Not much interesting about the history of this. John Carpenter was reading works about theoretical and atomic physics, and became intrigued with the idea of God and Satan in terms of matter and anti-matter. (I'll admit, that was the primarily reason I decided to watch this particular feature ) He penned the screenplay as "Martin Quatermass," in homage to the Quatermass series, I discussed several weeks ago. It was made independently, after the financial failure of Big Trouble in Little China in 1986, and was filmed around Los Angeles. Shep Gordon, the executive produce, was also Alice Cooper's manager, and managed to get Cooper involved, both as an actor and recorded a song for it. Released in 1987, it was financially and critically lukewarm. However, it has since garnered a cult following on home video and DVD, and is retroactively considered the second in the Carpenter "Apocalypse trilogy" alongside the Thing and In the Mouth of Madness. And, it does deserve some critical revaluation.
The film opens with the death of a priest, who is holding a mysterious metal box. Another priest (Donald Pleasence) comes to the convent he died in, and is given the box, which has a key. The key opens an area inside a derelict church in Los Angeles, which contains a mysterious green substance floating in a jar. The Priest seeks the help of Professor Howard Birack (Insert Obama jokes here) (Victor Wong) in understanding this substance. Birack decides to bring some of his students including Brian Marsh (a guy with a very distracting looking pornstache) (Jameson Parker), his love interest Catherine Danforth (Lisa Blount), Walter (who's defining character trait is his skepticism, the only one amongst a group of scientists) (Dennis Dun), Kelly (Susan Blanchard), and several other physics, linguistic, and religious experts. While they set up their equipment, the vile is mysteriously quiet. As the physicists examine the vile, the religious and linguistic students look at the book in the church, which is written in several languages, and sometimes erased and written over. They manage to decode the book, and find it to be about....Satan. At the same time, several homeless people (including a leader played by Alice Cooper) have gathered around the church, killing anyone who tries to leave. The equipment picks up a surprisingly detailed stream of data from the green liquid, including differential equations, which suggests some form of intelligence. They also begin to have visions of a mysterious figure emerging from the church, which they theorize as being a tachyon induced vision of the Future. Eventually, they theorize that the green liquid is, in fact, Satan incarnate. Further, they speculate that perhaps Satan is the offspring of a more powerful being known as the Anti-God, who resides in an Anti-matter dimension. And sure enough, Kelly is possessed by the Dark Prince himself, and begins to possess others in the research group. The remaining people (Catherine, Brian, Walter, Birack, and the Preist) fight off hordes of various evils brought out by Mr. Lucifer, while they are trapped in the church. The various infected members are slowly killed off by the still living scientists. Eventually, Kelly (now a largely grotesque figure resembling Satan) tries to get into contact with the Anti-God through a mirror, and bring him into the matter world, but Catherine sacrifices herself, and pushes Kelly and the Anti-God into the Anti-Matter dimension (which should kill her, but whatever). Brian sees a full version of the vision, with Catherine as the new incarnate of Satan. He sees a heavily disfigured Catherine in a dream, and later reaches into a mirror, ending the film.
The imagery is very invocative, creating an atmosphere of mystery and darkness. The acting is mostly good as well. It has a number of great ideas. The idea of setting good and evil in the same vein as matter and anti-matter is genius, as is having Satan be the offspring of an Anti-Matter God. I admit, it appeals to my sensibilities. Perhaps that's why I enjoy films like this and The Thing more than Halloween. They sort of utilize topics that appeal to me personally. While it is a film that has religious themes, it gives a good scientific basis to it. That always gets an A+ from me. It is also very, very creepy, though not as scary as Halloween. Hell, even though you already know that the vile is Satan, (I mean, the film is called Prince of Darkness) you still are sucked in by said mystery, and what is exactly happening with this vile. The Anti-God is almost Lovecraftian in concept, particularly like the extradimensional Outer Gods, which ties into the unknowable Thing, and the horror of unknowning in In the Mouth of Madness. The Anti-God may have been explained in scientific terms, but in the end, he is still a being so complex, so mysterious, it is still unknowable. Finally, the score fits the film perfectly, the same way the Thing's score was.
I've noticed something with Carpenter's films. They tend to drag towards the middle, and don't pick up until the end. This was basically the entire run time of Halloween II, but it was also a flaw with the original, and The Thing. They slow down, and get somewhat boring in the middle. One more script re-write could have fixed this. This film sadly suffers badly from this. Most of its third act is basically the scientist fighting off the homeless, the possessed scientists, which gets tedious after seeing it for 30 minutes. Also, besides Marsh, Danforth, Birack, and the Preist, none of the characters are well defined. Granted, I know it's not about them, but a little more characterization would have been nice, just so that I cared when they got possessed. Since I didn't care, it didn't have much of an impact on me.
