Rating: 
Summary: Don't drink the holy water.
Review: Another John Carpenter film with the gracious talent of Donald Pleasence (both whom you may know from the "Halloween" film series).
Father Loomis (Donald Pleasence) shows Professor Birack (Victor Wong) a secret downstairs in the church. It is full of hallways, rooms and a chapel. Apparently, the Father who had this secret to himself, passed away. he only opened the steel door once a week. Father Loomis shows Birack what is in a chapel what looks like a whirling tornando in a large vaccuum cannister. Whatever is inside started only a month ago, the same time the new supernova was discovered. Brian Marsh (Jameson Parker) has also taken notice of this supernova. Brian, Catherine (Lisa Blount), Walter (Dennis Dun) and Kelly (Susan Blanchard) are all students of Professor Birack. They all must stay over the weekend in the church and investigate this evil.
Also in the cast: Ken Wright, Betty Ramey and Alice Cooper.
I like some of John Carpenter's films, but I must say this one is really stupid. it is so bad that John Carpentr used a pseudonym, "Martin Quartermass", in the writing credits.
The contorted face on the front of the VHS box is not a scene in the film, but you will see this actor.
Rating: 
Summary: Carpenter's best work . . .
Review: John Carpenter's made some great horror films, and 'Prince of Darkness' is my hands-down favorite Carpenter flick. First and foremost, the music does it for me every time. Sometimes Carpenter's score do miss their mark, but this time, the music is dead on perfect. Beyond this, the movie overall is wonderful. The opening title sequence (which does extend quite a bit into the film itself) does a great job of setting up the characters and the beginning of the drama at hand. Once the film picks up, it really doesn't let you go until the end, and even then, to the very last shot, the film reminds you that, for the briefest of moments, it had you. Oh, it had you. Alice Cooper makes his first theatrical film appearance with this film, but he appears briefly. Instead, the film centers mostly around Brian Marsh, a grad student brought in as part of a group of collegiate-types to investigate something dark and sinister in the basement of an old church. A lot of people I know pan his performance, but I felt Jameson (TV's "Simon & Simon") Parker's performance was solid and that look of confusion he wears throughout a bulk of the picture seems appropriate to the events unfolding around his character. Donald Pleasance's presence as a Catholic priest who bregrudgingly recruits the team of college students and professors, scientists and theorists, adds a sense of credibility to the threat involved, as well as the film itself. And Victor Wong - he's just fun to watch. I love this movie.
Rating:
Summary: John Carpenter's worst film.
Review: I'll give Carpenter his due. Carpenter over his career has been a better director than the overrated Wes Craven whose only had in my opinion 1 good movie which was A Nightmare On Elm Street. Carpenter has made some classics such as Assault on Precinct 13 and Halloween and he has also made some good movies like The Fog and The Thing and to a point They Live which was his last good film. But Carpenter also releases crap such as Prince Of Darkness, Ghosts Of Mars and the remake of Village Of The Damned. When Carpenter is off the mark, he is really off the mark and then his work is nearly unwatchable and Price Of Darkness is no exception. This is a real snoozer from beginning to end. Definitely not recommended even for Carpenter buffs.
Rating:
Summary: Excuse me..do you have Satan in a can?
Review: Since the other reviewers have spoiled the plotline (roughly), I will limit my review of this movie to a brief synopsis and try to keep the criticisms on a creative level. Plot Synopsis: There is an unknown entity contained within a unusual container that has been secretly kept by a Catholic Brotherhood of Monks for several centuries. Understanding that the entity is about to break out of the container, the church is forced to call in a team of physicists to study the container and said entity. The first hour of the movie blows your mind! Using scientific method to study the container is a a stroke of genius. The viewer is kept on edge as several facts are uncovered through analytic methods such as carbon dating. The plot thickens as the container proves to be of "alien" origin and it's contents produce quantifiable amounts of energy. Furthermore, the researchers even determine that tachyon-based radio transmissions from the future are infuencing thier dreams (don't ask). All that leads to viewer to the point where you're thinking "damn, this is way cool!". Religious artifacts meet modern science, Very deep and very original. Something like the carbon dating of the shroud of turin maybe. However... then...then...the movie becomes just another splatterhouse bloodfest. Cliches taken straight out of the Exorcist (ie: pentagrams, demonic possession, 666's, etc.) displace the original "scientific approach" to the problem. People are maimed, massive blood is spilled and all the scientific equipment becomes haywire. Everybody dies and the science vs. the Devil is thoughrougly discarded along with the effect of the first hour of the movie. (Stephen King did the same thing in Rose Red and it disgusts me!) I have to give the movie only one star for my conviction that John Carpenter took the easy way out and anyone can do that. It was very uncreative of him to do this and it spoiled the movie utterly. It's insulting to anyone with an IQ over 60! Damnit, if I want to see people get thier heads lopped off, I'll go and get Friday the 13th or Nighmare on Elm Street. Why..oh Why this elaborate scientific setup if you're going to turn it into just another slasher movie? Creative criticism: I understand that this movie was not Ghostbusters. But, oh, would I have loved to seen all that scientific analyisis of that container save the day. Let's see a movie for a change where science meets the Devil and wins! Or at least puts up a good fight.
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