The Red Circle

Although PRINCE OF DARKNESS is not as well known as many of The Master’s other works, it contains some of the most hopeless and terrifying images that the director has ever put to film. Although this movie THE THING, and IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS comprise something that Carptenter calls “The Apocalypse Trilogy,” PRINCE OF DARKNESS has everything else he’s ever shot beat in terms of The Rapture.

We’re talking real, visceral The End is Fucking Nigh stuff here. While ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, it feels a little contrived and campy next to the End of Times scenes in this movie, showing a staticy, ghastly figure walking out of the ruins of a Church. This is the real deal.

The oddest part about the film, besides the unfortunate 80′s hair, is the physical form of The Prince of Darkness – Satan himself. It seems his Essence is in the form of some oddly coloured ooze being studied by a team of scientists in a boarded off church. It’s that mix of the almost absurd with the visual impact of a lot of the movie’s third act that makes it such an odd beast.

This, above any other John Carpenter film, begs for a proper remake. Doubly so, if The Master pulls a David Cronenberg and remakes his own movie incorporating the last twenty years of horrible shit that has happened to us.

Without any real sense of campiness, PRINCE OF DARKNESS is one of the premiere Devil movies ever produced. Although the Lord of Hell himself is almost never shown (just hinted at), the film leaves an indelible visual impression, and ratchets up the tension like very few other fright films from the 80′s — or any decade.

This website is duly dedicated to trying to eke out some of the classics that many people of normal interest in film would overlook. PRINCE OF DARKNESS is a staple of that subsection. A seldom-seen movie by a man that everyone knows, and respects. Please be ready to add another notch to the number of John Carpenter movies that you love.

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