I liked this picture. Certainly it's one that didn't deserve the critical panning it got. Luckily, it has since gone down as one of Carpenter's finest, and I agree. Of the four I've seen, I'd probably put it second, behind The Thing, and before the two Halloweens. I'd recommend it to those who enjoy John Carpenter's films, or just want a good science fiction horror film, that doesn't involves aliens (unless the Anti-God counts. I suppose if..., nevermind). If you liked the Thing, you'll like this. Next week, I do not only a double feature, but a crossover, both involving the films of Guillermo del Toro.
The film opens with the death of a priest, who is holding a mysterious metal box. Another priest (Donald Pleasence) comes to the convent he died in, and is given the box, which has a key. The key opens an area inside a derelict church in Los Angeles, which contains a mysterious green substance floating in a jar. The Priest seeks the help of Professor Howard Birack (Insert Obama jokes here) (Victor Wong) in understanding this substance. Birack decides to bring some of his students including Brian Marsh (a guy with a very distracting looking pornstache) (Jameson Parker), his love interest Catherine Danforth (Lisa Blount), Walter (who's defining character trait is his skepticism, the only one amongst a group of scientists) (Dennis Dun), Kelly (Susan Blanchard), and several other physics, linguistic, and religious experts. While they set up their equipment, the vile is mysteriously quiet. As the physicists examine the vile, the religious and linguistic students look at the book in the church, which is written in several languages, and sometimes erased and written over. They manage to decode the book, and find it to be about....Satan. At the same time, several homeless people (including a leader played by Alice Cooper) have gathered around the church, killing anyone who tries to leave. The equipment picks up a surprisingly detailed stream of data from the green liquid, including differential equations, which suggests some form of intelligence. They also begin to have visions of a mysterious figure emerging from the church, which they theorize as being a tachyon induced vision of the Future. Eventually, they theorize that the green liquid is, in fact, Satan incarnate. Further, they speculate that perhaps Satan is the offspring of a more powerful being known as the Anti-God, who resides in an Anti-matter dimension. And sure enough, Kelly is possessed by the Dark Prince himself, and begins to possess others in the research group. The remaining people (Catherine, Brian, Walter, Birack, and the Preist) fight off hordes of various evils brought out by Mr. Lucifer, while they are trapped in the church. The various infected members are slowly killed off by the still living scientists. Eventually, Kelly (now a largely grotesque figure resembling Satan) tries to get into contact with the Anti-God through a mirror, and bring him into the matter world, but Catherine sacrifices herself, and pushes Kelly and the Anti-God into the Anti-Matter dimension (which should kill her, but whatever). Brian sees a full version of the vision, with Catherine as the new incarnate of Satan. He sees a heavily disfigured Catherine in a dream, and later reaches into a mirror, ending the film.
The imagery is very invocative, creating an atmosphere of mystery and darkness. The acting is mostly good as well. It has a number of great ideas. The idea of setting good and evil in the same vein as matter and anti-matter is genius, as is having Satan be the offspring of an Anti-Matter God. I admit, it appeals to my sensibilities. Perhaps that's why I enjoy films like this and The Thing more than Halloween. They sort of utilize topics that appeal to me personally. While it is a film that has religious themes, it gives a good scientific basis to it. That always gets an A+ from me. It is also very, very creepy, though not as scary as Halloween. Hell, even though you already know that the vile is Satan, (I mean, the film is called Prince of Darkness) you still are sucked in by said mystery, and what is exactly happening with this vile. The Anti-God is almost Lovecraftian in concept, particularly like the extradimensional Outer Gods, which ties into the unknowable Thing, and the horror of unknowning in In the Mouth of Madness. The Anti-God may have been explained in scientific terms, but in the end, he is still a being so complex, so mysterious, it is still unknowable. Finally, the score fits the film perfectly, the same way the Thing's score was.
I've noticed something with Carpenter's films. They tend to drag towards the middle, and don't pick up until the end. This was basically the entire run time of Halloween II, but it was also a flaw with the original, and The Thing. They slow down, and get somewhat boring in the middle. One more script re-write could have fixed this. This film sadly suffers badly from this. Most of its third act is basically the scientist fighting off the homeless, the possessed scientists, which gets tedious after seeing it for 30 minutes. Also, besides Marsh, Danforth, Birack, and the Preist, none of the characters are well defined. Granted, I know it's not about them, but a little more characterization would have been nice, just so that I cared when they got possessed. Since I didn't care, it didn't have much of an impact on me.
I liked this picture. Certainly it's one that didn't deserve the critical panning it got. Luckily, it has since gone down as one of Carpenter's finest, and I agree. Of the four I've seen, I'd probably put it second, behind The Thing, and before the two Halloweens. I'd recommend it to those who enjoy John Carpenter's films, or just want a good science fiction horror film, that doesn't involves aliens (unless the Anti-God counts. I suppose if..., nevermind). If you liked the Thing, you'll like this. Next week, I do not only a double feature, but a crossover, both involving the films of Guillermo del Toro.
No comments:
Post a Comment