First up anyone that knows this blog (or me) knows I love John Carpenter movies, I also love dark religious based horror. This makes Prince of Darkness virtually a perfect fit for me. It’s also one of the last John Carpenter films I have to see. Even though I haven’t reviewed them here I like all his sci-fi based stuff too.
Prince of Darkness would have to be one of John Carpenters lesser known films. The plot revolves around a Clergy Man played by Donald Pleasance (Loomis from Halloween) who discovers an alarming disturbance. Something to do with the “brotherhood of sleep” which he’d read in a diary left behind by a passing clergyman. He contacts his friend Victor who also has a sense of unrest. Victor is a teacher of Theoretical Physics and shares the priest’s concerns though of course coming from a much different theological background and assembles his top students to help look into it.
This is where the film gets harder to explain. I am far from a scientist but I’ll try to explain it in the way there’s some sort of matter / anti-matter disturbance. It could also be the start of the coming of the anti-god. Victor does not explain this to the students up front as obviously they won’t believe it, but as they get deeper into their own investigations they start to get the feeling something is horrendously wrong.
Victor assembles his brightest students to come together to take a look at what is going on. He leads them down to an underground temple and they see something bizzare. There is a kind of matter chamber in the church which looks indeed like it could be a portal for the Anti-God to come through this world. Can our scientists stop it before it makes its way through to this world?
I enjoyed this film immesnsely. The usual standard of John Carpenter brilliance is present with some very nice touches. One of them being a guest appearance by Alice Cooper. There is some level of gore but this is more about the tension, that builds and mystery it contains. This is a harder film to find in a retail sense but if you do see it somewhere, make sure you buy it! You won’t regret it.
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