Prince Of Darkness (1987)

Genre: Supernatural

Source: Netflix Instant Que

Grade: C

To bad I had such high hopes for this movie, its considered by some people to be among his best, i`ve even heard one person state that it was the last "real" John Carpenter movie(I viciously oppose that statement though because I thought 1988s They Live was a awesome movie and one of Carpenters all time best) . Then trailer looked awesome, and it even had Donald Pleasence as one of the main characters. I mean what could possible go wrong?! Well unfortunately a lot, first off I felt the whole movie was a bit sluggish in pace and yet didn't really cover some things that thoroughly. Then I didn't feel the atmosphere was as good as some of his other work. Though I do give it to Mr.Carpenter the soundtrack he composed for this movie was very good, it was eerie and just all around a perfect score.

         Now the films plot is very intriguing and smart; thus the main reason I was super excited to finally watch this movie. The story's about a research team who has to investigate a mysterious cylinder that`s kept in a church and if opened could mean the end of the world, cause like the son of Satan is being kept prisoner there. Sadly I just don't feel they lived up to the awesome plot, instead it felt either to rushed or to slow.Though I will say there were a couple redeeming factors in the movie, like some very gross kills, and all the creepy homeless people that pretty much siege the church, plus I will admit the ending was quite climatic. But overall despite 2 or 3 scary sequences this movie failed to be anywhere nearly as scary as some of Carpenters other work.

      I did like the assembled cast especially Donald Pleasence, whose role was the priest appointed by Vatican to guard the evil cylinder. His performance was quite memorable to say the least. Then Victor Wong (who`d previously been in Carpenters Big Trouble In Little China) was surprisingly great as the intellectual and skeptical Prof.Howard Birack. The only weird cast decision for me was Jameson Parker who i`m guessing was supposed to be like a young hip collage student but honestly to me he looked more like a one of those 40 year old`s who still hangs around the community collage. Not that i`m complaining about his performance he was great in that sense.
I think i`d have to say though the best thing in this movie overall was the soundtrack that John Carpenter composed himself for this movie. It sounded like something he`d compose but way more eerie then some of his other stuff. The soundtrack was just simply a perfect fit for the movie.

        Prince Of Darkness is not a bad movie, but to me its just not his best and far inferior to a lot of his other work. Other than an excellent soundtrack, a pretty cool plot, and a awesome performance from Donald Pleasence. I just can`t think of any other really pressing reasons to recommend this movie to anyone other then John Carpenter fans. Because this movies simply just average.