Hooptober Neun (2022) - Film #4
1 film with a musician or band in it (Alice Cooper)

Prince of Darkness is a bold entry into John Carpenter’s filmography. Carpenter takes risks here, with the majority of them paying off, but a few not quite hitting the mark. At times, the plot is overly convoluted and is close to becoming ludicrous, but somehow manages to generally stay the right side of that line. All in all though, an adventurous film like this is a much more compelling watch than one that plays it safe.

The mood here is fantastic, and I felt that the film looked beautiful in general. The effects are perfect for my taste, with some pretty gnarly stuff towards the end. The cross over between science fiction and religion or the supernatural is often interesting to me, and in both theme and mood, this reminded me of Halloween 3: Season of the Witch. I’ve since learned that there both films have a connection to Nigel Kneale (The Quatermass Experiment), Halloween 3 through having Kneale initially work on the script, and Prince of Darkness having taken Kneale’s work as an influence, evidenced by Carpenter’s writer pseudonym for this picture - Martin Quatermass.

As mentioned, at times the plot may have benefitted from a little more simplicity, and this isn’t always aided by some of the weaker acting performances here. However, it’s not always clear to me who is putting in a good performance, and who isn’t. For example, I’m not certain that what Donald Pleasance does here would be generally deemed a nuanced, well thought out performance, but he is absolutely magnetic in this movie. Indeed, it’s some of the actors that have collaborated with Carpenter elsewhere (Pleasance, Peter Jason and Victor Wong) that enchanted me the most. In addition, the acting decisions made by Jessie Lawrence Ferguson and Susan Blanchard towards the end of the film were spot on, with a fun (and effective) little turn from Alice Cooper.

The majority of Prince of Darkness takes place in one location, and that’s important to the sense of unease, and later, dread, that runs throughout. This is where the film really excels, basing its spookiness on a carefully constructed mood, and only rarely resorting to cheap scares.

Highly recommended.