills are also executed well, with some painful looking stabbings and bug bursting. Carpenter regulars Donald Pleasence, Victor Wong, and Dennis Dun all put in fine performances. Pleasence could add class to anything and he plays the priest with a profound sense of religious terror. Wong is cooky but authoritative with Prof. Birack. And Dun is annoyingly smug, which works well for the comic relief character.
Not everything in Prince of Darkness works, if at all. The dream sequences seem to be shot on VHS and purposefully grained. For a dream from the future human resistance, you have to ask why it had to look like a poor quality broadcast. It totally takes you out of the movie when this signal from the future looks like someone accidentally taped over the movie. When the possessed people spit demon water out of their mouths, it is unfortunately funny. With every infected shooting an evil squirt gun from their mouths, it gets hard to take anything else seriously. The antagonizing infected people switch half way through the movie and not for the better. After having some creepy possessed homeless people in the beginning, having some grad students is a real let down. Finally, there is the issue of Carpenter’s story itself. He chose to combine quantum physics and religion to derive the source of evil and create an overly complex mythology. The mixture comes off as haphazard and pointlessly confusing. Once people start talking about God and the Anti-God as aliens, the story takes a sharp dive in quality.
If you are going to watch Prince of Darkness, be prepared to have mixed feelings. There are some great parts that chill and thrill with the best of Carpenter’s filmography. And then there are parts that clearly needed more time and thought put into them. This one is only for the Carpenter fans and enthusiasts of the genre.
6 out of 10
