Prince of Darkness (1987) - Cosmic Themes, Screams and Disturbing Dreams

[@michaellye1962]

This is from Ihaveyouranswer on the RPF who worked on the film. -I was on the small team building the canister for Prince of Darkness. I have dimensions, know the piece inside and out. Filled with vegetable oil and metallic green powdered paint pigment. We cut a 55 gallon drum in pieces for the top and base, attached acrylic tubes to the sides that had florescent tubes in them. Inside the tank top we laid a metal grill from a fan in the shop and aimed a few white flood lights down into the oil. The inner center of the canister housed a secondary clear acrylic tube wrapped in green lighting gel (the gel peeled off just as the final shot was complete) and lit from that inner tube as well. How it worked was this, we pulled a windshield wiper motor out of a crew members truck in the middle of the night (we were in a serious time crunch to complete the job as the first design didn't work at all) and attached the motor to a disc inside the top of the tank, that disc and a series of others were linked together by strips of clear acrylic running vertically down the inside of the canister. Windshield motors are powerful, quiet, and reversible for shots shot in reverse. The discs (or rings) as well as the strips inside were all clear and clear things disappear when lowered into liquid. (a discovery while doing dishes in the shop) the outside of the canister had foam like great stuff on it (this was 2 part foam) and white sugar to give it a corroded look. All and all a simple solution really. No animations, no pumps, just stir. The powdered pigment can never actually mix up and dissolve in the oil. The tank weighed a ton and was almost lost during the scene where the women move it. It tipped over and was caught as the fall began just in time.

[@InAwe9000]

Wow thank you so much ❤!

[@BlackCanvasAudio]

Prince of Darkness is one of my favorite films of all time. Big Trouble in Little China is a freaking masterpiece. In the Mouth of Madness is Carpenter's finest work of art.

[@InAwe9000]

Glad you liked the film! I will do a dive into In the Mouth of Madness before the end of the year!

[@Mahoney1]

the ending of Prince of Darkness is my favorite Carpenter ending as well. It has stayed with me ever since I first saw it in the '80's.

[@InAwe9000]

@@Mahoney1 Glad you loved it too!

[@vikingchad44]

Definitely underrated. Top 5 Carpenter for sure. I go back to this one often. Those dream sequences are so visceral. Love the sound design. Always stuck with me.

[@InAwe9000]

Glad you loved the movie too!

[@Monkismo]

The scene where the girl falls through the mirror into the darkness has always haunted me...

[@InAwe9000]

Yes it was an effective scene. Cartherine has a real terrified face on, like she regrets her sacrifice in the last moment.

[@theramplocal]

Freaking love this movie! So insane

[@InAwe9000]

@@theramplocalGlad you loved it too!

[@josiahbirthright24]

For me, it's the blurry figure emerging from doorway in that garbled "dream" message from the future. And Carpenter's minimal, foreboding score. It's a genius film.

[@InAwe9000]

@@josiahbirthright24 Yeah the blurry figure scared the hell out of me as a kid - and I never really liked how clearly they showed catherine in the doorway in the end. A more subtle hint about a female anti-god would have been more to my tastes.

[@Dalekzilla]

John Carpenter's best film, in my opinion.

[@InAwe9000]

Glad you appreciate it too!

[@glasgowjohn7831]

i love this overlooked john carpenter film and probably the first film to show tachyon particles as a means to pass information through time something that science have now accepted as possible

[@InAwe9000]

Instead of "mumbo jumbo to make the movie work" turned out to be a revelation then 😁

[@Falstaff0809]

“I have a message for you . . . you’re not going to like it.”

[@InAwe9000]

Im still waiting, what was it? 🤭

[@nagone11]

One of the most underrated horror films of it's time..the film was masterful.

[@InAwe9000]

Absolutely!

[@deathmagneto-soy]

Prince of Darkness was the first movie I went to a cinema to watch on my own. When Brian wakes from the dream and turned around in the bed I let out an audible yelp. Luckily there was only a handful of people in the theater so my embarrassment was minimal.

