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A television transmission from the future haunts the dreams of science academics gathered together for a night at hell house in John Carpenter's 1987 horror film that is both brilliant and bad.
Seems as if writer Alan Quatermass (John Carpenter) had to get some metaphysical and religious monkeys off of his back and went ahead and got financing for this very tightly photographed, highly atmospheric, and subtly stylized dialog driven picture that is at once genuinely creepy and highly ambitious.
I don't believe in mumbo jumbo about the devil and armageddon. I feel as if evil is from the hearts and minds of man's imagination and only rules supreme if one is either consciously or unconsciously attracted to it's alleged allure. I am not. I am, however attracted to this film, as I find it very enjoyable from a relaxation standpoint. It moves at a snail's pace and keeps the music coming out of every celluloid pore for almost the entire run time.
I think of this as one big extended John Carpenter music video. Shot in Carpenter's usual anamorphic way, we get a very glassy surface and saturated colors all around the premises of this contained evil liquid. Yes, liquid. The devil is in liquid form, kept in a large glass vat, comprised of green and black pearlescent texture, ready to drip, spray and metamorphisize into anyone's mouth or eyes at any given moment to possess them as the devil himself, in the flesh. Scary stuff.
Not entirely...
But it can be creepy, if not horrifying. This director still had his chops before selling out to haphazard fare like Ghost of Mars. He kept the tension going with deliberate pacing, guttural music score, dimly lit outside locations at night, and interesting close-up work and camera tricks, not to mention some choice moments of disgust and sound design/foley that further punched his intentions through the screen into our psyche. I always watch films with headphones. I don't believe a film is worth watching without reference quality headphones. There's art in the mix if you don't have too much distance between it and your ears. "Prince of Darkness" seems to know this. Carpenter makes his films with as much care in visuals and atmosphere as he does his sound.
I cannot say that there is too many characters that I connect with because I do not believe that I connect with one single person in this movie. I will say that this does not seem to matter. The people in POD are merely here to get us from point A to point B. I did not mind the casting choices. In some strange way, everyone seemed appropriate, and there were even a few moments of high comedy relief, one involving the use of a word only a toddler might say, left to ring out in the air after a repeat of this word as an afterthought of it's original come forthance. "Ca-ca". Really the only complaint I had with casting versus comedy was the direction of Dennis Dun getting too silly near the end, which took away from the terror. His comedy didn't really fit, but didn't make me hate the film or anything, either.
When I first saw this movie back in 1988 on VHS I thought for sure that Carpenter was all done. I dismissed it as boring and tedious and not having many scares or action. Something about it stuck with me, though.
Decades later, I rediscovered it, and am very glad that I did. It may be JC's last truly John Carpenterish film. I know, I know, there is still "They Live". That's another story. That movie had a brilliant premise but a half assed execution.
"Prince of Darkness" has a 1/2 butted premise and a 1/2 butted execution but still comes off as semi brilliant to me. Brilliant and bad. It's more slick than They Live, it's more enjoyable to me. I am fond of it's meditative state throughout. It is shot very nicely and doesn't try to say too much. Well, I mean, it does try to say too much but it has no idea how to say enough so...for that I am thankful.
Prince of Darkness (1987)
Director: John Carpenter
Director: John Carpenter
A television transmission from the future haunts the dreams of science academics gathered together for a night at hell house in John Carpenter's 1987 horror film that is both brilliant and bad.
Seems as if writer Alan Quatermass (John Carpenter) had to get some metaphysical and religious monkeys off of his back and went ahead and got financing for this very tightly photographed, highly atmospheric, and subtly stylized dialog driven picture that is at once genuinely creepy and highly ambitious.
I don't believe in mumbo jumbo about the devil and armageddon. I feel as if evil is from the hearts and minds of man's imagination and only rules supreme if one is either consciously or unconsciously attracted to it's alleged allure. I am not. I am, however attracted to this film, as I find it very enjoyable from a relaxation standpoint. It moves at a snail's pace and keeps the music coming out of every celluloid pore for almost the entire run time.
I think of this as one big extended John Carpenter music video. Shot in Carpenter's usual anamorphic way, we get a very glassy surface and saturated colors all around the premises of this contained evil liquid. Yes, liquid. The devil is in liquid form, kept in a large glass vat, comprised of green and black pearlescent texture, ready to drip, spray and metamorphisize into anyone's mouth or eyes at any given moment to possess them as the devil himself, in the flesh. Scary stuff.
Not entirely...
But it can be creepy, if not horrifying. This director still had his chops before selling out to haphazard fare like Ghost of Mars. He kept the tension going with deliberate pacing, guttural music score, dimly lit outside locations at night, and interesting close-up work and camera tricks, not to mention some choice moments of disgust and sound design/foley that further punched his intentions through the screen into our psyche. I always watch films with headphones. I don't believe a film is worth watching without reference quality headphones. There's art in the mix if you don't have too much distance between it and your ears. "Prince of Darkness" seems to know this. Carpenter makes his films with as much care in visuals and atmosphere as he does his sound.
I cannot say that there is too many characters that I connect with because I do not believe that I connect with one single person in this movie. I will say that this does not seem to matter. The people in POD are merely here to get us from point A to point B. I did not mind the casting choices. In some strange way, everyone seemed appropriate, and there were even a few moments of high comedy relief, one involving the use of a word only a toddler might say, left to ring out in the air after a repeat of this word as an afterthought of it's original come forthance. "Ca-ca". Really the only complaint I had with casting versus comedy was the direction of Dennis Dun getting too silly near the end, which took away from the terror. His comedy didn't really fit, but didn't make me hate the film or anything, either.
When I first saw this movie back in 1988 on VHS I thought for sure that Carpenter was all done. I dismissed it as boring and tedious and not having many scares or action. Something about it stuck with me, though.
Decades later, I rediscovered it, and am very glad that I did. It may be JC's last truly John Carpenterish film. I know, I know, there is still "They Live". That's another story. That movie had a brilliant premise but a half assed execution.
"Prince of Darkness" has a 1/2 butted premise and a 1/2 butted execution but still comes off as semi brilliant to me. Brilliant and bad. It's more slick than They Live, it's more enjoyable to me. I am fond of it's meditative state throughout. It is shot very nicely and doesn't try to say too much. Well, I mean, it does try to say too much but it has no idea how to say enough so...for that I am thankful.