Prince of Darkness (1987)

[Trevor]

I saw this for the first time since 1988 - that is because the South African censors banned the thing outright - and I am glad to say that it holds up. Certainly one of John Carpenter's best films IMO and still creepy as hell, even though it is wildly far-fetched.

No one wants to wake up to this:  

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrH_J5v6VEM[/url]

[retrorussell]

Wow, I thought this was awful.  Great cast though.  Except for the Asian guy from BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA; he was really annoying.

[Ted C]

I thought this was a good one in the suspense department.

[The Burgomaster]

I loved this the first time I saw it.  However, my opinion of it dropped quite a bit after I saw it a couple more times.

[Neville]

I really like this one. For a while it even was on my list of favorite John Carpenter's films, because I had watched his earlier stuff a thousand times.

Now I would admit it has its faults, but it's still a creepy little film. Plus you have to the plot some points for originality.

[claws]

Just like with most Carpenter films (except Ghosts of Mars), it got better with age.
I saw Prince of Darkness at the theater as a young one together with my mother on a hot summer's day in 1988. Great memories.

[Trevor]

Wow, I thought this was awful.  Great cast though.  Except for the Asian guy from BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA; he was really annoying.

Dennis Dun. I thought he had a pine cone up his bum all the time: he was really annoying or maybe he was doing his Michael Cimino routine, learned from when he acted in Year of The Dragon.  

[RCMerchant]

The whole premise is kinda silly-Satan in a lava lamp. But it does have Alice Cooper! I like silly sometimes.

[Mofo Rising]

This is my favorite John Carpenter film. It's not because of the structure of the film itself, it's a fairly standard horror film. It also has a humorous minority character. Blech.

Or maybe it is the structure. When it came out in 1987, a communal dream coming from the year 1999 trying to fend off the apocalypse was very clever. There's a reason DJ Shadow sampled it for his brilliant Endtroducing.

No, what I love about this film is its philosophical underpinning.

If you've studied quantum physics, you get to some very weird points. Take the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, you simply can't know reality as well as you'd like, there are limitations. Not my fault, that's just the way it is. There's a reason all the characters are physicists.

Now what you've got is a deep doubt as to the nature of reality. This directly confounds the nature of Faith, with a capital F.

Now, as a person, I'm not religious at all. But if Religion exists, and it's built directly on Faith, the movie presents an horrible attack on Faith. It's where Satan literally lays his claim on uncertainty. This is where he will quite literally step in and f**k everything up for everybody.

If there is doubt on the nature of reality, that is where Satan will step in and lay his claim.

I will say, I don't believe any of this, but what a great idea for a movie. This is a very layered and smart movie. I loved it. And how creepy is "I've got a message for you. Pray for death."

[Trevor]

And how creepy is "I've got a message for you. Pray for death."

I believe Mr Wyndham has since recovered from the beetlephobia and is now a successful visual fx artist.