[@InAwe9000]

It was a good scare and you dont really expect it as you think the movie is over. I just found it unnecessary, but if it made you yelp, maybe it wasnt.😂

[@peterpinnpalermo6887]

I saw this on the big screen in 1987! It made me jump. And my buddies. I love this film.

[@InAwe9000]

Would love to see this in a theater. Jealous. 🫡

[@bingerz237]

I think the idea of a faceless kind of amorphous evil that we can't fight is terrifying. It's something beyond us. As with most of Carpenter's best films, it goes to Lovecraft.

[@InAwe9000]

Yeah, the insignificance of human beings is something Lovecraft really knew how to use!

[@jasonmitchum1420]

The concept of this movie is terrifying and truly disturbing. We were all lied to. Nothing we were led to believe is true. It’s truly intelligent horror. It’s not a nightmare, it’s the reality that was always there. If you mixed together Lovecraft, The Exorcist and a smidge of the Da Vinci Code…you’d get this story. Truly an underrated movie!

[@InAwe9000]

Well said man!

[@MisterSifuentes]

Saw this at the drive-in as a kid. It began my obsession with Carpenter 😱

[@InAwe9000]

Nothing wrong with obsessing about Carpenter 😊

[@EsaJunttari]

I haven't seen this movie since it was released in VHS. Nice reminder and I'm clad to see it still looks as good as I remeber. Great job once again Sir!

[@InAwe9000]

Thank you sir!

[@donlengel4770]

This one struck a nerve. Loved it.

[@InAwe9000]

Glad you liked it too!

[@boromir2099]

The dream messages always send chills down my spine! Thanks for doing a vid on one of my fav movies. I love the way he weaves science with religion, putting a maybe semi believable form of God and Jesus.

[@InAwe9000]

Thank you for watching!

[@RobDaCajun]

I totally agree that Prince of Darkness and Vampires are Carpenters least appreciated films. I use to have an old VHS copy of Prince of Darkness and watched it many times back in the day. Side note I recently read Vampire$. John Carpenter definitely made a better movie than the book. The original source material was meh. Carpenter took the bones of the story and made a work of art.

[@InAwe9000]

@@RobDaCajun Good to know about the source material! Thanks!

[@artistjim114]

I saw this movie in 1987-in an old movie theater that let kids watch rated R movies without parents. Leaving the movie at night, we had to walk through an old grave yard. That’s the third time that happened to me. The other 2 movies were The Believers and Halloween 3. Ran home every time!

[@InAwe9000]

Haha, thanks for story!

[@Dumbberi]

The swirling liquid effect really looks something else reflecting on the fact that the budget was not that large.

[@InAwe9000]

What do you think it is?

[@MisterSifuentes]

I would add Cigarette Burns as part of the Apocalypse themes. One of my favorite Carpenter’s films.

[@TheBeird]

First time I saw this film, I caught it late at night halfway through at the "Pray for Death!" part and got totally freaked out . . . but I kept watching. Despite missing half the film, I quickly realised it was John Carpenter. When I saw it in full later on, I loved it. Not as good as The Thing or In the Mouth of Madness, but a wonderful horror flick nonetheless

[@InAwe9000]

Glad you loves it too!

[@Emulous79]

Cool video to listen to while I work. Covers a lot from this Lovecraftian gem.

[@InAwe9000]

Thanks for watching!

[@joncarroll430]

I saw this movie as a kid. The grainy scene in total at the end scared me more than anything I'd ever seen. Brought up by my grandmother and church weekly, seeing pure evil leaving in what to me was a realistic view at the time gave me nightmares for months. I frkn luv this movie still❤

[@InAwe9000]

@@joncarroll430 The grainy footage was like a weird precursor to found footage films…

[@joncarroll430]

@InAwe9000 it was so effective at the time that it almost made it real to my subconscious kid brain. I was also lucky and isolated enough when I watched the Blair Witch movie for the first time i was 100% clueless and thought it was real. I can not begin to explain how terrifying it was in that context. Pure gold. Now it looks like something my kids would make, haha.

