Prince of Darkness
Prince of Darkness
R | 23 October 1987 (USA)
Prince of Darkness Trailers

A group of graduate students and scientists uncover an ancient canister in an abandoned church, but when they open it, they inadvertently unleash a strange liquid and an evil force on all of humanity.

Reviews
Harockerce What a beautiful movie!
Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.
Aryana Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
hrkepler 'Prince of Darkness' is not master of horror John Carpenter's best film and it is weakest in his so called "Apocalypse Trilogy", but Carpenter is such director whose more mediocre work surpasses other genre director's film by miles. In 'Prince of Darkness' Carpenter again manages to perfectly create creepy and claustrophobic atmosphere (although might not as good as in 'The Thing') and the horror doesn't need to rely on jump scares and fancy special effects. Only Carpenter can build up such a slow an intense waiting of the doom.After some flops at the box office John Carpenter had fallen into discountenance by the mayor studios 'Prince of Darkness' was again independent film with modest budget. The low budged doesn't take anything away from the movie, on the contrary it doesn't show like a low budget film (I guess it's Carpenter's experiences working on shoestring budgets). The build up is little slow, and the action parts are little corny some times (without right amount of cheese it wouldn't be Carpenter's film), but the dialogue is magnificently written and characters (except some expendables) are rather intelligent and avoiding too much horror movie clichés. Again, Carpenter manages to create an eerie synthesizer soundtrack, that is pleasure to listen, but is not recommended to listen on your ipod while walking on dark streets.'Prince of Darkness' is above average atmospheric and intelligent horror film that uses many interesting ideas and avoids to slump into horror film clichés. It should please hard core horror fans, and is must see for John Carpenter fans.
Panos242 Prince of Darkness does not belong among Carpenter's best movies. The main problem lies to the screenplay which is rambling and has a pretentious seriousness, not convincing at all. Even so, Prince of Darkness rewards the viewers since direction and cinematography are almost perfect offering some genuine shocks without being cheap. The atmosphere is convincingly claustrophobic and disturbing, Carpenter is the master of that. The music score, without being the best produced by Carpenter, is creepy and effective. 7/10
Filipe Neto This is yet another biblically-based horror film that tackles the end of the world. In this case, it focuses on a small abandoned church where a mysterious brotherhood kept a large hermetically sealed cylinder containing a viscous substance. The movie never tells us what that thing is, nor how it was stuck there, nor does it explain why it came out of the cocoon (one of the biggest problems in the script). But the truth is that it looks like a milkshake of wickedness, evil concentrated. And in it lies the secret to awaken the Prince of Darkness. The movie may seem strange and very unbelievable because of these elements, but the truth is that it works very well as a horror movie. John Carpenter is a master at creating suspense and scare the audience, and he achieves one more success in this film, probably one of the least known of his consecrated career. Donald Pleasence is the most obvious name of the cast, in the role of an unusual Catholic priest. The cast, on the whole, fairly complied with what was demanded of it. The special effects are good but the characterization and the wardrobe deserve special applause because they stand out, particularly as the film draws to an end.
Leofwine_draca One of Carpenter's lesser known horror films, but also one of his best. Well, I liked it, but opinion is usually divided. Some love it, some hate it, I'm in the first half. PRINCE OF DARKNESS tells the story of Satan's return to Earth, and mixes religion with science in a brilliant way. As per usual in a Carpenter film, we get a varied group of characters who are likable and easy to identify with.Donald Pleasence heads the cast as a priest, and actually gets to battle Satan at the end. Just what I love to see. The other cast all do fine jobs, especially the Asian guy who I really felt for. The concept of Satan's return in a modern world is handled very well, and makes for a really riveting film. Unlike THE THING, Carpenter keeps the special effects to a minimum in the film, but the final scene is very good (I won't spoil it for you, but it involves Donald Pleasence and an axe, so it can't really fail).There are a couple of stupid things in the film, like some dated makeup, but it doesn't really detract from the story. The only flaw I could see was the fact that the final battle between good and evil wasn't handled too well, but instead became survivors vs. the monsters, which we have seen oh so many times. The way in which the possessed people can't be killed is very effective, bringing back memories of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.I liked the way one of the dead people, a black guy, kept on giggling all the time. Actually it reminded me of Dwight Frye as Renfield, from Universal's Dracula. The massing of insects on windows also favourably reminded me of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR. Out of interest, '80s rock star Alice Cooper, who performed some of the soundtrack, also appears in the film as a tramp. Sadly he doesn't get killed. If you enjoy this film, Hammer's QUATERMASS AND THE PIT is a little similar in theme (and I find it a far-fetched coincidence that the writer here is created as Michael Quatermass). Well worth a watch.