John Carpenter's 'Prince of Darkness' is one that is usually overlooked even today. The film is considered the second part of the director's 'Apocalypse Trilogy' that started with his 1982 remake of 'The Thing' & ended with 1994's 'In the Mouth of Madness', all of which were at the time considered box office bombs and all of which now have cult followings. While I feel 'Prince of Darkness' is the lesser of this trilogy, there's still a lot to like here especially when viewing it during the Halloween season. The story involves a group of science students and their teacher as they are invited to investigate an abandoned church in the middle of the city. Once there, they are shown a secret underground room by a Vatican priest (Donald Pleasance) which contains a cylinder full of a sinister green liquid. Soon enough, strange happenings trap the students within the church and one by one become the victims of the mysterious entity within.
The film mixes themes of religion and quantum physics of all things, and while that sounds nutty for a premise (and don't get us wrong, it is) somehow Carpenter manages to make these themes work together and it gets you invested in the story really quickly. And it's a good thing too because without that unique concept the film would fall apart within the first ten minutes and this is mainly due to how slow the beginning is. This may sound more of a nitpick but I think the slow beginning will turn off many during their first viewing and throughout the film there's not much in terms of action, especially when comparing the film to other horror films of the time. But I feel that this slow pace and the whole film being rather quiet makes for a really uncomfortable feeling and high tension.
The film mainly falters when people begin to become possessed by the green liquid as it then devolves slightly into many demonic film tropes but even with this weaker angle, we do get some great special effects and the very ominous but subtle score by Carpenter. I think 'Prince of Darkness' is one of John Carpenter's most experimental stories and one that you can see he felt very invested in. I find the idea of multi-dimensions, religion, and quantum physics fascinating and even today has never been found in films of any genre. The film does feel unique and one of a kind in that aspect but on the other side of things, I completely understand why this movie wasn't a big success at the time. As I said before, horror films were a big thing during this period and each film was trying to top each other with more sex and gore than the previous entry so when this moody, slow-paced and psychological film came along, it was hard to reach the top of the mountain.
'Prince of Darkness' isn't one of John Carpenter's best films, but it is a good film with some interesting ideas, an overall creepy feeling to it all, and makes for good Halloween viewing. I recommend it highly.
4/5
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