[@InAwe9000]

@@joncarroll430yeah I am genuinly jealous to people who saw it when it came out, in the theaters especially…

[@joncarroll430]

@InAwe9000 who knows. The original Exorcist genuinely terrified people as they had never seen anything like it. BW seen thinking it was a real documentary of people who were never found made people believe unknown evil existed in the world. Someday, someone will find a way to use some new method to create a completely new and terrifying experience (I certainly hope) and on and on. Unless AI begins writing movies. It takes human imagination to take unknown risks and create new, unique movies. There's already plenty of dumb attempts to copy successful everythings. They always miss the understanding of what made the original work in the first place.

[@InAwe9000]

@@joncarroll430 Well said!

[@indexbot]

I see an In Awe video, I press like first and then watch 😊

[@InAwe9000]

You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar! Assuming you are male.

[@indexbot]

@@InAwe9000 You assume correctly. Great video!

[@InAwe9000]

@@indexbotthanks a bunch!

[@raymondmasullo3386]

One of my favorite Carpenter films. Effective blend of science fiction and horror (I'm more of a science fiction fan).

[@InAwe9000]

@@raymondmasullo3386 Glad you loved it too , what are your favourite scifi horror movies ?

[@standepain]

Second best Carpenter movie IMO.

[@InAwe9000]

So what is #1? The Thing? Halloween?

[@standepain]

@@InAwe9000 Thing. Halloween isn't even in my top 5.

[@InAwe9000]

@@standepainDont tell anyone but it’s in not mine either 🤭

[@tuningmachine]

Great movie.

[@InAwe9000]

Glad you liked it too!

[@thehorrorist3471]

Love the ideas and most of the execution of this film. The first two thirds really hit the cosmic horror nail on the head. Our understanding of the world around us completely upended. Sadly it sort of devolves into a quasi-zombie movie toward the end. Not quite up to the level of The Thing or The Fog, but still one of my favorite Carpenter films.

[@InAwe9000]

Yeah absolutely, really wish the first 2 acts would just go on and on.

[@standepain]

Fun Fact- The mic/bicycle stabbing rig was designed by The Amazing James Randi who toured with Alice Cooper. He also designed the guillotine rig and was the masked guy who worked it on that tour.

[@InAwe9000]

James Randi toured with Alice Cooper. Never saw that one coming! Thanks for the cool info!

[@transylvaniansunscreen]

This is not a dream...We are transmitting from the year one-nine-nine-nine.

[@InAwe9000]

As someone already commented here, a sequel in 1999 would have been cool. Princess of Darkness?

[@transylvaniansunscreen]

@@InAwe9000 The film depicts demonic possession as a disease. They could have had what they are dealing with in 1999 which is in distress to the end and todays world is just a dream. Hell has already taken over

[@transylvaniansunscreen]

@@InAwe9000 The film depicts demonic possession as a disease. It could show the word in unrest and what they have to deal with from 1999 to now, but really we are in another state of mind and Hell has already taken over

[@transylvaniansunscreen]

@@InAwe9000 for some reason youtube will not let me reply with my comment?

[@InAwe9000]

@@transylvaniansunscreenweird? I can see that one if you are wondering.

[@crumdub12]

Excellent review, My favourite of Carpenters Apocalypse Trilogy

[@InAwe9000]

@crumdub12 Thank you so much for watching! I'm sure I'll get into reviewing In the Mouth of Madness as well before the end of the year. The Thing terrifies me as I feel it has been analyzed to extinction, so I will probably give it a pass.

[@tylerskiss]

This is the one JC film I would enjoy seeing remade. It was far too cerebral for 1987 and it was dragged down by their limited budget. I think the sores or whatever that form on… was it Susan or Kelly? I forget. Point is, she should have morphed into something far more hideous and frightening. The tachyon transmissions are still haunting to this day. I love the notion of a film crew rushing to the church to film the Devil itself…

[@InAwe9000]

Who would you let direct it? Who would play the priest and Birack?

[@HereticHydra]

The Void was like a modern interpretation of Prince of Darkness. It even had a somewhat similar ending. While it had much better special effects, the story, slowly rising dread & tension were nowhere near as good as Prince of Darkness.

[@InAwe9000]

@@HereticHydra Of yeah the effects on that were just great and Lovecraftian influence was so prevalent!

