Arguably one of John Carpenter’s most underappreciated and underated films of his career, Carpenter delves into theology, science, and mixes in a skeptic paranoia that produces an effective and horrifying experience for his audience.
Prince of Darkness, which was released in 1987, tells the story of a priest that discovers a mysterious cylinder in the basement of an abandoned church. The priest enlists the help of physics graduate students to explain the cylinder and end up opening up a doorway that they could only imagined in their worst nightmare.
POD was a film before it’s time. Carpenter ‘s film broke away from the conventional horror film that only explained evil in black and white terms like William Friedken’s The Exorcist or Lucio Fulci’s The Gates of Hell. In those two films, it was the devil or zombies that were the root of the evil throughout the film.
One of the most fascinating aspect of POD is how science is incorporated into this film. Carpenter doesn’t try to justify this as just a good vs. evil type of film. He uses science as another explanation in the film to give reason for the cylinder. There are two sides on the issue of the cylinder: one you have the theology aspect being explained by Father Loomis (played brilliantly by Donald Pleasance) and then the science aspect being explained by Professor Howard Birack (played by Victor Wong).
What makes POD even more horrific to sit through is the score done by both John Carpenter and Alan Horwath. Each scene has it’s own distinct underlay of music or sound. The music gives you the feeling of uneasiness like one feels something unearthly while they watch the film.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment