Centuries ago, in the Middle East, The Brotherhood of Sleep—a secret order of the Catholic church—recover a large cylinder of swirling green liquid. Kept secret from even the Vatican, the cylinder was eventually moved to Los Angeles, where it has since been guarded by the Brotherhood. In the present day, the orders' last member dies before he can warn the cardinal that "the sleeper awakens." A Catholic priest recovers a key from his possessions, which leads him to the cylinder’s hiding place beneath Saint Goddard monastery.
The priest invites quantum physicist, Professor Howard Birack, to analyse the cylinder. Birack invites his best students to assist—wise-cracking Walter Fong, demure Kelly, the highly-strung Susan Cabot, laid-back Mullins, and lovers Brian Marsh and Catherine Danforth—and fellow scientists Calder, Lisa, Etchinson, Lomax, Wyndham, and Dr. Paul Leahy. The priest tells Birack that he can sense the growing influence of the liquid, and needs him to scientifically evidence its true nature to the wider populace as he fears it will soon escape. After the team arrives at the monastery, the local homeless population begins surrounding the building. The team analyses the cylinder, discovering that it can only be opened from inside, and is at least seven million years old. Brian realizes that the liquid is prebiotic, but is evolving with purpose instead of decaying.
Translating the Brotherhood's ancient textbooks, Catherine identifies differential equations from before their known invention. Lisa's translations, meanwhile, claim that the cylinder contains Satan, who was buried by his father, an ancient god who was banished to the dark side. Jesus Christ was an extraterrestrial humanoid who warned humanity about the cylinder. Though he was killed by those who deemed him insane and too powerful, his disciples passed on his warning. Birack hypothesizes that Satan's father may be the Anti-God, an even more powerful force of evil bound to the realm of anti-matter.
The liquid begins to exert its influence beyond its container, possessing Susan, who spreads the possession to or kills several other team members. Those who leave the building are brutally murdered by the increasingly enthralled homeless people. The survivors realize that, since their arrival, they have experienced a shared dream of a dark figure emerging from the monastery. Brian surmises that the dreams are a warning sent from the future using tachyons. The possessed bring the cylinder to a sleeping Kelly, where the remaining liquid forces itself into her body, transforming her into the physical vessel of Satan: a gruesomely disfigured being, with powers of telekinesis and regeneration. Satan attempts to summon the Anti-God by reaching through a mirror, but it is too small and the effort fails.
The possessed attack the survivors, while Satan locates a larger mirror and reaches through, grasping the Anti-God's large, clawed hand. The priest cuts off Satan's arm and head with an axe, but it instantly regenerates and again reaches for the Anti-God. Seeing this, Catherine charges at Satan and they both fall through the portal. The priest shatters the mirror, trapping Satan, the Anti-God, and, to Brian's horror, Catherine in the other realm. The possessed immediately die as the liquid evaporates from their bodies, while the homeless people wander away. The survivors, Brian, Walter, Birack, and the priest, are rescued as emergency services arrive to investigate.
Sometime later, Brian experiences the dream again, now seeing a seemingly possessed Catherine as the figure emerging from the church. He awakens and finds Catherine lying next to him, disfigured as Kelly was by Satan's possession. Startled awake, he realizes it was a nightmare. He approaches his bedroom mirror, reaching his hand out towards it.
Film critic John Kenneth Muir suggests that Prince of Darkness serves as a parable for the AIDS epidemic that was at its peak during the time the film was made.[3] Throughout the film, demonic possession is depicted as something that is transmitted like a communicable disease, via fluid passed between people.[4] Muir goes on to note a number of references to homosexuality in the film, namely regarding the character of Walter, who makes several statements implying that he is gay (although he briefly flirted with Lisa, one of the female characters).[3] In particular, Muir notes a sequence in which Walter, attacked by a number of possessed women while trapped inside a closet, emerges and flees.[3] In addition to this, Muir writes that the film "pointedly asks some rather big questions about human nature, our existence, and the universe at large."[5]
Production
Prince of Darkness was shot in Los Angeles, California in 30 days. Carpenter became inspired while researching theoretical physics and atomic theory. He recalled, "I thought it would be interesting to create some sort of ultimate evil and combine it with the notion of matter and anti-matter."[6] This idea, which would eventually develop into the screenplay for Prince of Darkness, was to be the first of a multi-picture deal with Alive Pictures, where Carpenter was allocated $3 million per picture and complete creative control.[6]
Executive producer Shep Gordon was also manager to singer Alice Cooper, and suggested Cooper record a song for the film. Carpenter also cast Cooper as one of the homeless zombies. Cooper allowed the "impaling device" from his stage show to be used in the film in the scene where Cooper's character kills Etchinson.[7] The song Cooper wrote for the film, also titled "Prince of Darkness", can be heard briefly in the same scene playing through Etchinson's headphones.