[@rvfiasco]

Oh yea, I like this one for sure! You can't go wrong with Carpenter!

[@InAwe9000]

You sure cant! Do share the video around if you liked it!

[@mcal27]

I love this film..not on the scale of Exorcist 3 or the 1979 Salem’s Lot, but still. The setup is excellent, and the dream ’Future Broadcasts’ are terrifying! I always want more of them. Carpenter always seems to want to fallback on traditional ‘whittle down the cast’ action elements, which reduce the gravity of the film I feel. But I still watch it endlessly and will continue to

[@InAwe9000]

Good to hear!

[@minicle426]

Maybe it's the Quatermass influence. But something about this film always made me think of Dr Who.🤔 You could almost expect Sylvester McCoy to burst in at any moment. :P

[@InAwe9000]

You know Ive never watched Doctor Who… I should but it there is so much of it I dont know where to begin. Suggestions?

[@fearlessjoebanzai]

Imagine The Thing and Big Trouble In Little China, two of the coolest and in the case of The Thing best, movies ever made - derailing your career!!!

[@InAwe9000]

Yeah it is very ironic, can't really blame Carpenter for getting frustrated with Hollywood...

[@floydffrogfloydffrog7453]

Back in the day I sold Amigas. I now have to wonder how many of those who bought one was an Elder Being. Oh I joke, nobody bought them (which was too bad because they were really great).

[@InAwe9000]

Yeah I remember as a kid I had a PC (286), and my friends either had Amigas, Commodore 64's or NES and we were always competing who had the most hardcore machine. Then one got a 486 with Doom and Warcraft and it was all over.

[@joanmayer304]

I loved this movie. Too bad they did not do a follow up “ in the year one nine nine nine”. ❤️ from 🇨🇦

[@InAwe9000]

Glad you loved it too! Princess of Darkness would have been a good sequel!

[@RobinJohnstonphotography]

Great film, shows it’s budget but it’s still creepy

[@InAwe9000]

Absolutely, and thank goodness Carpenter was so good at penny pinching by innovation.

[@MaryAnneRosato]

This is not a dream. Not a dream...

[@InAwe9000]

Indeed it's not :)

[@user-gp5kh5tu4k]

Never understood why she didn´t simply push her in....

[@InAwe9000]

Maybe unsure it would work? Suckerpushing the son of the anti-god better work or you’ll in a bit of a pickle 😔

[@haruruben]

It’s a flawed but brilliant film. It kind of degrades into a zombie film at the end, almost feels like they lost confidence in the heady and creepy themes and fell back to typical exploitation

[@InAwe9000]

My thoughts exactly…

[@derekpierkowski7641]

🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘

[@InAwe9000]

🤌

[@Jcarroz]

Oooooooh man this movie messed with 14 year old me’s head. I’m surprised it doesn’t get more acclaim.

[@InAwe9000]

I must have seen it around the same time. It's funny that certain details about the movie just stay with you even after you have forgotten most about it.

[@josiahbirthright24]

As the years go by, it becomes clearer and clearer: Roger Ebert was a terrible critic.

[@InAwe9000]

I find myself disagreeing with him often, but also sometimes surprised he liked something that others did not. The next video is about Lord of Illusions, which he gave 3/4 stars, while so many disliked it. I still appreciate he said what he had to say, and as everything is subjective in the end, I dont mind disagreeing.

[@josiahbirthright24]

​@@InAwe9000 The biggest tragedy is that Ebert had so much power. He had mediocre tastes. He almost always praised the safest films and trashed anything that challenged his sensibilities. So many of his reviews had to be deleted or re-written years later that it's "hilarious". Actually, it's infuriating. He absolutely did not understand Science Fiction or Horror. If he was writing for a small town newspaper it would be one thing. But his narrow mind occupying such a big stage kept droves of regular people from supporting a long list of films that are now seen as ground breaking.

[@InAwe9000]

@@josiahbirthright24Yeah you are probably right about having tol much power!

[@ERTHL]

Wonderful backstory and nostalgia - only to be out-horrored by forced feet footage. Yuck.

[@InAwe9000]

🦶🏼