Review of Prince of Darkness (1987) by Spangle — 04 Oct 2017

A master piece of midnight madness filmmaking, John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness is a film that strings you along with a plot that may not make all that much sense, but it simply does not matter. This is not a film watched for the plot, for the acting, or for the dialogue (seriously, if Satan arrives and one of his first actions is typing on a computer through some woman to say, "In fact, YOU WILL NOT BE SAVED", I will bust a gut laughing), but rather for John Carpenter's ability to entertain audiences. Truly scary, ominous, deeply unsettling, and a film that makes you leery to investigate what just creaked downstairs, Prince of Darkness is a film with one hell of an atmosphere. Blessed by Carpenter's fantastic score, an engaging premise, and truly terrific scares, Prince of Darkness is a film that will leave you reeling once it is finished.

As the second entry into John Carpenter's Apocalypse trilogy with The Thing and In the Mouth of Madness, it is seemingly fitting that Prince of Darkness concerns the return of Satan to the world. However, rather than a Biblical interpretation, Carpenter has a twist on the tale. Using matter and antimatter as the basis, the world in Prince of Darkness exists in the antimatter plane of existence, with Satan existing to bring darkness in the antimatter world rather than the lightness brought by God in the matter-side. Jesus came as an extraterrestrial to warn humanity of Satan's return, all while Satan was turned into a glowing green fluid by his father (who was sent to the dark side) and buried underneath an old church. Overseen by a secret group of priests, this green liquid starts to formulate with the death of the latest guardian revealing to a Priest (Donald Pleasance) that Satan is ready to return. Teaming up with physician Professor Howard Birack (Victor Wong) and students, the group must now fight back against this being by deciphering what it is, what it is capable of, and then having to wing it to fight back in the end. In other words, this film is absolutely insane.

Yet, it is this insanity that makes Prince of Darkness so appealing. Playing fast and loose with logic and timelines, the only bits that are important are that this pile of green liquid is super powerful, takes over people to do its bidding, and then will slowly possess the body of one of the people to fulfill its goal of bringing its father back through a mirror portal. This all sounds like something Carpenter dreamt up, yet it all somehow works. The corny acting, the cheesy plot, and the B-movie aesthetics, are what gives the film its charm and makes it such a blast to watch. While hardly a concrete reason to love a film, as one can easily enjoy a bad film, Prince of Darkness is one those films that has such an immersive and well-thought out world that any absurdity, silly turns, or insanity is forgiven. It creates a world that is so easily dove into and enjoyed that the audience goes along with this insanity and wants to jump right back in when the film ends. It is a cinematic experience like few others, creating a world so enticing, unique, and thrilling, that it feels like cinematic cocaine. One hit of Prince of Darkness and you are hooked, begging for the film to just give you a little bit more or to simply never end.

While the concept of this film is absurd on the surface, it is Carpenter who breathes life into this odd script and weird collection of events and characters. Delivering a slow build-up with the one-by-one elimination of the physicists, the realization of what is happening, and the slow return of Satan just in time for the finale. Carpenter's perfect pacing allows the film to unravel at just the right pace to keep the viewer on edge and jumpy. With the surrealist dreams as a great added touch on top of this, the ominous hints about what is to come only further serve the film's tension and fantastic atmosphere that leaves you hooked to see what is coming next.

As with all Carpenter films, one of the film's greatest assets is undoubtedly its score. With a great synthy, ominous, and greatly creepy score, in its back pocket, Prince of Darkness sets the tone early and often with Carpenter often relying on the score alone to add tension to seemingly innocuous events. Yet, it is not the type of score that becomes overbearing or a film that becomes too reliant on its score to scare. The events depicted do that well enough. However, the score amplifies these scares and the tension, creating a terrific atmosphere that keeps on edge and makes the scares that much more effective. The audio as a whole does the same with little bumps, creaks, and other noises giving the film a great edge and bite to it that keeps audiences guessing as to what that sound was or simply creeped out as to what we just heard coming from the other room or the other side of a wall. Sound is often Carpenter's strongest asset and Prince of Darkness exemplifies why that is often the case in his films.