Not surprisingly this film tanked at the box office when released way back in 1987. It's script, a heady mix of quantum physics, religious doctrine, and questions about the origins of Christ and Satan, challenges everything viewers think they know about God, the Devil, and Man. But true horror film fans will appreciate it's intelligent script about Satan's return to earth and his attempts to bring along something even worse than him.

What could possibly be worse than Satan? Buy the movie and find out. You won't be dissappointed.

At its core, "Prince" is an old-fashioned horror film. A group of people, in this case, college grad students, their professor, and an emotionally shattered priest, are trapped in an old spooky place(a church) with something horrible. But the script's deft mix of science and secret scripture lifts it above cliche. Carpenter's skillfull direction creates a sense of claustrophobic tension that makes you feel as if you're in the movie.

There are few directors who can create this sense of menace even in daylight scenes but Carpenter pulls it off. The film's first scene establishes a sense of escalating dread that spirals into full blown terror by the movie's final moments.

You'll also be thinking about the film's bone-chilling last scene long after you've hit the rewind button.

Consider "Prince of Darkness" as a fine Carpenterian wine (a merlot, of course---a deep *red* merlot), well aged---after all, 1987 was a good year, and this film is a fine vintage. The bouquet? Rich and heady, a fine distillation of "Assault on Precinct 13" and "The Thing." With that in mind, let's pop the cork on "Prince of Darkness".

When the last, venerable priest of an ancient and mysterious Catholic order dies, Father Loomis (played with aplomb by the great Donald Pleasence---possibly playing the brother of Mike Myer's shrink?), sent to gather the priest's effects and secure his crumbling parish church, discovers something green, liquid and nasty bottled up in the church basement, and it's not detergent.

Father Loomis calls in a team of physics students and linguistic researchers, who begin to suspect something Evil is afoot in the church basement, and It has plans of its own. Let the Smackdown commence!

In this corner: A team of physics grad students led by Parker Jameson (A.J. Simon from the TV series "Simon and Simon, of course!) and veteran character actor Victor Wong (from Carpenter's other camp classic "Big Trouble in Little China", here hamming it up and chewing scenery with furious abandon and with the help of a spooky eye), and of course with Pleasence bringing in the ecclesiastical heavy weapons.

AND in this Corner: Evil, incarnate as puke-green liquid encased in a translucent cylinder in the base of a decrepit L.A. church, and its zombified homeless minions, who are in turn led by Alice Cooper with extra ghoul make-up. Welcome to my nightmare, indeed!

As silly as all of it might sound, Carpenter has made a nasty, atmospheric, stylish and grippingly effective little horror movie, one that still disturbs me when I watch it---this is not a movie for the fainthearted. But more to the point, it's loads of fun; just look what you get---

*The Ultimate Evil---in a Can! It spews, it congeals, it defies gravity, and it infects its victims and makes them behave badly, right down to belching and personal remarks. This is nasty stuff, folks!

*Donald Pleasence, Jameson Parker, AND Victor Wong in the same movie---and all over-acting (which in itself should bring about the end of the world)!

*Some of the most merciless, nasty kills this side of "The Thing"---including death by cockroach swarm and my personal favorite, death by Bicycle (chain that thing, son)!
*Zombified homeless people, including a creepy-crawly Alice Cooper and a nice turn by veteran character actor Joanna Merlin (what's...that....in her alms cup?)!

*A trademark extra-creepy crawly Soundtrack composed by John Carpenter!

*Sexy physics grad-student pick-up lines and a happening romance between Parker and heroine Lisa Blount!

If I'm making this sound more campy than horrifying, then I don't mean to, because "Prince of Darkness" is Carpenter at his very best: sure some of the acting is a little raw (but remember: if you can afford lots of b-movie actors, you get more gory kills!), but the editing, sleek cinematography (by first-timer Gary Kibbe, who went on to become a regular Carpenter crew-member), and sleazy set design come together to underscore the film's subtext of Evil as dry-rot.

This is a brutal, relentlessly gory, and completely merciless little horror movie that doesn't pull any punches, and it does a fine job of painting its bleak, genuinely malignant atmosphere. There are some truly nasty touches here that will stay with you long after the credits roll: for instance, the 'radio broadcasts' (from another dimension? from the future?) gave me the crawls. If you like your Ultimate Evil with a side-order of nuclear physics, then "Prince of Darkness" is certain not to disappoint.

Deep within the sanctuary of a run down church lies a dirty little secret few know about. The Prince of Darkness, son of the devil himself, is being held captive in liquid form, and is guarded by only a few lucky priests and nuns. However, the time has come for the Prince to awaken and bring forth his father to wreak havoc. As the Prince, and thus his father, gains his strength, many of the more weak-minded are turned to do the biding of the dark lord. The zombie and bug counts rise as the plot thickens, and this group of science professors and students are in a race against time to stop the forces of evil from inflicting their ill will on the unsuspecting public.

Unfortunately, this film tends to be hidden in the shadows behind Carpenter's more famous "Halloween" and "The Thing." However, that does make this film all that much more of a gem. This is truly one of his great cinematic accomplishments, complete with his own score, a great cast, and stellar effects for the time. The characters are fairly well developed, yet Carpenter manages to accomplish this without dwelling on this aspect of the film. Instead, he submerges the viewer into the intrigue and story line, which there is plenty of.

The plot is completely original, which is something hard to come by in this particular genre. Though Carpenter enlists certain elements that may be stereotypical, such as the Romero-esque zombies and the notion of all-encompassing evil attempting to over-take good, Carpenter adds his own unique twists. One thing that's absolutely superb with regards to this film is that it never devolves into a gore or suspense filled vacuum, completely devoid of meaning. Hidden within the blatant horror facets are religious undertones as well as a love story. Though it may seem that this would not work well for a film of this genre, Carpenter pulls it off as only a horror master could. Interspersed throughout the film one can also find excellently cheesy comic relief, mostly in the form of poor jokes presented by Walter (Dennis Dun).

All in all this movie happens to be one of my favorite films, by one of my favorite directors. Thought the DVD is completely bereft of extras, I highly recommend this film to any fan of the genre!