PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1987)



PRINCE OF DARKNESS video artwork


DONALD PLEASENCE.....Priest
JAMESON PARKER.....Brian Marsh
VICTOR WONG.....Professor Howard Birack
LISA BLOUNT.....Catherine Danforth
SUSAN BLANCHARD.....Kelly
ALICE COOPER.....Street Schizo

Directed by JOHN CARPENTER
Written by MARTIN QUATERMASS (aka: John Carpenter)
Produced by LARRY J. FRANCO


REVIEW BY VINCENT CANBY


"How," someone asks in John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, "did the Vatican manage to keep this secret for 2,000 years?"

"This secret" is the revelation that Satan is not an abstraction, a convenlent concept of evil, but a presence living in what looks to be a clear-plastic dispenser of aerated, lime-flavored Kool-Aid, found in the basement chapel of an abandoned Los Angeles church.

After waiting around for eons, he has decided to come out of the drink-dispenser and take charge of his realm. Doing battle with him are a Roman Catholic priest (Donald Pleasence) and a professor of advanced physics (Victor Wong), both windbags who could easily bore Satan into submission, along with some of the professor's young graduate students.

For two days and nights, it's nip and tuck. One by one, the graduate students are spritzed by the evil liquid and are turned into Satan's zombies, stalking the halls of the old church like pod people from Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Poor, pretty Kelly (Susan Blanchard) becomes the host-incubator for the Prince, losing, among other things, her perfect complexion.

Prince of Darkness, which opens today at the Movieland and other theaters, is a surprisingly cheesy horror film to come from Mr. Carpenter (Halloween, Escape From New York, among others), a director whose work is usually far more efficient and inventive. Martin Quartermass, whose first screenplay this is, overloads the dialogue with scientific references and is stingy with the surprises. You may well suspect things are not going to go well when the movie spends its first 15 minutes intercutting between the opening credits and scenes introducing the characters.

None of the performances are super, though Alice Cooper, the one-time rock star, makes an arresting cameo appearance as a mean-spirited zombie who stands outside the church, intimidating anyone who looks through the window.



Review © 1987 THE NEW YORK TIMES. All Rights Reserved.

Video artwork © 1988 MCA HOME VIDEO. All Rights Reserved.

Title and logo designed by Karen Rappaport




[ FILM | PRINCE OF DARKNESS | HOME ]