Asked to investigate a giant canister of bright green fluid found in the basement of an abandoned church, a group of quantum physics students begins to suspect that the liquid may have diabolical origins in this John Carpenter horror movie. 'Prince of Darkness' is a fairly ambitious project as Carpenter attempts to mesh scientific reasoning (the Devil is referred to as some sort of anti-matter) and theology, however, the two realms of knowledge do not exactly go well hand-in-hand and much of the dialogue comes off as babble. The film has some great moments though when the characters stop talking and simply react to the bizarre things that begin to happen around them as they research and prod further into matters. In particular, the homeless folk outside begin behaving very strangely (could they be possessed?), led by Alice Cooper in a creepy performance. There is also something very Cronenberg-like to the way the liquid infects its first victim, who then transmits it to others in highly sexual ways; one of the infection sequences almost looks like it is about to turn into a lesbian love scene! The makeup special effects are quite creepy too and the film boasts a characteristically sinister, throbbing score cowritten by Carpenter himself. The film is very lacking in the character department, a humorous Dennis Dun aside, and as mentioned, the whole religion/science fusion does not really gel, but there is enough of interest here in between the chitchat. The film ends on a delightful note of uncertainty too.
Review of Prince of Darkness
