Prince of Darkness (1987) - Evil Not Void If Seal Is Broken

Hello and welcome back. You may have noticed the previously mandatory blood tests are no longer in effect. That's because The Week of Things ™ has come to an end, and in this final week, we resume our journey through the Apocalypse Trilogy proper.

The good news, now that we're done in the world of Outpost 31 (and some offshoots), things are going to start getting a bit warmer. The bad news, isolation is still on the menu, this time in the form of the abandoned church that houses Carpenter's Prince of Darkness.

Of the three movies in the trilogy, this could arguably be considered something of the black sheep nowadays. Not as a statement of its quality as much as the fact that, compared to The Thing's modern classic status and the recent resurgence over the past decade for In the Mouth of Madness, Prince of Darkness is more at the level of a cult favorite – still generally well regarded by Carpenter fans, but not quite as well known as the other two in general.

Which isn't entirely hard to understand – of the three, all of which are pretty bold on the concept front, this is the movie that is arguably the most ambitious with what it's trying to do, presenting a story taking place in a curious nexus of science fiction and the occult.

Case in point - this movie's version of Satan.

Those crossroads make an interesting playground for Carpenter to work in – starting from the already promising horror hook of a secretive religious order known as the Brotherhood of Sleep tasked with keeping Satan imprisoned under lock and key. From that jumping off point, the movie expands to include the idea of evil as a great cosmic force, messages that travel across time as dreams, and a small team of university students trapped in a building poised to become ground zero for the ultimate evil being unleashed upon the world.

Speaking of that ground zero, one aspect of this movie I find myself appreciating this time around that I never fully considered before – the earlier mentioned isolation. Despite the church much of this movie takes place in being in the middle of an urban area, Carpenter still finds a way to create a situation of isolation from the world at large – without nature at play, the ill-fated team find themselves much more literally trapped, as the building falls under siege by an army of derelicts acting under the influence of the evil within. After the first act, those who venture out are few, and those who make it back in alive, even fewer. Paired with the growing influence of Satan inside, the growing sense of claustrophobia within the movie becomes an effective strength.

I don't care what the internet says - Todd Phillips's Pee-Wee's Big Adventure was a mistake.

As those trapped within are concerned, the movie's cast are an interesting spread. They don't hit the same highs as the earlier The Thing, but there is still some good interplay between them. As a nice bonus, there are also several John Carpenter regulars among the players. Of these Donald Pleasance makes a welcome familiar face as an unnamed priest in a theological tailspin after discovering the secrets of the Brotherhood have completely upended everything he's believed of good and evil. Besides Pleasance, other returning faces include Victor Wong and Dennis Dun, both fresh off Big Trouble in Little China and getting a chance to each try a different sort of role, the former trading mysticism for science, the latter making for a fairly entertaining comic relief character.

Of the new faces to this cast, two in particular stand out in supporting roles. The first of these bring rock star Alice Cooper in a nonspeaking role among the army of derelicts. Doubtless, the fact it's Cooper is likely part of why he is one of two derelicts to be given significant screentime, but even with that acknowledged, he brings a malevolent presence that helps the part stand out. The other being Jessie Lawrence Ferguson, whose transformation from one of the more levelheaded, good-natured members of the team to a leering, giggling agent of evil is an especially effective dash of creepiness in the movie's final acts.

 

Seriously - the other possessed don't get as much chance to stand
out, but Ferguson not only stands out, he is genuinely unsettling
when he turns.

Said creepiness, admittedly, comes in stops and starts compared to the earlier efforts of The Thing. There's a sense of dread, to be certain, but it doesn't have the same level of paranoia to benefit from, instead playing to the altogether alien nature of the evil force at the center of this movie. To its credit, despite that overall uneven feel, the movie has some strong individual sequences and images that help to stand out – the recurring nightmare warning is a main example, teasing hints of the danger to come in the form of a scratchy video recording that helps make the sequence, and its eventual evolution, even more memorable.

Lined up alongside its predecessor and successor, I have to admit, I don't have quite the same affection for this movie that I have for the other two parts of the series. I want to clarify – this doesn't mean that I think this is a bad movie, because I don't. Taken on its own, I still find this an overall enjoyable offering from Carpenter's overall filmography, and even if it doesn't quite hit the same highs as the other two, it still has a number of strong visuals and sequences on its own that are worth the the experience. What it does with traditional Satan horror is something that feels like a sci-fi take on something from Lucio Fulci's Gates of Hell trilogy, and that's something I never would have thought I'd want to see until I saw this try it.

And honestly, this sequence alone helps secure it a spot in my good graces where Carpenter is concerned.

With this, we're now one entry away.

Carpenter has brought humanity to the brink twice now, each time taking it a little closer, and now it all comes down on Halloween night. Join me for concluding this run, and the trilogy, with Carpenter's tribute to H.P. Lovecraft, In the Mouth of Madness.

Till then.