LogFAQs > #979855589

Inviso - I dont understand this movie. Its clearly trying to take elements of religious dogma and demons and tie them into a more modern, scientific arenafor some reason. Seriously, the supernatural shit the movie has going onmeans nothing in the context of anything scientific, expect for the idea that having a bunch of grad students show up to investigate this weird tube of glowing, green ectoplasm hidden under a church inLos Angeles? But yeahtheres a LOT of scientific technobabble going on, because it feels like the movie is TRYING to couch itself in a more serious tone, while never doing a decent job of explaining WHY. Like, you have this weird relationship with Donald Pleasance and Victor Wong where they both seem to be talking PAST each other almost, because one represents faith, and the other represents science, and theyre only there to serve as mouthpieces for those points of view.

But yeah, its a really slow movie, and its really boring when youre looking at a subject matter the average person isnt going to grasp. The music sets a spooky tone, and there is some atmospheric stuff (namely the liberal use of ants, worms and beetles) that helps to at least inspire a sense of dread, but overall, it takes SO LONG to get going and to actually DO anything. And that really sucks when youre got an overly-complicated and preachy plot. Once enough people have been possessed and killed, the movie gets a LITTLE better, but even then, theres so much padding of the runtime.

Theres a scene where the non-possessed people keep looking outside to see a bunch of vagrants blocking off the two ends of the alley. Despite this, our male lead (who has the personality of a block of wood, mind you) jumps out into the alley forsome reason. The vagrants predictably start slowly moving towards him (since theyre already established to the audience as killing anyone who leaves the church), and so he scrambles back inside. That scene didnt need to exist. Nor did we need an extended scene of Calder, having been possessed, breaking into Donald Pleasances room and standing in front of a mirrorat the same time as Walter is locked in a closet, spitting witty banter at a pair of possessed muteswho are themselves standing around a girl slowly converting into the devil, I think? The point is that shit hits the fan and a bunch of characters get isolated and locked into different roomsand then the movie just slowly keeps cycling through the same sequences of events that arent really changing from scene to scene.

Finally, the ending is nonsense. The movie has not done a good job of explain what exactly the devil (Im FAIRLY confident the green ectoplasm is meant to be the devil) is, nor what its plans are. So once it fully possesses Kelly, it sees a compact and tries to stick its fingers into the mirror, but its too small. So then it tries to go to the bigger mirror in Donald Pleasances room and stick a whole arm inside to try and pull something outandwhy? Also, why does Catherine (who is caught between the possessed Dr. Leahy, the sight of her pinned love interest that she has no chemistry with, and the sight of the demonic mirror attempt) suddenly understand that she needs to push the demon fully into the mirror? She does that, and Donald Pleasance breaks the mirror with a thrown fire axeand then thats it? That saves the dayfor some reason?

Thats being reductive, and in any other movie, I could see Push the bad guy into a portal and break the portal behind them as a legitimate ending. But this movie does not do a good job of explaining WHY theres a secondary portal after the devil has already been born anew into our world. So it feels random and almost a cop-out for how to defeat a bad guy thats too powerful to take out by conventional means. Also, lead character Brian, who had like, two scenes trying to hit on Catherine, is so dejected by her loss that he starts having nightmares and visions about her after she got left behind in the mirror realm. Its nonsense. Its absolute nonsense, and the concept of this movie (along with a few genuinely unsettling horror elements) are the only reason I dont rank it lower.

Jcgamer107 - 3/10

Johnbobb - This is a very interesting concept that is an absolute drag to get through. Like it's one of the more complex topics ideas on a list of a lot of fairly simple movies (titles like An American Werewolf in London and Killer Klowns from Outer Space tell you directly up front what you're getting), but it was presented like a lecture in between the brief moments of disconnected violence. Overall just didn't click with me nearly as much as I expected it would

Snake - I absolutely love John Carpenter, he might be my favorite director of all time, Ive seen nearly all his films multiple times, and Prince of Darkness is no exception, and theres a lot to like here. And I do mean A LOT. This film packs so much in its comparatively short run time, making a film that feels at once overly-bloated and at the same time half-baked. Firstly, the film masterfully blends scientific inquiry with religious horror, hitting constantly on the main driving question of the film - is the sentient liquid demonic or a scientific anomaly? And of course, its not a Carpenter film without oodles & oodles of thick atmospheric locations, paranoia and claustrophobia, that creates a sense of isolation within the viewer, coupled with the pulsating score that of course is pure sensory perfection. We come to the main problem with PoD though - uneven pacing. While the film excels at building dread, the middle section suffers from absolutely sluggish plodding. Long stretches of scientific exposition tests my patience like no other. I can never seem to remember any specific characters either outside of who plays them, which hardly counts. The focus on scientific exploration comes at the cost of character development, which when compared to something like The Thing where each character is uniquely personified making the tension that much higher, Prince of Darkness flounders and loses some of its terror when I just dont care what happens to these people. I will always appreciate this film for its ambition and its chilling moments - after all, at the end of the day, its still a Carpenter piece and no other horror films ever quite feel like his work no matter how messy or drunk on their own sauce they become.

Bitto - Rating: D

What a disappointing movie. I love the premise of this movie a lot. Having a bunch of scientifically-minded university students working with a priest inside a church to study and contain Satan is good. The idea that Satan is trying to find an "anti-God" to mirror matter and anti-matter is really good. Unfortunately, all the characters are kinda flat. Walter is especially bad. He feels really out-of-place here, like someone on the team felt like they needed some snark in the script but didn't know how to write it. But the others aren't much better. The main couple has a bit of promise in the beginning, but they get shuffled away as soon as they go into the church. It also feels like the tension kinda died 2/3rds into the movie while everyone waits for Satan to wake up...and then immediately job. The shared dream thing is really neat, but they don't really go anywhere with that either.