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Picture
A group of graduate students accidentally
​unleash a primordial force of evil upon the world.
HORROR

Prince of Darkness (1987)

Written and Directed by John Carpenter

Starring Donald Pleasence, Jameson Parker, Victor Wong,
​Lisa Blount, Dennis Dun, Susan Blanchard, Anne Marie Howard, Ann Yen, Ken Wright, Dirk Blocker, Jessie Lawrence Ferguson

Connor Eyzaguirre
April 4, 2022
7/10
Prince of Darkness has one of the most creative, thought-provoking, and completely bonkers insane premises I've ever seen on the silver screen. Jesus Christ was an alien? The Devil is a being of anti-matter trapped in another dimension? His son, Satan, is a primordial ooze that Jesus locked away at the dawn of time? Now, that ooze has awakened and is possessing people so it can bring its father back to our world? Christ almighty, that sounds like a damn good movie. And for the most part, Prince of Darkness is a decent horror flick that never loses that signature Carpenter vibe we've come to love. But it has some stretches that drag and some of the dialogue feels very forced at times. Plus, with a concept as unique as this, why not take full advantage of it? There are times where it feels Carpenter is holding back.

A priest is dead; the last of the Brotherhood of Sleep. A fellow priest (Pleasence) discovers his colleague's secret: A container of green ooze locked away in the basement of a church. According to a very old book, this ooze is the essence of Satan himself. The priest and his theoretical physics colleague (Wong) decide to recruit some grad students to help them decipher the book and find out just how real all of this is. Turns out, very. One by one, the students fall prey to the power of Satan, who wants to resurrect his father, the Anti-God, who is trapped in a mirror world. The ongoing premise is enough to keep your interest, even if some of the performances don't quite cut it.

Prince of Darkness feels more like a giant wasted opportunity for Carpenter to let loose with some truly demonic horror. Instead, he plays it safe and goes for the psychological scare, which is fine too. With this being the second part of Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy (the first being The Thing and the third being In the Mouth of Madness), I was expecting a lot more, well, apocalyptic pandemonium. But it isn't terrible, and now that I've managed my expectations, I will probably enjoy it far better on a second watch.

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Filmgazm is made by movie lovers for movie lovers. We believe in the magic of film and we aim celebrate films of all genres and throughout cinema history, regardless of who's behind the camera or who financed it. We at Filmgazm believe that every film deserves to be reviewed on its own merits and that's what we are here to do. Enjoy the show!
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