Prince of Darkness

I am sure that by now most of you know that John Carpenters film "Halloween" is his self professed tribute to Dario Argento and to a lesser degree Mario Bava (hell of a tribute he did there!). Now, even though he never said it, I would have to agree with the majority who claim that this film, "The Prince Of Darkness", is a tribute to Lucio Fulci.

The film owes its whole feel to that of Master Fulci. The script is vague and the images are rich. But just what is this thing about? Well, it seems that Satan has turned himself into a pile of green slime. This slime is kept in a giant glass jarm therefore becoming a giant, possessed lava lamp! Yes, Satan really was behind the 70's and disco!

A priest and a scientist join forces to battle evil the slime critter with a group of people in different roles to help out. What it is everybody does, I don't know. I don't even really understand just what the heck a bunch of the stuff in this movie means. But like the best of Fulci (ie. The Beyond) all you need is the main theme, Satan is trying to get out and take over the world, and you have some brilliant images and pacing to make for a real creepy movie.

I missed this when it hit the theaters in the 80's and I never bothered to rent it. The critics panning of this film worked on me. Plus I saw part of it one night while over at a girlfriends house (circa '88) on cable and it bored us and we turned to other activities...

In a recent issue of Video Watchdog this film was reviewed and given such a positive review that they said the DVD presentation made them decide it was one of the 10 best films from the 80's. That piqued my interest. Then Circuit City placed the DVD on sale for the price of $6.99 USD! It was mine.

All of the performances are great. The stand-outs being Victor Wong and the always good Donald Pleasance in the roles of the scientist and priest respectively.

The picture on this DVD release is beautiful. Strong colors and thick blacks. No grain and no artifacting. This really does prove to be a timeless looking picture.

The extras are not here. There is only chapter stops. This is one of the first of Universals DVD's and you can see that they really have come a long way. Today they are one of the leaders of the big studios for the DVD world (ID4 for a great example). But this is a pretty pathetic DVD, but since it is an old one, we can let it slide. If you can find it as cheap as I did, you have yourself one hell of a bargain!

In the end, this is a brilliant film and an incredible looking DVD. Buy it. This is one that I recommend to every fan of the Horror genre. If you are willing to drop a bit of money on crap like "Pieces", then please buy this DVD. Watch and remember when Carpenter was on top of his game.