Kyle's Rating: Future Kyle told Past Kyle that Present Kyle would enjoy this. And I did/do/will!
Kyle's's Review: Satanism from the stars. Age-old light just now reaching Earth. A deathbed revelation. Swarms of insects. Quantum physics explaining the unexplainable. Liquid Devil in a bottle. An abandoned church with a blasphemous secret. Faith and science forming a desperate alliance. Mouth-spray demonic possession. Mirror gateways to hell. An enigmatic force controlling insects and worms and homeless people. Alice Cooper. One of the Simons from Simon & Simon. Donald Pleasence. A man disintegrating into black beetles. A giggling man slitting his own throat. Cosmic signs of the apocalypse. Victor Wong. An axe in the right place. A nice redhead. The perfect extracurricular school assignment. News broadcasts from the future beamed faster than light into the subconscious to be revealed in dreams. A final sacrifice. All directed by John Carpenter.

I really fail to understand why Prince of Darkness isn’t more appreciated by horror aficionados. My grandma recommended it to me long ago and it just blew me away. There isn’t much blood, but like the classic Halloween this is more about atmosphere and suspense than in-ya-face gore. Ominous signs in the sky and peripheral oddities seem to offer warning, or perhaps instructions. After learning the secret of an abandoned downtown church, a priest (Donald Pleasence) pleads with a quantum physics professor acquaintance (Victor Wong ) to help him decipher an ancient text and penetrate the mystery of a green swirling liquid trapped in an bottle that can only be opened from the inside. The brilliant team of college students chosen by Wong for the assignment (including Jameson Parker and Lisa Blount) are apprehensive, and as they move into the old church for the weekend and more and more wackiness pops up, you’ll start to share their dread yourself just sitting there watching. As the army of the possessed homeless begin barricading the entrances and traps the unknowing students inside, we see that green liquid has begun pouring out of its glass prison. What is the liquid? Why is everyone having the same dream? Is love worth nothing in the face of eminent doom, or is it the only thing that matters? Don’t ask me, you’ll have to rent Prince of Darkness to find out.

I’ll admit this film does have some weak elements, but on the whole it’s very coherent, thought provoking and sinister. The team utilizes technology and places their belief in computers and science, but ultimately it will come down to faith and sacrifice. Unlike other horror films the sun does not offer salvation. No one on the outside can or will help them. It’s up to the trapped survivors to save themselves and, if possible, prevent the return of something monstrously evil that has been trapped for millennia and is yearning to be free. Their debates over what they’re dealing with and what it all means can be ruminated over long after the credits roll, but before you balk realize there are plenty of scares to be found here. The cast is strong, the abandoned church makes the perfect backdrop, and the plotting and direction are swift and slick. Prince of Darkness is definitely worth a look if you’ve passed it by before, and be prepared to think a little while you’re entertained (hopefully that’s not a foreign concept to you!). And if you ever see a glass or bowl of flowing green liquid in a store, even if the shady man behind the counter swears it’s just a newfangled lava lamp, DO NOT BUY IT!

Didja Notice?
Donald Pleasance's character is named Loomis, the same as his character in Halloween.
The whole "explanation" of who God is (an alien), Jesus (another alien, pretty mean), and the devil (son of an alien, but meaner than Jesus)... then the guys are upset that the Catholic church kept this "secret" for 2000 years.
So Jesus wanted to crush, kill and destroy?
Satan likes his bugs and worms

The Movie Store!
Prince of Darkness: Movie [VHS]
Prince of Darkness: Movie [DVD]
Prince of Darkness: Soundtrack [CD]

Groovy Quotes

Professor Edward Birack: Let's talk about our beliefs, and what we can learn about them. We believe nature is solid, and time a constant. Matter has substance and time a direction. There is truth in flesh and the solid ground. The wind may be invisible, but it's real. Smoke, fire, water, light -- they're different! Not as to stone or steel, but they're tangible. And we assume time is narrow because it is as a clock -- one second is one second for everyone! Cause precedes effect -- fruit rots, water flows downstream. We're born, we age, we die. The reverse NEVER happens. ...None of this is true! Say goodbye to classical reality, because our logic collapses on the subatomic level ... into ghosts and shadows.

Professor Edward Birack: From Job's friends insisting that the good are rewarded and the wicked punished, to the scientists of the 1930's proving to their horror the theorem that not everything can be proved, we've sought to impose order on the universe. But we've discovered something very surprising: while order DOES exist in the universe, it is not at all what we had in mind!

[Walter is studying quantum physics.]
Walter: Why do I want a Ph.D. in this?
Catherine: Particle beam weapons, research grants...
Walter: A millionaire when I'm forty! Now I remember!

Walter: Why is everybody looking at me that way?
Brian: Because you're being asshole-ish.
Walter: Well, it's asshole-ish of you to say so!

Kelly: Hello? I'm opening the door, if you want to stop what you're doing and put your clothes on!

Wyndham: I've got a message for you, and you're not going to like it. "Pray for death."

If you liked this movie, try these:
Halloween
The Fog
Jacob's Ladder