Rating: Summary: Excellent! Review: This is a very scary movie. Not as good as Halloween or The Fog, but it is a good one and shouldn't be missed. Sure it's a little hokey and cheezy in parts, but overall this is a pretty chilling movie that is seriously underated. This is one you must watch alone in the dark.
Rating: Summary: Prince of Darkness Review: Well Good old John Carpentar is back at with the horror classic Prince of Darkness. John has given the public a great classic horror film that brings the felling of the old time horror films of that time period, combine that with zombie's, bugs, a creppy score, and the devil himself, and you have got a good old fashioned horror film. But with the positives come the negatives, though the movie is good, it comes with alot of logic,science, and math,that some might find intresting, others might begin to snooze. Character wise he has enough 2-d characters that are killed off, or possessed, and enough real characters that we want to see what happens to them, overall the movie comes with an intersting plot about the devil and Jesus being from space, and the Prince of Darkness being trapped in a container, that is when a group of mathimaticans and scientists are brought in (the group are students who believe they are getting extra credit)to examine the container. As they do Homeless gather around the building surrounding them (Carpentar's favorite formula for a movie, to trap his characters)and the prince of Darkness escapes his confines and begins to take control of the students one by one, untill he reaches his real goal, to bring his father into our world. John Carpentars Prince of Darkness, if Horror movies continue on the path that there on then God Help us.
Rating: Summary: Why all the poor reviews? Review: This movie rox. No it's not as good as some of Carpenter's films, but it still rulez!
Rating: Summary: The resurrection of the Dark Price is at hand... Review: One of John Carpenter's under rated minor classics, Prince of Darkness suffered due to a relatively low budget, some underwhelming performances (although the late Donald Pleasance is, as usual, outstanding). What if the Devil had been captured and sealed in a cylindrical chamber. Science wants to understand the essence of evil without letting him escape. Unfortuantely, he's slipping out here and there to raise havoc. Carpenter has been working with smaller than normal budgets for his genre films for so long, I don't know what he'd make of a large budget film. Starman and The Thing are exceptions to the rule. While the latter did quite well, the former tanked at the box office. The modest returns on his unique, quirky genre films have kept him doing what he does best but with less than unimaginative directors. Perhaps that's all for the best. Some of his best films have been low or medium budgeted films. It allows Carpenter a freedom to do what he wants without much interference. Try and seek out his under rated but nicely done remake of Children of the Damned.
Rating: Summary: Glorious Nonsense Review: Emphatically a classic movie in spite of, and indeed to some extent because of, its preposterously silly storyline: Satan, it transpires, is alive and well and hidden in a big jar of slimy green stuff in an American church basement from whence he has, for some nor altogether clear reason decided to emerge. This is does, by taking over people's bodies, in the manner familiar from movies like "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers" and Carpenter's earlier "The Thing". But the movie recalls these rather less than it does Carpenter's "Assault on Precinct 13", in that it's a really classic siege movie where the issue is whether any of the increasingly hemmed in, embattled and depleted heroes will make it through the night. Said heroes are a bunch of not particularly heroic mainly science postgrad students under the uncertain leadership of Victor Wong's physics professor. The latter gets a trifle annoying with his thoroughly daft wordsurfing through half-baked soundbites taking in everything from quantum mechanics to Godel's Theorem. Happily, however, he realizes the folly of getting too close to any sort of paranormal phenomemon without taking a completely bonkers Catholic priest along and the principle reason why this is such a joy is that the latter role is one of Donald Pleasance's finest hours. This is vintage John Carpenter at his most exuberant, with his signature bass-heavy self-composed rock score and relentless pacing. The balance between a measure of real suspense and a tongue firmly lodged in cheek is accomplished far more surely than it was a decade later in Wes Craven's mildly amusing but increasingly tiresome "Scream" franchise.
Rating: Summary: What horror films should be... Review: John Carpenter sets an odd mood in most of his movies, but in Prince of Darkness, it really works well. You can get a plot synopsis above so I won't waste your time with that. The acting is decent (about standard for people cast in Carpenter's films) with dialogue that could use a serious overhaul (which is why I didn't give this 5 stars). It's the actual story and the mood that really set P.O.D. apart though and make this a must-view for horror fans everywhere.
Rating: Summary: Daddy? Review: A modest supernatural thriller about the second coming of Satan, it's not nearly as good as Carpenter's previous efforts such as "Halloween" or "The Fog" but it does have it's share of potential. Victor Wong is especially good as a physics professor, and he steals every scene he's in. On the downside, the dialogue gets ridiculous, and the lead actors are dull. Some interesting areas of the story that should have been properly explored are left to dangle while the main plot focus seems to be turning students into zombies. Keep your eyes peeled for an especially gross scene with Alice Cooper.
Rating: Summary: Great little known flick from Carpenter Review: John Carpenter crafted this undeniably weird marriage of horror and science that despite it's limitations is still a solid suspense horror thriller. A group of students (Dennis Dun, alumnus of Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China among them) along with their professor and a priest (Halloween favorite Donald Pleasence) are all trapped in a church where Satan (trapped in a container in the form of a green goo) is about to be set free. Plenty of thrills, chills, and the natural Carpenter spills follow, and the flow and feel of the film is reminiscent of Carpenter's earlier masterpiece Assault on Precinct 13. Prince of Darkness is a pure B-movie, no bones about it, but thanks to Carpenter's direction and some great performances from all involved (plus the great makeup and effects), the film works, and is just plain fun to watch. Look for Alice Cooper in a great cameo as a street schizo.
Rating: Summary: Creepy! Review: Listen to some of these people, Ignore the others. This is a creepy movie that never really quits. Unlike fun Carpenter movies (Escape from NY, They Live!) and even marginaly scary ones (Halloween, Fog)...PoD has a surreal, nightmarish quality. For me, the dream sequence interruptions really do it. Perhaps hard to figure the first time viewing, but a second or third view will scare the hell out of you! The ending leaves even more questions! Nice location use of a very barren and industrial area. I don't know if it was a real church, but if it was, that creepshow is going on in there right now!
Rating: Summary: John Carpenter's underated masterpiece Review: This is a great movie. Borderline horror. The end will be a surprise. Many Carpenter film alumni star in this tale of potential hell on earth that has to be stopped. This film is so underated. It will spook you out at times.
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