Finally, the first John Carpenter film to grace us with its presence here on the 31 Days of Terror list! This is indeed a special occasion. Instead of going with one of Carpenter's bigger works for his first appearance, I've picked a true hidden gem from his long and rich career, the liquidly delightful B-movie "Prince of Darkness", which gives us principles of quantum mechanics, satan, evil demonic liquid, and Alice Cooper as the leader of evil vagrants!
The film brings together a group of theoretical physicists, language experts, scientists, and a priest in an abandoned church in Los Angeles, CA. A Priest (played by the legendary Donald Pleasence) contacts professor Howard Birack (Victor Wong) about a mysterious and constantly swirling green liquid in a container in the basement of this church. Brian Marsh (Jameson Parker), Catherine Danforth (Lisa Blount), and Walter (Dennis Dun) are some of Birack's students who get pulled into this scenario. Next to is ancient text that's revealed to be complex differential equations and also, to be thousands of years old, pre-dating the creation of the type of mathematics itself. But over the next few days, the liquid shoots out at people, first from the cylinder, then from person to person, turning them against the others in the group. It is soon discovered that the ultimate goal behind the text and liquid is a "higher" purpose meant to bring about the end of the world.
Victor Wong and Donald Pleasence examine ancient text found in the basement of the abandoned church in Los Angeles.
That's right, liquid evil. One of the reasons "Prince of Darkness" is so cool is because it takes the entire notion of the devil and begins to look at it from a scientific, logistic, and theoretical point of view. It is a weird movie that is played very straight and unfortunately, sometimes it doesn't work. Veterans Donald Pleasence and Victor Wong are very good in their roles, particularly Pleasence in his (3rd and final collaboration with John Carpenter behind the director's chair). However, Wong is very boring as professor Birack, obviously trying to bring a serious angle to the character. Only the year before, he delivered a great performance in another Carpenter classic, "Big Trouble in Little China". Pleasence on the other hand, an actor who I consider to be in the league of horror legends Vincent Price and Christopher Lee, knows exactly when to give an extra dramatic push or flare up to adorn his words, a staple he brought to every Carpenter role.
The two leads of the film, Brian and Catherine are characters in over their heads. Jameson Parker is very cool as the suave Marsh while Blount plays the in-over-her-head scientist very well. For the materiel at least. It is a very ridiculous movie. What I find greatly funny though, is Marsh's mustache in this film. I've seen lost of 'staches on guys before, including the legendary Burt Reynolds among many classics, but holy hell (no pun intended) does Parker's mustache steal the show. How I wish I could have lived in the 80's.
Alice Cooper plays the sort of "leader" of a group of homeless people who begin to surround the church as things get worse. His performance is pretty much straight forward. He has no dialogue, he simply stands stark and menacing in his Matt Hooper-esque, homless man, ghost look. It is during these scenes that the movie takes a stumble. What is the point of the homeless people other than a reason that our characters can not go outside. It's obvious that they too are being controlled by Satan and doing his bidding, but why? They are not in the church, or that we know of were ever inside. However, the film truly becomes fun when all hell breaks loose (again, no pun intended) and the demonic forces at play in the green liquid spread from person to person as jets of green fluid shoot from their mouths. Dennis Dun (another Carpenter alum from "Big Trouble in Little China") bring a lot of the comedic relief and sympathy during the escalating conflict between the survivors the pseudo-demonically possessed scientists.
Don't drink the water: specialists work to find the origin of a mysterious liquid in John Carpenter's underrated "Prince of Darkness"
The way Carpenter frames certain shots is beautiful as well. There's a scene in the film in which Birack is arriving at the church and he glances down the street to find a homeless woman credited as "bag lady". In this shot, not only do we get great usage of the rule of thirds, but a row of trees and the sidewalk moving off into the horizon. But the editing of the film is clunky. On the Scream Factory Blu Ray and DVD release of the film, Carpenter discusses in depth that he wanted to cut the movie slowly and have both long and short cuts and edits. Again at times it works and others it doesn't, making that the most inconsistent aspect of the film.
"Prince of Darkness" is a horror film that wants to be more than the conventional scare-fare. It doesn't entirely succeed, but it certainly does not fail. John Carpenter made an interesting, deep, and for the most part, fun film that looks at the devil, demons, and ancient scripture from a different point of view. The cast as a whole works well with each other and is carried by the actors who really sell the characters they are playing. It is a film that strives to be more than what it is billed as, but come on, it's pure popcorn fun. This would make for an excellent grindhouse style double feature with something like "The Devil's Advocate" (nothing like a satanic double feature). Not to mention the liquid evil. How many movies can you say you've seen in which a liquid has been a sentient villain?
6/10
- Rated R
- Directed by John Carpenter
- Written by John Carpenter
- Runtime - 102 minutes
- Suggested edition: Scream Factory DVD or Blu Ray
- 6.6 of 10 stars on IMDb
- 55% on Rotten Tomatoes
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