Prince of Darkness (1987)
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Prince of Darkness Movie Review
Prince of Darkness is a 1987 supernatural horror film directed by John Carpenter and starring Donald Pleasence and Victor Wong. It’s a middling Carpenter effort.
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“There could be a limit as to what he can do as a volume of liquid“
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While cleaning the basement in his church, Father Loomis comes across a canister filled with a volatile green substance. With help from Professor Birack, he realizes that the liquid is Satan’s spirit. This is a very 80s movie in its alien goo, priestly involvement and body possession elements. It was an attempt from Carpenter to do something different than slasher within the horror genre, but he unfortunately failed to imbue it with any truly great moments.
My main issue with this film is its lack of energy. It is so ridiculously slow paced that it was rather lifeless and tedious to me personally. The movie just never picked enough momentum, even in the third act, which did have a lot of action scenes, but those were overwhelming and not as entertaining as the film thought they were.
But an even bigger problem might be the lack of sophistication that is evident throughout. You would think that this will be a very smart, thought-provoking film about spirituality and its role in morality judging by that dialogue and exposition-heavy first act, but the rest of the film resorted to your standard characters getting possessed and attacking others genre trope that made the entire experience quite monotonous.
But there are some positive aspects worth mentioning here. One is the acting, which is strong across the board. Yes, the supporting players weren’t as interesting and the film’s romantic subplot was dull, but Donald Pleasence was very good in the role of Father Loomis. It was great that he played the same role form the ‘Halloween’ movies and he fitted this universe as well.
Another highlight is Victor Wong, who is particularly memorable throughout. Their dynamic was excellent. The film was also surprisingly diverse for its time with Asians, black and Latino people constituting the majority of the cast. There is even an implied gay character. However, most of these did not get meaty roles, which was unfortunate.
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Prince of Darkness perhaps can be viewed as a metaphor for the AIDS pandemic, but for whatever intriguing themes he included, it doesn’t matter as Carpenter still chose gory action as his primary focus above all else. The VFX are surprisingly effective and a lot of the imagery here is quite striking – the green liquid, the mirrorverse, the bodily transformations… But too much of the movie was devoted to vomiting and violence that made it rather frustrating to watch.
Prince of Darkness is a lesser Carpenter film. Yes, the VFX are surprisingly effective for the time and a lot of the movie’s imagery was quite striking. Donald Pleasence and Victor Wong were both well cast and quite good. However, all the other characters were underdeveloped and the story only hinted at some interesting themes without ever exploring them. Its gory third act was frustratingly monotonous and the movie’s slow pace robbed it of any momentum.
My Rating – 3
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