A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You/Prince of Darkness (1987)

My first episode is a combination introduction (who I am, where I've been/am/going, yada, yada, yada) and brief discussion of the first film I ever reviewed professionally. Call it a background before moving forward.

Here's the link to my horror blog I mention in the podcast: https://thisoldhauntedhouseblog.wordpress.com/

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Transcript

Speaker 0:11

Hello and welcome to the inaugural episode of Scenes From the Screen. My name is Sean, and today it'll just be me bending your ear about a movie.

Speaker 0:18

We'll get to the feature in a few minutes, but first I wanted to mention why I chose the title of a Monkees song instead of a movie for the first episode. It's because I wanted to introduce myself--a little bit me-- as well as maybe explain why you may (fingers crossed) like the podcast--a little bit you.

Speaker 0:35

I just want to say that I'm by no means an expert in film making, history, or criticism, though I've dabbled in the latter for more time than I care to admit, and I've seen tons of movies over the years.

Speaker 0:45

I've always loved movies. As a Gen X latchkey kid, I was able to see films on TV like Psycho after school or Let's Scare Jessica to death on Saturday afternoon, courtesy of WOR, the Super Station out of Secaucus, New Jersey. Obviously I was (and still am) really into horror films, but I'd watch almost anything. In Pittsburgh, we had a local station, (and still do) WPGH, that ran Abbott and Costello movies on Sunday mornings. Then there was whatever was available during the early days of HBO, and there'll be more about that at a later time. At the theater, films like The Apple Dumpling Gang, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, and of course Star Wars, which I was fortunate enough to see twice in the theater, in its original aspect before Lucas, you know, tinkered with it years down the line.

Speaker 1:31

My love of film only accelerated, and by the time high school rolled around, I really would see just about everything. Movies at the theater were an escape to get out of the house and have a bit of independence while bonding with friends. You know, go to the mall, see a movie. And with the rise of both cable and local rental stores, there were almost an infinite number of films to choose from. Not to mention that Siskel and Ebert's movie reviews were an influence because they featured both major releases and also pointed out films that a lot of us may have never heard about otherwise.

Speaker 2:00

I was a pretty shy kid growing up, so when it came time to go to college, it took all the courage I could muster to go down to the campus TV station freshman year. I was immediately given a variety of things to do as the communications program was pretty hands-on, but it was the entertainment show where I finally found my niche doing film reviews-- on camera no less which proved to be both terrifying and a lot of fun. In a few moments, I'll kick off the movie discussion with the first film I ever reviewed, so hang tight.

Speaker 2:28

Now, for many years after that, I obviously still saw a lot of movies, but didn't really parlay it into anything. In 2013, I started a horror related blog, which I've contributed to on and off, and there's a link in the notes if you're inclined to check it out.

Speaker 2:42

So why start a podcast and why now?

Speaker 2:45

Well, about a year ago, I was diagnosed with a very serious and aggressive form of cancer, but that's not something I'm going to talk about here. I'm sure if you're listening to this first episode, odds are I already know you and you're fully up to date on everything. If not, you'll somehow find the blog to read further.

Speaker 3:00

Now for the podcast, I started with the idea of how rewatchable films are, but noticed that there were several other podcasts out there focusing on that very same idea, including one hosted by Bill Simmons. Well, that's hard to compete with, but it'll still be a part of my process, though not a sole focus.

Speaker 3:17

As of right now, there's really no set format. More often than not, an episode will be relegated to just one movie, or if there's a specific topic, toss in a few extras. I don't expect to have a huge following or make money, though either would be nice. But maybe I could bring something different to the table and when I have guests on, I'll be surrounding myself with people of the same ilk, who love movies, whom I've known for a while, and who are just really interesting people.

Speaker 3:43

What do I hope you get out of it? Well, maybe discovering a movie you've never heard of, or seeing an old favorite in a new light. Could be just to have a laugh or even learn something.

Speaker 3:52

Now I always appreciate constructive feedback or criticism, but if you just want to tell me I suck, I know that already. That said, I'm not afraid to play that cancer card if anyone disagrees with me. I'm joking, of course. Or am I?

Speaker 4:06

Look, the bottom line is that we just all need to have a little fun and not take things too seriously.

Speaker 4:11

And with that, I want to talk about the first film I ever reviewed, John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness.

Speaker 4:17

Prince of Darkness kicks off when Priest, a Catholic priest and also the character name, discovers that a hidden sect within the Catholic Church known as the Brotherhood of Sleep kept watch over a mysterious glass cylinder filled with swirling green liquid that's stored in the bottom of an abandoned Los Angeles church. Priest understands that the newfound problem requires a scientific approach, so he enlists the assistance of college quantum physics professor Howard Birack, several of his students, and a bevy of additional scientists to translate text and analyze ancient mathematical equations.

