← Back to Reviews
 

Prince of Darkness




Prince of Darkness, 1987

A physics professor named Birak (Victor Wong) is summoned to a church to help a priest (Donald Pleasence) handle a potentially world-ending threat that is hidden in the basement of the church. Birak brings with him a crew of graduate students in various specialties, including Catherine (Lisa Blount) and Brian (Jameson Parker), who are in the early stages of a romance. But as the mysterious container in the basement seems to grow in power, strange events occur around and in the church. Something wants very much to be turned loose . . .

I've never had much of a sense of a consensus on Prince of Darkness, feeling as if I've heard varying things about it, but neither very positive nor very negative. I imagined I'd end up kind of tepid on it, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. There were a few troublesome elements, but overall I had a good time with this film.

One positive is that despite the cast being large, they are all pretty likable and engaging. I really liked Lisa Blount (RIP and also Profit forever) as Catherine. She's kind of a quiet lead, and she has to share screen time with bigger personalities, but she ends up being a very solid anchor for the events, including being part of the incredibly memorable conclusion. But even actors with smaller parts, like Ann Yen playing Lisa or Jessie Lawrence Ferguson playing Calder make an impression. It's a sprawling group, and yet I found myself rooting for all of them.

The church is also a fun setting. At once big enough to feel imposing as characters run around it, yet the fact that it's surrounded by hostile people under the thrall of the container makes it an odd mix of a prison and a fortress.

Finally, yes, I liked the premise and the way that it tries to mash together science and religion. The whole notion of evil as a sort of
WARNING: spoilers below
anti-god
was enough to pass muster. While I didn't feel that any of the mythology was fleshed out in a way that totally made sense to me, it was enough that I liked it and got the gist. I particularly liked the idea of the Brotherhood
WARNING: spoilers below
broadcasting their messages into the dreams of the scientists
.

And while I won't get into it at all in this review, the last 10 minutes of this movie really landed well for me. I could see it disappointing or irritating someone else, but it worked. And some of the imagery is simply excellent.

I had mixed feelings on two elements of this one. The first was the use of the homeless characters as the agents of the evil. Did I look down at some point and miss an explanation for this? (Like were we to understand that somehow they'd gotten near the liquid?). I felt like it played up stereotypes of homeless people being crazy and violent and it made me very uncomfortable. I also disliked the frequency with which characters would disappear and others would go "I guess he just left." GUYS. Come on. Maybe one person, yes. But to just keep assuming that person after person is leaving (1) without saying goodbye to anyone and (2) with no one seeing them go? It added some silliness where there should not have been silliness.

On the whole, a good time.