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Prince of Darkness

Prince of Darkness

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Carpenter's B-Movie Best!
Review: PRINCE OF DARKNESS is guaranteed to deliver exactly what any fan of horror films, especially those dealing with the good old devil, wants.

First, there's the premise that turns modern theology on its head: In the heart of Los Angeles sits a church built on top of a series of catacombs centuries old which contain a cylinder full of Satan. Discovered by Pleasance's priest and studied by a group of university physicists, it is revealed that this Satan is extraterrestial by nature, an antimatter to God's matter, and that this has been hidden for centuries by the church who developed the Biblical interpretation of Satan to protect their secret (whew!).

Second, there are a multitude of freaky images and "jump out of your seat" scares. If you're set on edge by insects, this is the film for you. Seems that Satan brings with him lots of beetles, maggots, worms, and ants. Many scenes are reminiscent of Carpenter's earlier films, especially the seemingly possessed homeless crowd that surrounds the church a la ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13.

Last, but not least, there's the lovely cast, largely made up of half-talented no-names (perfect for this type of film), but featuring some Carpenter regulars from BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA and, of course, Donald Pleasance, who gives a marvelous, Loomis-like performance complete with the melodramatic exasperated whisper, "They can't see evil is all around them!" and other such lines.

PRINCE OF DARKNESS is great fun, with the quality you expect from Carpenter's best and plenty of scares for your money with an intelligent story thrown in to boot.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Low Budget Fun
Review: John Carpenter was on somewhat of a roll when he helmed Prince of Darkness. He achieved cult status with the Cynical "Escape From New York", the Groundbreaking "Halloween", the Campy "Big Trouble in Little China" and the Gory "The Thing".

Here he tries his luck with Satan himself, creating a facinating world with the mysterious cannister, the Brotherhood of Sleep, a Supernova signalling the End of Man as well a book written by the son of Lucifer himself. While his vision is good, unfortunately the budget cannot keep up. The minions of evil are relegated to Bums and Homeless people, which makes Satan look a little wimpy. Also the story about the future broadcast, while creating some atmospheric suspense, is not integrated well into the plot.

Still the movie is a worthy effort, while not as good as previous efforts (try "The Fog", an excellent movie) it is good. I guess the best recommendation I can make for it is that I liked it enough to buy it for my own collection (DVD of course).

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: More to This Than Horror
Review: The premise of this grotesque and fascinating film is matched only by the arguable ending. In 1999, Satan emerges from an abandoned building and apparently decimates the world. Unable to stop him, scientists try to prevent his advent by sending a warning via tachyon transmissions to a group of scientists conducting an experiment in the building in 1987. The scientists, who may be responsible for releasing Satan, are also the only chance of preventing his coming. If you don't know, a tachyon is a theoretical particle that's supposed to travel faster than light, and therefore, able to travel backward in time. Is Satan thwarted? After seeing the end, it's something you may be debating with your friends for some time.

On display here are gross-out effects not seen since Carpenter's The Thing. Though not as effective as that film, the scientific possibilities explored by Prince of Darkness rank it with some of the science fiction greats for sheer concept.

The DVD transfer is of good quality, but there are no extra features and it comes in a reprehensible paper snap case, so you will have to treat it like a museum piece if you want to keep it intact.

For Carpenter fans, and all fans of speculative film, this is one you'll want to watch more than once.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Actually-pretty scary stuff.
Review: First let say that i am delighted to see so many other positive reviews by just everyday movie watchers as myself.The critics just seem to love to tear up horror films and they didn't make any acceptions with this one.I am happy to say that i disagree with them-AGAIN!.The cinematography is great ,the mood music is really creepy and the acting is pretty good also.The director made an honest attempt to make you sympathize with the characters and really begin to root for them during the movie. I found myself even liking the characters that were suppose to be the doubting thomases of the group.The special effects are great and of course there is plenty of gore to go around.I love the strong female leads that carried the story along and felt that it kind of helped playdown the characteristic role of the weaker sex shown in other movies where the hero always had to come to her rescue and of course having her faint dead away into his arms-very romantic but not very realistic.I really liked this movie and would have given it five stars but had to subtract one for kind of a weak story line.Other than that i highly recommend this as another excellant piece of work by John Carpenter.Remember to keep those lights on while watching this one!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I agree with everyone else...
Review: Yep, all the other customer reviews are getting it right. John Carpenter tries to combine quantum physics with horror and good special effects, and it almost works perfectly. The horror is truly horrible (a Carpenter trademark), and even though the movie drops the ball scientifically about halfway through, you don't care a whole lot because you're too creeped out. The last 20 minutes is Carpenter horror at its best. If you're bored to death with Halloween, you're ready for this one.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Prince of Darkness
Review: This movie was fabulous for anyone who loves "true horror". It combines the right mixture of science and religion, when a group of physics students get trapped in an old church with this ancient cylinder containing demonic DNA. It's fabulous!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantastic!!!
Review: One of the better horror movies I have seen combining religion, horror, and a group of truely ignorant characters that fall into a plot of evil more twisted than one can imagine. Truely graphic in parts, this is not for the faint of heart. My wife fears watching it again, for the high pitched laugh of one of the "zombies" was enough to send chills down her spine to this day. Once again.... fantiasic movie!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: No place to hide
Review: There's no place to hide. That's the feeling you get, when viewing the movie and in the warm sunshine outside afterwards. This is, as is often the case with JC movies, a story that's transcending any genre. And in addition to being a terrific play, it's questioning every notion we have about the world and ourselves. Carpenter, at his best, is one of the greatest movie makers around.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Creepy...
Review: Creepy, creepy, creepy,....did I mention creepy. One of Mr. Carpenters best. I fine job of uniting the unlikely components of religion and quantum mechanics. Few horror movies give me the willies, but this one did,

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the BEST Horror Satan/Devil movies of ALL time....
Review: This movie is a MUST SEE for all Horror Movie Guru's.... The basic premise of the flick is that, after Millenium's of time.... A secret vault where Satan/The Devil was placed and held.... Starts to corrode and leak.... resulting in this Demonic Fluid being released.... The story will make the hair on the back of your head.... Stand on end.... WATCH THIS FLICK... You will not be dissapointed.....

John Carpenter is the Man!!!


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