Carpenter cast people that he had worked with previously, including Victor Wong, Dennis Dun and Donald Pleasence. It was Peter Jason's first film for Carpenter, and he would afterward become a Carpenter regular. The film was shot with wide-angle lenses, which combined with anamorphic format to create a lot of distortion.
Carpenter wrote the screenplay but was credited as "Martin Quatermass", which, along with the name of Professor Birack's institution (Kneale University), was an homage to British film and television writer Nigel Kneale and his best-known character, Bernard Quatermass. The story features elements associated with Kneale, including a confrontation with ancient evil (Quatermass and the Pit and The Quatermass Conclusion), messages from the future (The Road), and the scientific investigation of the paranormal (The Stone Tape).
The poster for Prince of Darkness was created and designed by Henry Rosenthal, who worked for print production vendor Rod Dyer.[8] According to Carpenter in the DVD audio commentary, the post-production was done at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
In an interview with Michael Doyle in the November 2012 issue of Rue Morgue, John Carpenter revealed how he created the eerie dream sequences in Prince of Darkness that feature a shadowy figure emerging from a church doorway. Carpenter first shot the action of the figure (played by actor Jessie Ferguson) with a video camera and then "re-photographed it on a television set" in order to give the image a peculiar, dislocated feeling that also appeared as if it was being filmed live. Doyle also reminded Carpenter that the director himself provided the disembodied voice that narrates each dream.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Prince of Darkness holds an approval rating of 63%, based on 40 reviews, and an average rating of 6.2/10. Its consensus reads, "Prince of Darkness has a handful of chillingly clever ideas, but they aren't enough to put John Carpenter's return to horror at the same level as his classic earlier outings."[9] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 50 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[10]
In his review for the Washington Post, Richard Harrington wrote, “At one point Pleasence vows that 'it's a secret that can no longer be kept.' Here's another: 'The Prince of Darkness stinks.' It too deserves to be shut up in a canister for 7 million years".[11] Liam Lacey, in his review for The Globe and Mail, wrote, “There is no character really worth caring about, no sympathy to any of these characters. The principal romantic couple, Jameson Parker and Lisa Blount, are unpleasant enough to create an unfortunate ambivalence about their eternal destinies”.[12] In his review for the New York Times, Vincent Canby called the film a "surprisingly cheesy horror film to come from Mr. Carpenter, a director whose work is usually far more efficient and inventive."[13] Nigel Floyd in Time Out gave a positive review of the film, calling Prince of Darkness "engrossing" and adding "the claustrophobic terror generated by fluid camerawork and striking angles" leads "to a heart-racing climax".[14]
In 2004, Jim Emerson wrote that Prince of Darkness was an undervalued horror film: "What makes me goose-pimply about Prince of Darkness is its goofy-but-ingenious central conceit and its truly surrealistic imagery, some of which could have sprouted out of Buñuel and Dali's Un Chien Andalou."[15]
Like most of Carpenter's films, Prince of Darkness went on to have a cult following.[16]
In 1988, the film was nominated for a Saturn Award for best music, and won the Critics Award at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival.
Home media
On September 24, 2013, the film was released by Scream Factory on Blu-ray and DVD. On February 18, 2019 the film was released on 4K by StudioCanal. In January 2021, Scream Factory issued their own 4K release of the film, which includes both a 4K UHD disc and a Blu-ray disc.
Boulenger, Gilles. John Carpenter Prince of Darkness. Los Angeles: Silman-James Press (2003). ISBN1-879505-67-3.
Doyle, Michael. "The Essence of Evil", Rue Morgue #128 (November 2012), p. 16-22.
Muir, John Kenneth (2015). The Films of John Carpenter. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN978-0-786-49348-7.
Powell, Anna (2004). ""Something Came Leaking Out": Carpenter's Unholy Abominations". In Conrich, Ian; Woods, David (eds.). The Cinema of John Carpenter: The Technique of Terror. London: Wallflower Press. pp. 140–159. ISBN978-1-904-76414-4.