Speaker 4:50

Shortly after starting their investigation, the church is surrounded by a group of homeless people led by Alice Cooper, who seem in thrall to some higher power and prevent the participants from leaving by killing them when they try.

Speaker 5:03

The group of students are at first kept in the dark, but eventually come to discover that the canister holds the ancient remains of Satan, who is breaking out of his prison, and that Christ was actually an alien who was sent to warn us that Satan's here to release his father, an anti-god from another antimatter realm.

Speaker 5:20

One of the students is infected with the liquid from the canister, and the evil spreads as she either kills or infects the others one by one, until a growing army of the undead lays siege from within the church. Anyone in close proximity to this canister has the same dream when they fall asleep, but it's posited that instead of a dream, it's a recorded warning sent from the future, the tachyon pulses moving backwards through time.

Speaker 5:44

So do our priests, students, and scientists come out ahead? Well, somewhat. Of course, it's been almost 40 years since the film's release, but I don't want to spoil it for you.

Speaker 5:53

I saw Prince of Darkness on a chilly October night at the Grand Theater in downtown Milwaukee. Not only was it a perfectly creepy night outside, the Grand was one of those classical theaters with amazing architecture that was not only beautiful, but in a way gave you the willies in certain places-- like where the bathrooms were located-- just outside of screaming distance. It was truly one of those places that took you back in time.

Speaker 6:16

Anyway, it was the first time I saw a movie by myself, though certainly not the last. The film had just opened, so my review for the campus TV station was going to be pretty timely. As an aside, I learned how to handwrite notes on a small notepad in the dark pretty quickly. And that useless talent did actually pay off years later when I did a paper on GoodFellas for a film class.

Speaker 6:37

I immediately loved Prince of Darkness and still do. I just rewatched it a few days ago and it holds up pretty well. In some ways, it was not only a throwback to old sci-fi horror films, but also way ahead of its time. In an interview on the bonus material on the disc that I watched, Carpenter said that he got the idea from reading a book on quantum physics months before he started writing the script for Prince of Darkness.

Speaker 6:58

When I started the film, I forgot how long the opening credits were. I think I read somewhere that it's about nine minutes, which would really be unheard of today if you get any credits at all.

Speaker 7:07

Though I've seen bits and pieces of the film over the years, it had been decades since I saw it from the very beginning, and was struck by two things. One is how Carpenter combines his signature music with visual exposition to introduce you to the characters and plot. It's an excellent example of the old "show don't tell" adage. And two, I noted the way in which Carpenter chose to use almost drab spartan hallways and nearly empty city streets to evoke an ominous feel-- bleak and drab and filled with dread. The locations seemed generic and normal, like everyday places you wouldn't give a second thought about, but Carpenter's pulsating score adds an underlying feeling of waiting for an organism to explode.

Speaker 7:47

What I also liked about the film seeing it again after all these years is that it doesn't really date itself that much. Okay, except for the technology, which is obviously extremely basic, but I always get a kick out of that kind of thing. Nothing screams serious research more than a DOS system, regurgitating translations of ancient texts and mathematical equations at a rapid pace. I still love watching older sci-fi films that use old punch cards or dot matrix printers that a fanatical scientist will inevitably grab and yell, "You fools!", as he's hauled away to a psychiatric hospital before being proved right in the third act.

Speaker 8:20

Prince of Darkness doesn't have that, thankfully. Yeah, Donald Pleasance's Priest borders on the fanatical, but that's just because he's right. And it's great that maybe only one or two people act as naysayers, one going so far as to call the research caca. Because the science adds up, even in a weird way, the rest of the group at least buys in in some manner, putting their faith in science and not religion. But they'll come to realize that both will converge to reveal the seemingly unbelievable.

Speaker 8:47

Prince of Darkness is evocative of some of Carpenter's earlier work. The scenes of the homeless surrounding the church and the rapidly growing army of minions attacking the rest of the group is reminiscent of his 1976 action thriller, Assault on Precinct 13. The sense of impending doom and the cast being picked off one by one by an unstoppable force is similar to Halloween and its iconic villain Michael Myers. You can even see glimpses of George Romero's 1968 zombie classic Night of the Living Dead, as Satan's army of the undead grows and becomes an increasing and what appears to be an insurmountable threat to the survivors.

Speaker 9:22

Most likely due to budgetary restrictions, Prince of Darkness doesn't have what you traditionally call a "name" cast, meaning that other than industry vet Donald Pleasance, there aren't many actors who the average theater goer would know by name, only quite a few are easily recognizable by their face. For example, Jameson Parker was at the time best known for his work on the CBS action show, Simon and Simon. And Carpenter had worked with Victor Wong and Dennis Dun several years prior in Big Trouble in Little China. The late Lisa Blount was in the very underrated Dead and Buried, as well as An Officer and a Gentleman. