{"id":6609,"date":"2024-10-25T11:58:22","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T15:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6609"},"modified":"2024-10-25T11:58:41","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T15:58:41","slug":"prince-of-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/25\/prince-of-darkness\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince of Darkness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Prince of Darkness <\/strong>(1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 102 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, graphic violence, gruesome images, frightening themes, sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Carpenter\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Carpenter (as Martin Quartermass)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Carpenter and Alan Howarth\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gary B. Kibbe\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 23, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Donald Pleasence, Victor Wong, Jameson Parker, Lisa Blount, Dennis Dun, Susan Blanchard, Anne Howard, Ann Yen, Ken Wright, Dirk Blocker, Jessie Lawrence Ferguson, Peter Jason, Robert Grasmere, Thom Bray, Alice Cooper, Joanna Merlin, Betty Ramey.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $14.1M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0After the horror classics Halloween and The Thing, Prince of Darkness<\/strong> is John Carpenter’s finest work. It’s definitely his most cerebral work. The characters discuss subjects like quantum physics, theology and differential equations. \u00a0My knowledge of science and math is decidedly limited; I couldn\u2019t broach any of those subjects with a measurable degree of confidence. Thankfully, Carpenter makes the difficult concepts in Prince of Darkness <\/strong>accessible to general audiences without dumbing down the movie. It\u2019s intelligent as well as scary.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It opens with the death of an elderly priest with a terrifying secret. The priest (Pleasence, Halloween) brought in to investigate reads his late colleague\u2019s diary and discovers he was a member of a clandestine sect called \u201cThe Brotherhood of Sleep\u201d. They\u2019re so secret, not even the Vatican knows of their existence. The key found on his person unlocks the door to the basement of an abandoned Catholic church in downtown L.A. Hidden in the basement is a large canister containing a mysterious green liquid. It\u2019s the job of the Brotherhood to watch over it. The liquid is the physical embodiment of Satan. For centuries, its existence has been concealed. Now, it\u2019s \u201ca secret that can no longer be kept\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In direct opposition to one of the key theories of physics, chaos seems to descending into order. This is what prompts Priest (as he\u2019s called in the credits) to ask his old friend quantum physics professor Birack (Wong, Big Trouble in Little China) for help. Birack recruits several of his grad students to join them at the church for the weekend in order to prove the container\u2019s contents through modern science and mathematics. While not overjoyed about giving up their weekend plans, they\u2019re bound to be less thrilled by the weird events to come.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While a group of local homeless people (led by rocker Alice Cooper) gathers outside the church, members of the group inside start falling victim to the evil in their presence. Many of them experience the same dream of a menacing dark figure emerging from the front doors of the church at some point in the future. It\u2019s soon discovered that the entity in the container needs a physical host to bring the ultimate evil, characterized as \u201cAnti-God\u201d, into the physical world. You see, it’s theorized that everything in the universe has a mirror image, a complete opposite. It stands to reason if there’s a God, then there’s an Anti-God. It\u2019s pretty freaky if you think about it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Oh, I haven\u2019t mentioned any of the students involved in the not purely academic exercise. I guess it doesn\u2019t matter too, too much since they\u2019re essentially lambs for the slaughter. The ones we get to know the best are romantic couple Brian (Parker, Simon & Simon) and Catherine (Blount, Dead & Buried), little Asian guy Walter (Dun, Big Trouble in Little China), reserved Kelly (Blanchard, They Live) and attractive radiologist Susan (Howard). Others, like token black guy Calder (Ferguson, The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh) and serious-minded Asian girl Lisa (Yen), aren\u2019t developed at all. In addition, character actor Peter Jason (48 Hrs.) shows up as jovial chemistry professor Dr. Leahy. It\u2019s always great to see him. He and Dun provide much-needed comic relief. At one point, Walter is described as \u201casshole-ish\u201d. You could say that. He always manages to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. He\u2019s an arrogant (possibly gay) sort who naturally freaks out when faced with the supernatural horrors of his class assignment. I don\u2019t mind the lack of character development. It isn’t about the characters; it’s about heavy ideas.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the lead roles, Pleasence and Wong are both phenomenal. Prince of Darkness<\/strong> is at its most intellectually interesting when these two discuss and debate God vs. science. Pleasence gives his usual histrionic performance, spouting lines like “No prison can hold him now.” and “He was our prisoner, not yours!” The only difference between Priest and Dr. Loomis is the clerical collar. Oh, and the evil is more abstract than a guy in a Halloween mask.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Wong is completely believable as an academic type who, after a lifetime of believing in science, must question his beliefs when confronted by something that can’t be explained by any of his theories. He tells his class “while order DOES exist in the universe, it is not at all what we had in mind.” The events he\u2019s about to witness will prove this statement true.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Prince of Darkness<\/strong> is one of the freakiest movies I’ve ever seen. More than one viewing is definitely required to absorb everything, especially the academic stuff. Carpenter, who\u2019s actually interested in quantum physics, loads his movie with deep, heavy ideas. It\u2019s also creepy as hell. Take the dream sequences. The shaky, grainy imagery combined with the garbled electronic voiceover is genuinely unnerving. As the movie progresses, more and more of the dream is revealed until we finally learn what it really is. I LOVE this aspect of Prince of Darkness<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There are several effectively freaky scenes in Prince of Darkness<\/strong>. One of my favorites is Lisa, brought in to translate an ancient text found in the basement, repeatedly typing \u201cI live!\u201d on her computer before giving over to the following ominous statement: “You will not be saved by the Holy Ghost. You will not be saved by the god Plutonium. In fact, YOU WILL NOT BE SAVED!” The street people are pretty scary too. They stand there in a trance until somebody tries to leave the church. That\u2019s when they move in for the kill. A tech geek (Bray, Riptide) gets impaled by a rusty bicycle frame (BLOOD SPURT!). Another fellow gets stabbed with a pair of shears (QUITE BLOODY!). There are plenty of decent gross-out effects too, like when the chosen student transforms into the grotesque monster that can replace its own head should somebody decide to cut it off with an axe. Then there\u2019s the final scene before the end credits. It\u2019s simultaneously freaky and frustrating.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The ominous score for Prince of Darkness<\/strong> is composed by Carpenter (a man of many talents) and Alan Howarth. It plays almost continuously throughout the movie which enhances the sense of dread one would feel going up against an unknown force. The set design is suitably creepy. The abandoned church is chilling. The cylinder with the green liquid looks AWESOME! I love how it gives off this eerie green light. The screenplay by Carpenter (using the pseudonym Martin Quartermass) is brilliant. It’s a movie you really have to think about for a while. The movie\u2019s pace might be a little slow for some, but I say it\u2019s the right way to go. Carpenter has a gift for building suspense and it shows here.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I watch Prince of Darkness<\/strong> every year around Halloween and never get tired of it. I enjoy watching the story unfold. Carpenter tries to do something different and totally succeeds. He makes you think in-between the jump-scares. It\u2019s smart, but it\u2019s fun too. It all comes together perfectly. It\u2019s a prime example of cerebral horror done right.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prince of Darkness (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 102 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, graphic violence, gruesome images, frightening themes, sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Carpenter\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Carpenter (as Martin Quartermass)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Carpenter and Alan Howarth\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gary B. Kibbe\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 23, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Donald Pleasence, Victor Wong, Jameson Parker, Lisa Blount, Dennis Dun, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-scary-gory-wild-i-love-it"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Prince-of-Darkness-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6609"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7378,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609\/revisions\/7378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}