Review of Prince of Darkness (1987) by David P — 09 Jan 2011

One of John Carpenter's oddest and most thought-provoking horror offerings, featuring a team of Theoretical Physics students researching a malevolent presence discovered in an archaic cylinder housed in the basement of a decrepit and abandoned church.

As they creep closer to discovering the entity's identity with the aid of a priest (The ever-twitchy Donald Pleasence-), several of them become possessed by the evil intelligence, while others are murdered outright in some pretty offbeat and unsettling ways (Impalement by bicycle frame being the most memorable-).

The flick's fist third is talky, meandering, and slow-moving, crammed with endless passages of psycho-babble and abstract and overwrought scientific theory--- it almost collapses under the weight of its own sense of self-importance, and at times loses its narrative flow and doesn't quite make sense; but once it picks up its pace, it becomes a very frightening and disturbing experience, with enough disarmingly-creepy set-pieces, nasty deaths , and phunky green gook a-drippin' to please even the most unforgiving horror film fan.

The acting, for the most part is acceptable, however, Jameson Parker (From TV's "Simon and Simon") delivers a wooden, non-emotive perf, and makes for a lacklustre lead. Look for a pasty-faced Alice Cooper in a small role as a possessed street derelict.