Whereas the Thing revealed its nebulus plot and got out of the way to allow the film to terrify the viewer. Prince of Darkness seems to be hampered by an overly elaborate plot that never gets out of the way and doesn't allow for too many scares. The plot tries to offer a scientific explanation for the religious cosmology we all grew up with. Satan is pure evil and is stored in a vat! Jesus was an ET who gave the Church diff-eq equations to use to defeat Satan in the future. This sounds wild and it is, but it requires close attention as some of these huge plot points are spoken in one sentence. It plays like Italian horror in that terrible things happen with little explanation and the viewer is sometimes left scratching his head.
You have to give the film credit though for attempting to give the viewer a sophisticated and cerebral plot. Its obviously a film Carpenter was enamored with intellectually.
On the other hand the scares never really heat up to the boiling point. Towards the end there are some quality scares. However like some Carpenter films the camp is thick. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing but those expecting another 'Thing' terrorfest will be disappointed.
Like all Carpenter films this film is shot beautifully and when the film warms up in the second half it really sucks you in. I found myself stopping at several points in the film and saying to myself 'wow this is a beautifully shot film'.
If I had to classify this film I would say its a geeks horror film. Lots of interesting intellectual things in the plot to ponder, some scares, and a beautifully shot film.
Wont appeal to everyone but certainly isn't a run of the mill film, and it deserves credit for that.
You have to give the film credit though for attempting to give the viewer a sophisticated and cerebral plot. Its obviously a film Carpenter was enamored with intellectually.
On the other hand the scares never really heat up to the boiling point. Towards the end there are some quality scares. However like some Carpenter films the camp is thick. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing but those expecting another 'Thing' terrorfest will be disappointed.
Like all Carpenter films this film is shot beautifully and when the film warms up in the second half it really sucks you in. I found myself stopping at several points in the film and saying to myself 'wow this is a beautifully shot film'.
If I had to classify this film I would say its a geeks horror film. Lots of interesting intellectual things in the plot to ponder, some scares, and a beautifully shot film.
Wont appeal to everyone but certainly isn't a run of the mill film, and it deserves credit for that.