Prince of Darkness – Collector’s Edition

Summary

Coming off of a string of successful films with larger budgets, John Carpenter decided that he wanted to make a couple lower budget films where he would have complete control. Those two films were Prince of Darkness and They Live. Having a little bit of time this last week, and having just watched In the Mouth of Madness, I sat down and watched Prince of Darkness.

A priest (Donald Pleasance) discovers a vat of green liquid underneath an abandoned church in Los Angeles. He reaches out to a Physics professor named Howard Birack (Victor Wong) to gather a team and investigate the vat’s strange physical qualities. Birack rounds up numerous students and they begin to run tests on the vat, not realizing the vat contains the essence of the Devil. Soon the group of physicians is surrounded by homeless people (including a memorable performance by rocker Alice Cooper) that have come to the outside of the church. Inside the church, the vat begins to wield influence over the students and turn them into zombies that work to bring the Devil’s progeny into the world.

I am an avid fan of John Carpenter, but Prince of Darkness is not the best film in Carpenter’s canon. It has some familiar tropes from Carpenter films – people are trapped inside with evil forces surrounding their location like in Assault on Precinct 13; anybody can be turned into a villain like in The Thing; and there are supernatural forces at work beyond the characters’ comprehension like in The Fog. Unfortunately, in the case of Prince of Darkness, these elements never seem to gel together like in Carpenter’s best work.

The acting in the film is perfectly decent, but the script does not give the actors much to do. While certain aspects of the script are intriguing, the overall story moves pretty slowly and never quite reaches a feverish pitch. The writing is missing a central lead character, a Kurt Russell style character, to carry the film. Because the audience never really gets to know about the characters in the film, it is hard to care what happens to them.

That said, I enjoy watching Donald Pleasance on screen and he gives a memorable performance as the priest. Victor Wong is also fun to watch in the film. Everybody else is pretty much interchangeable.

Overall, this film is not terrible but it is one of the most minor works in Carpenter’s career. I would not begin your love affair with Carpenter’s work with this film.

Video

As I have mentioned before, Scream Factory have always done great work on presenting John Carpenter’s films, knowing that these films are some of the most beloved by fans of the label. This new 1080p transfer from a 2K scan of the film is absolutely fantastic. Honestly, there is very little room here for improvement. Depth and clarity are excellent.

Audio

Scream Factory have provided a boisterous DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. This track has excellent clarity of dialogue and the score by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth is solid work. Fans of the film will enjoy hearing this lossless track as all the supernatural phenomena in the film takes place. No complaints here. For the fans who would prefer to hear the track as a DTS-HD MA 2.0 track, Shout has provided one. 

Supplements:

• Sympathy for the Devil: An Interview with John Carpenter – Carpenter is always interesting and in this feature he discusses how quantum mechanics influenced his writing of the film. He also drew inspiration from sources as varied as Cocteau, German Expressionism, and Hammer horror films. He also mentions how he created the mirror effect in the film. Well worth your time.
• Alice at the Apocalypse: An Interview with Alice Cooper – Cooper discusses his role as a zombie-like homeless man and his love for films growing up. Fans of superproducer Shep Gordon will enjoy seeing his small mention here.
• The Messenger: Interview with Actor and Special Visual Effects Supervisor Robert Grasmere – Grasmere discusses his work on the film from a technical stance and how he gained his role in the film. 
• Hell On Earth: A Look at the Film’s Score with Co-Composer Alan Howarth – I love Carpenter’s scores for his films and this is a great piece on how he put together the score for the film and the limitations they had in the editing process at the time. Such a great piece.
• Alternate Opening from TV Version – this opening was fairly different from what was presented in the theaters.
• Horror’s Hallowed Ground – Sean Clark visits the film’s locations.
• Trailer and Radio Spots 
• Still Gallery 
• Prince of Darkness 25th Anniversary Screening – features a Q&A from 2012’s Screamfest. It is great to see Carpenter fielding random questions that vary in their insight.
• Audio Commentary with John Carpenter and Peter Jason – this track is very conversational and fun. It is obvious that these two are good friends and their recollections and insights make for a good track.

Video – 4.5/5

Audio – 4.5/5

Supplements – 4.5/5

Overall – 3.5/5

Prince of Darkness is one of John Carpenter’s lesser films. Despite an intriguing premise and some enjoyable scenes, the film never quite gets in the way that Carpenter’s best work does. That said, Shout!Factory have given an excellent transfer to the film and the supplemental materials are really enjoyable. The work they put into this release lifts up the release overall. Fans should feel confident to purchase. They should also be aware that a steelbook has been released by Shout!Factory that they may want to consider purchasing for the same content.

This review originally appeared on Blu-ray Authority.