Written and directed by John Carpenter
Starring Donald Pleasence, Lisa Blount, Victor Wong and Jameson Parker
USA, 1987
Welcome to Horrorfest 2022! I’m watching 31 horror movies in 31 days to celebrate October, the month of Halloween. This year there’s no theme but I got a big assist from the Criterion Channel – they put up a bunch of great 80s horror and some vampire flicks so the bulk of Horrorfest will be made up of those, plus a few others to fill out the month. So let’s get started.
What better way to start than with one of the masters of horror himself, director John Carpenter. This year I’ve finally gotten around to watching PRINCE OF DARKNESS. I’m not sure why I put it off – I like most of Carpenter’s films, even ones people hate like GHOSTS OF MARS. But every now and then there’s a clunker, like IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS.
PRINCE OF DARKNESS involves a group of quantum physics students who are called in to help investigate a mysterious tube of liquid found in the bowels under a monastery. As one student after another becomes possessed and zombie-like homeless people (led by Alice Cooper!) surround the monastery, it begins to become clear that dark forces are at work.
The interesting thing about this movie is that it really seems to value knowledge and intellect – treating the supernatural as something that can really be studied, figured out, explained, and that experts should do it. This isn’t one of those flicks where some regular joe magically knows more than the scientists – in this one, the scientists are the heroes.
Carpenter-favorite Donald Pleasence is on hand as a priest, to represent the faith side of things and Victor Wong plays a pretty credulous physics professor. Of course I guess I’d be credulous, too, if I literally saw the devil in person. The rest of the younger cast is pretty forgettable with the exception of Dennis Dun who has the benefit of having been given all the most memorable lines.
It's worth staying for the killer ending which made me wonder if Christopher Nolan of INCEPTION fame is a PRINCE OF DARKNESS fan.
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