Review of "Prince of Darkness" (1987) DVD

"Pray for death."

"Prince of Darkness" is a far cry from John Carpenter's best. It's confusing, slow going, and, most of all, largely eventless. It's boring. It takes over an hour in set-up. I saw "Prince of Darkness" when I was younger and it really scared me. This is not the same movie. When a group of friends came over looking for a movie to watch, I recommended "Prince" and really hyped it up. Half-way through the flick I already knew I was in for it. Everyone hated it, and for good reasons.

Hear me out. The main complaint was the pacing and the dialogue. It really is a painfully slow movie and it's hard to hear characters sometimes. The cast was another source of complaint. Why cast Jameson Parker in the lead? This guy is absolutely wooden. He's a terrible lead actor. Was Kurt Russell not available for this one? Or was he playing it smart? The only players I really liked were Victor Wong and Donald Pleasence (who plays Father Loomis...hmmm). Pleasence is always great though, you could put the man in "The Devonsville Terror" and he'd still look good. The rest of cast is mediocre at best and I can live without them (Alice Cooper is creepy though). I really don't have a care in the world for them, live or die. I'm even disappointed in Dennis Dun, and I loved the guy in "Big Trouble in Little China."

I really couldn't believe that Carpenter made a bad movie. I had to watch it again before I made my decision. I also had to watch it again for all of this scientific jargon mumbo-jumbo: sub-atomic levels, differential equations, and Christian mythology. It's hard to put that stuff in a horror movie and make it work. It's too damn confusing, if it makes sense at all? What was Martin Quatermass (aka John Carpenter) thinking when he wrote the script? There's just too much to it; it's over-ambitious. Simpler is sometimes better and that is certainly the case in this flick.

Speaking of Quatermass, this film is one big homage to the Quatermass films. From the character names and Carpenter's pen name to the plot, even some of the dialogue has been lifted from "Quatermass and the Pit." It seems that's all that John was really interested in when he made this film was tipping his hat to something he loves. I've got no problem with that, I just wish the script was a bit more coherent.

The score is effectively eerie and I can't deny that. I also won't deny the effectiveness of the atmosphere. Carpenter has always had a knack for that. The climax is also good but not enough pay-off for the first hour. Also, I was not satisfied by the end, and that's something that I really hate. "Prince of Darkness" is the worst of Carpenter's apocalypse trilogy. It would have been a ton better if Carpenter would have just made it simpler and cut short some of the exposition. Maybe this film is an acquired taste, but I don't think I'll ever know.

Universal re-released a bare bones edition of this earlier this year. Why they did this, I'll never know. At least a director's commentary would have been nice to hear. But, no, we don't even get a trailer.