I love the premise of this film. As a teen I saw it in the theater and it scared the crap out of me, but when I bought it recently, I wasn't scared as much as I was fascinated. It isn't that it's a terribly scary movie in and of itself, because it really isn't. It's just another John Carpenter B-movie like They Live or Vampires. The premise, however, is a great take on religion, which can be a subject ripe for frights and chills. In the hands of a great screenwriter and someone with a larger budget, I think this could have been an all time great. While it doesn't reach those lofty heights, it does manage to be very entertaining.
The movie opens in a church with an old priest on his deathbed, a box in his hands. The old man dies, and Father Loomis (Donald Pleasence) is called after his death. Loomis finds a key that leads him to a run down old church, where he enlists the help of a professor, Howard Birack (Victor Wong), to investigate some strange findings. The old man was a guardian priest, Father Loomis explains. The church was run by a secret sect, secret even to the Vatican; the priest was a member of this sect. Every day he would venture into the basement of the old church to check on what appears to be an old Limeade machine. It's a round canister with a swirling green liquid inside. So, you know, Limeade.
Loomis describes how a month ago everything began changing, even the earth itself. Hearing this, Birack recruits, or rather forces, several of his physics students to come to the church and study the phenomena (not to mention the Limeade container). One of them, Brian Marsh, is the brother from Simon And Simon who didn't end up with Delta Burke. So anyway, they all end up at the church. Loomis wants Birack to go through their investigations of this "scientifically" - whatever "this" is. After the standard "get to know the characters stuff", they are off and running.
Have I mentioned yet that Alice Cooper plays a homeless nut job who stands around and tries to freak everyone out? Well, Alice Cooper plays a homeless nut job who stands around and tries to freak everyone out.
The entire group heads off into the basement to get a look at the Limeade machine they will be studying. Up to this point the movie is slower than Corky Thatcher doing geometry. It takes a half-hour to get everyone together and get started, and during that time you don't really know what is going on or why Loomis seems so desperate - but at least there is an atmosphere of fright.
As they study the green liquid, weird things start happening. A whole bunch of weird things. Earthworms start climbing out of the Earth. The homeless stake out the church, all in a zombie-like state. Carbon dating tells them the item is over seven million years old. Someone gets killed by a bike (which I think is a pretty shitty way to die). The liquid appears to be ... alive. And then the Limeade container springs an upside down leak. Something about Satan, something about Christ, something about aliens, green stuff in the mouth, and BOOM, we have a movie on our hands.
Now we're getting somewhere!
There's a great scene at this point between Loomis and Birack that lays out an interesting, chilling theory. Birack talks about the idea in physics that every particle has a mirror image, or negative particle. He supposes a "what if" scenario: perhaps there is one mind, one universal entity, controlling everything. God. What's more, what if that entity actually existed on the other side of the mirror, too, in a sort of anti-universe? Instead of bringing light, it brings darkness. And what if this theory was a closely-guarded, long known truth? Both Pleasence and Wong are spot on here: Pleasence as a man of the cloth whose world is turned upside down, and Wong as a storyteller. Both are subtle and restrained and their efforts add to the creepiness of the story. This scene is demonstrative of that. Too bad that this is about the only highlight for the characters.
Things get even weirder from here, with some excellent high points to take in. A great visual - a grainy tracking shot on the front of the church with a back lit figure, arms up from its side - stands out. And there is more: A zombie covered in beetles and a killing by way of scissors. Kelly gets covered in Satan Sores. Arms get cut off, grow back, and the plot unravels like so much badly-knotted thread.
But there are low points, too. There are a lot of incongruities in this mess of a plot and too many characters to keep track of in a short time, so you don't really get to know any of them. That fact makes one character's sacrifice sort of lame since, as an audience, you barely know them. Even Marsh, Loomis and Birack are mysteries. I'm not expecting a talkative movie here, but we waste so much time getting the movie set up when we could be right into it. Further, with a smaller cast we could learn more about everyone in the process. In addition, the pacing is horrible. Because of all this, the little tension left by the climax all but evaporates. I wanted more mortal danger, not just the characters stuck in a room.
Despite this, the premise of Prince Of Darkness is incredibly cool. It could make a great genre movie in the hands of someone who can write an intricate screenplay. There are enough opportunities for scares here, what with the religious aspects and alien stuff. Unfortunately, what we get is a woman who looks like a burn victim. That's the ultimate evil?
Still, Carpenter does what he does best - creates a fun, freaky B-movie with a few chills, a few scares, some gore, and some laughs (mostly unintentional). For that reason alone, I like Prince Of Darkness. It's just good clean B-movie fun. Throw in the premise, which admittedly probably isn't much deeper than the kind of conversations most people have after smoking a bowl, and I think you've got an under appreciated film.
Presentation
Sounded like a movie to me. The score sounded like a John Carpenter score - repetitive and like it was done on a cheap synthesizer at 2 a.m. after a 12-pack of Black Label. As far as the video goes, Kelly's sores look disturbingly real. And painful. So, you know, that's good.
Extras
This disc features one of those "if you liked X you will also like Y" things, as well as the trailer. That's it. Kinda cheap, in my opinion. Why no Jameson Parker retrospective?
Summary
Aliens + Kelly + Satan + Sores + Alice Cooper - the nerd from Riptide = John Carpenter fun.
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