All Hail The Prince of Darkness

I agree with everything you said in your post (except that escape from LA and Vampires suck, which I don't agree with).

Prince of Darkness is an amazing flick, a real Carpenter mood flick with great, scary pacing and disturbing moments and imagery. I loved the Simon and Simon guy in spite of that thing growing on his lip. Scary, disturbing, thought provoking, beautifully shot and designed flick. Love.

The Creature Corner <a href="http://www.creature-corner.com/reviews/princeofdarkdvd.php3" target="_blank">review</a> written by some limey cocksucker.

This was in carpenter's heyday period, when he could put out odd movies, get theatrical release, and annoy critics while delighting his fans.

A very good movie, but some of the aspects of the ending could have been a bit tighter in my opinion. But one of my favorites of Carpenter.

The guy collapsing into beetles is a good creepy scene, especially when they hear him calling from outside the window.

Egg Shen seemed a little out of place in it at first, but I think he fit nicely into the big picture.

Donald Pleasence was great, in all his raspy mumbly best, and movies like this really make me wish he was still alive.

All this, and Alice Cooper too!

I love POD. It's one of the creepiest movies ever made. The pace is very slow but remarkably effective. I love the dream transmissions, very, very disturbing..
And no, I won't talk about Alice this time.

I saw this for the first time a few weeks back and I loved it. I too am a great fan of early Carpenter, but I must wonder what exactly happened to him after that.

I also agree that the pacing is a bit slow, and I didn't really fully appreciate the movie until after the final credits rolled. The climax and finale are very intense.

And, as said before, that dream transmission was just genius. It takes real talent to make something scary that amounts to some fuzzy video footage...brrrr...

Good Carpenter flick.

The best part was that Jesus was an E.T. sent to our planet to warn of the evil contained in the canister. I watched it about three times at the theater in 1987 and it never occurred to me just how fucking weird the premise of the movie was. I was all into the gore and scares back then so I overlooked the wacky pseudo-scientific story. I still love it now but for different reasons and the homeless zombies still frighten me. I hate the DVD cover though. It makes it look like Alice is the Prince of Darkness. I prefer the green stretchy face. I was also disappointed that we didn't get the Carpenter commentary track that was on the R2 disc. I guess it's time I went region free.

I haven't seen this in years, but I remember digging it immensely. We need more "paranormal-investigators-try-to-figure-shit-out-and-get-viciously-slain-by-the-supernatural" flicks. It was once a thriving genre: Legend of Hell House , Poltergeist (or was it P2?), and of course the original Haunting.

In many of those, however, the investigators "figure it out" and use their science to defeat the supernatural. I want to write one where they "figure it out" and try to defeat the evil, only to find out their science does not apply--not just that they're wrong about the causes of the phenomenon, but that they're wrong about EVERYTHING.

I'm still working on it... wink

I was planning on doing a post about this classic, but guess I'll post here now.

This masterpiece is one of my top 5 favorite films of all time, and is Carpenter's best film in my opinion! I absolutely LOVE it! The entire cast does a superb job, and Carpenter's excellent score adds a lot to the mood and atmosphere. I think its his greatest score to date!

Donald Pleasance has always been a favorite of mine, and he was always at his very best in Carpenter films. He portrays the priest in this film wonderfully, and this is easily one of his best roles. Victor Wong is also outstanding as Professor Birack, and the rest of the cast, as stated above, all do magnificent jobs as well!

I love this film's truly intelligent and creepy as hell plot! This film is just so deep, and it makes the film all the more effective. I love all of the theoretical, scientific, and religous discussion in this film.

The film is also so very eerie! Those homeless suckers are freaky bastards, and the possessed demon bitch at the end is nasty with all that grotesque tissue. This film is easily one of the scariest films I've seen, and it is very underrated. The creepiest part for me is probably the part where Wyndham has come back and is saying hello in that very freaky voice and then he says the truly chilling "Pray for death." Extremely unnerving, and this film is just so fantastic. The dream projections from the future are also beyond eerie, and this film is frightening to the bone. I really can't praise this classic enough, and words cannot do justice how much I truly love it! One of the best horror films ever made by far!

I wouldn't worry about it - I bought the disk (despite already owning the R1 release) solely for said commentary, but was extremely disappointed upon hearing it because John Carpenter BARELY REMEMBERED MAKING THE DAMN FILM.

It's only Peter Jason's (who played Dr. Paul Leahy) slightly more relevant co-commentary, plus the general air of camaraderie between the two men that saves it from being a complete waste of time.

Obviously I don't blame Carpenter for not memorising every second of every film he's ever made ... but come on!

Regardless of that, infinite love for PoD. My personal scariest, most disturbing and most unfair horror movie ever.

"I've got a message for you ... and you're not going to like it..."

[quote]Ah, Alucard:
I think he filmed that around the same time he was doing massive amounts of coke. That could explain his memory loss.

The girl that translates the book gathers the entire group around and tells them about the father of Satan burying the canister. She then says that Jesus was of an extra-terrestrial ancestry of a human like race that was sent to warn us. I think the priest and the professor talk about why it was kept a secret for so long right after that scene. Strange story. Wasn’t there a TV version that kind of hinted that it was all just a dream that the Simon and Simon guy was having? I think I saw that version on Sci-Fi a few years ago.

I just got done watching this. I've seen it before, but this film never looses its impact. Between the deliberate pacing, the score and that ending... it's just such a creepy little film. It makes my top five Carp flicks without breaking a sweat.

I've never been able to figure out why this film is so dreadfully underated and underappreciated. Hopefully, now that the DVD is back in circulation this flick will get the attention it deserves.