Prince of Darkness (1987)

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Victor Wong, 

Jameson Parker, Lisa Blount, Dennis Dun

Directed by: John Carpenter

Written by: John Carpenter

Duration: 1hr 42mins

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Prince of Darkness is a personal favourite that I've seen more times than I can recall.  And yet I’m actually reluctant to re-watch my most revered movies too often – I always want to recapture at least some of the joy of that first viewing, when I was utterly absorbed in the story and not mentally ticking off what happens next.

FOR SOME MEN, EVERY MONTH IS MOVEMBER

This is ‘familiarity fear’:  the fact that you love the film and know it back to front makes you want to watch it again, but at the same time you’re afraid to because you’re worried it’s too familiar, and that watching it whilst you still remember it so well will render the experience inferior.  I try to leave at least two years between viewings of flicks like this, but sometimes you inadvertently catch a bit on TV, which re-familiarises you with the film and pushes the process back.

SCIENCE VS RELIGION DONE BETTER 

THAN ANY DAN BROWN ADAPTATION

Sometimes the best solution to this phenomenon is to watch the film with someone who’s never seen it before.  Introducing one of your favourites to a new viewer lets you experience it through new eyes, and vicariously re-experience some of that first-time wonder.

So when I had the urge to watch Prince of Darkness again after a long gap, I did so with my girlfriend.  She has stated many times that she ‘doesn’t like scary movies’, but hey – I’ve sat through Kate Hudson romcoms with her, which is a horrific experience for me, and aren’t relationships supposed to be about compromise?

HAPPY EASTER!

Anyway, I put the film on and we’re confronted by the prerequisite eerie John Carpenter opening (featuring his best horror score, after Halloween).  My dearest gets into the atmosphere, as an elderly priest's death places an ancient key into Father Loomis's (Donald Pleasence) possession and he visits Victor Wong's physics professor for assistance.  But things go downhill swiftly when the hero of the piece, Jameson Parker, struts onto the university campus.  My first-time viewer is unconvinced of the protagonist's status as a grad student (Parker was 33 at the time) and, worse still, his full-on 80s moustache raises titters.  I'm fearing that my promise to expose her to what I dubbed ‘one of the scariest movies ever’ is going to be laughed off.

Parker and his fellow science majors are summoned by Pleasence and Wong to a cavernous church, where they’ll spend the weekend investigating a mysterious vat of green liquid that looms in the building’s previously locked basement.  Things are simmering away nicely, as the bafflingly convoluted backstory (the vat contains the devil’s son; Christ was really an alien; there’s been a church cover-up for centuries) mixes in with a religion vs science debate between the father and professor and the gradual build-up of unease brought on by the creepy vagrants who are gathering zombie-like in increasing hoards to stand around outside the church and stare at it. (‘Is that Alice Cooper?’, my beloved asks, rightly identifying the rock legend.)

I’m enjoying the movie, as is she, but it does seem rather tame, and a tad slow.  But things soon kick up a notch:  one character has a run in with the erstwhile dormant vat that leaves her demoniacally posessed; Cooper attacks a nerdy scientist in an alley; other members of the group start turning on each other; and (in my favourite moment) one bearded guy collapses into a pile of bugs, seconds after delivering the following in a demonic monotone: “I’ve got a message for you.  You’re not going to like it:  'Pray for death.'”

ELEMENTS OF A SCARY/WEIRD MOVIE: 

 A HUGE GREEN TEST TUBE CANISTER THING…

... THAT DRIPS UPWARDS...

… AND IS AN IMPROMPTU DRINKING FOUNTAIN…

... THAT TURNS RATIONAL SCIENTISTS 

INTO MURDEROUS DEVIL-WORSHIPPERS…

... AND CAUSES WORMS STICK TO WINDOWS...

 … AND COMPUTERS TO DISPLAY OMINOUS TEXT…

… AND PEOPLE TO TURN INTO COCKROACHES…

… AND ALICE COOPER TO STAB A COMPUTER 

TECHNICIAN TO DEATH WITH A BROKEN BICYCLE 

Throughout these happenings, I gradually notice a change in my viewing partner.  The quips about the dated fashions and hairdos die down, the giggles at the archaic computers stop, the shuffling and whines of ‘when is something going to happen?’ cease.  And what replaces all this is a prone figure, staring wide-eyed at the screen, blanket pulled up tight, totally involved; the only movements are winces at the gruesome bits and a quick duck under the covers to avoid the scariest parts.  And watching this, surpressing my smirk so as not to be mean, I remember how I felt the first time I watched it, more than fifteen years ago.

THIS IS A GREAT ENDING... TRUST ME

Because this is a scary movie.  There’s no use in having a slow build-up if there’s no climax, but boy does Prince of Darkness deliver in its third act.  Dawn approaches, and those who are still human hide out from their possessed colleagues as the shit really starts to make the fan's acquaintance, with the demon of the title deciding he wants break on through to our world, leading to a good vs evil face-off that notches the tension up to a near-unbearable level.  You want high stakes?  How about the end of the bloody world?  And it all comes to a head with the best Carpenter ending; better, even, than The Thing.  Phew!

Next time, I’ll put on The Shining.  Well, I’ll wait for her to recover from this one first…  ****1/2