John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness is a supernatural thriller about a big tub of snot. It begins with a priest (played by Donald Pleasance from too many Halloween movies) finding another priest dead leaving behind only an old key and a cryptic diary which leads him to a church where a shrine with candles that never go out is kept hidden. At the center of the shrine is an enormous jar of green fluid, the sight of which alarms him, so the priest teams up with Professor Howard Birack (Victor Wong) and his physics students in order to keep the great evil contained. Or study it. Or announce its existence to the world. Actually, I’m not sure what he expected them to do, but that’s the setup.
The setup is probably the strongest aspect of the film and the first half hour or so isn’t bad. Characters are introduced naturally and the reveal of the threat is well paced. The movie takes its time establishing the situation and the building the mystery, which has potentially apocalyptic consequences. They unravel the secret of the ancient books, decipher codes, and take in the bizarre surroundings. For a while, I was genuinely interested to see where the story was going. The atmosphere is emphasized through the serious tone and the way it’s filmed, with the majority of the movie being shot using wide angles, slightly skewing the way things look outside the characters. This goes a long way in building the feeling that something is wrong with the world around them. The sets are large and well designed, the shrine being a particular highlight. The combination of the lost shrine mixed with modern technology makes for a fun contrast. The central characters at first seem interesting and they’re given clear character traits and even a budding romance between two of the students, Brian (Jameson Parker) and Catherine (Lisa Blount), but this all dissipates before long, much as the attention paid to the science surrounding the supernatural events does.
Unfortunately, as the plot moves forward, the execution of everything built up to in the first part fails to meet expectations. The glowing green liquid is apparently the great source of evil in the universe, but all it does is spray itself in people’s mouths so it can possess them or turn them into zombie-like slaves. It also attracts bugs and violent homeless people, though I’m not sure why it does that. Homeless people just seem to flock to the church, killing anyone who tries to leave. There’s never any explanation for their actions either. They couldn’t have been possessed because everyone else who gets possessed is spit on first. The entire scenario raises a lot of questions. For instance, why homeless people? Let’s say the “negative energy” the green goo gives off somehow attracts them. Why doesn’t it work on anyone else? Why can’t the army of evil homeless people enter the church? And why is Alice Cooper leading them?
Another major and painfully obvious issue with this movie is the stupidity of the protagonists. Professor Birack and the priest can’t seem to agree on what they should be doing, and the professor likes to withhold information from his team of students. These are the people he specifically chose to save the world, so you’d think he’d want them well informed. As for his chosen-for-intelligence students, they do very little besides make poor decisions. At every chance they get they like to split up, creating the highest possible chance of danger for themselves. I gave them a free pass with this at first, because they’re all skeptical about the whole purpose of being at the church, but it never stops, even after people have started disappearing. There are some baffling moments of stupidity like when students Brian and Walter (Dennis Dun) don’t notice the dead body in the room with them or worst of all, when soon-to-be-possessed Kelly (Susan Blanchard) comes to Catherine and shows her an ugly bruise. Catherine looks at it and the bruise has clearly changed into a strange marking. Instead of doing anything about this, she advises Kelly to take a nap. It’s later revealed –after it’s too late for Kelly– that Catherine had recognized the marking on her arm. If that’s true, then why didn’t she help her?! She could have said something! To anyone!
The entire last act is just your typical horror fare. There are some jump scares and violent deaths, though the real threat is the zombies of Satan, but all they do is spit. Despite being the harbingers of the prince of darkness and the end of the world, they’re not only uninteresting, they’re just not scary. I mean, these zombies have trouble getting through doors (some of them aren’t even locked). To accompany, or as a desperate attempt to make up for all this is the overbearing soundtrack (also by John Carpenter) which feels like it goes on forever, futilely searching for a melody.
Despite a promising opening, Prince of Darkness fails to deliver in almost every respect. It’s not scary, the effects are nothing memorable, and the stupid decisions of the characters are distracting. Even with its over-the-top and ludicrous story, the movie feels familiar and at worst boring. It’s depressing when a story that spends so much time explaining and incorporating metaphysical and scientific theories with religion devolves into zombies spitting on people. Be afraid.
The setup is probably the strongest aspect of the film and the first half hour or so isn’t bad. Characters are introduced naturally and the reveal of the threat is well paced. The movie takes its time establishing the situation and the building the mystery, which has potentially apocalyptic consequences. They unravel the secret of the ancient books, decipher codes, and take in the bizarre surroundings. For a while, I was genuinely interested to see where the story was going. The atmosphere is emphasized through the serious tone and the way it’s filmed, with the majority of the movie being shot using wide angles, slightly skewing the way things look outside the characters. This goes a long way in building the feeling that something is wrong with the world around them. The sets are large and well designed, the shrine being a particular highlight. The combination of the lost shrine mixed with modern technology makes for a fun contrast. The central characters at first seem interesting and they’re given clear character traits and even a budding romance between two of the students, Brian (Jameson Parker) and Catherine (Lisa Blount), but this all dissipates before long, much as the attention paid to the science surrounding the supernatural events does.
Unfortunately, as the plot moves forward, the execution of everything built up to in the first part fails to meet expectations. The glowing green liquid is apparently the great source of evil in the universe, but all it does is spray itself in people’s mouths so it can possess them or turn them into zombie-like slaves. It also attracts bugs and violent homeless people, though I’m not sure why it does that. Homeless people just seem to flock to the church, killing anyone who tries to leave. There’s never any explanation for their actions either. They couldn’t have been possessed because everyone else who gets possessed is spit on first. The entire scenario raises a lot of questions. For instance, why homeless people? Let’s say the “negative energy” the green goo gives off somehow attracts them. Why doesn’t it work on anyone else? Why can’t the army of evil homeless people enter the church? And why is Alice Cooper leading them?
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I always knew Alice Cooper and Donald Pleasance would somehow bring about the end of the world. |
The entire last act is just your typical horror fare. There are some jump scares and violent deaths, though the real threat is the zombies of Satan, but all they do is spit. Despite being the harbingers of the prince of darkness and the end of the world, they’re not only uninteresting, they’re just not scary. I mean, these zombies have trouble getting through doors (some of them aren’t even locked). To accompany, or as a desperate attempt to make up for all this is the overbearing soundtrack (also by John Carpenter) which feels like it goes on forever, futilely searching for a melody.
Despite a promising opening, Prince of Darkness fails to deliver in almost every respect. It’s not scary, the effects are nothing memorable, and the stupid decisions of the characters are distracting. Even with its over-the-top and ludicrous story, the movie feels familiar and at worst boring. It’s depressing when a story that spends so much time explaining and incorporating metaphysical and scientific theories with religion devolves into zombies spitting on people. Be afraid.
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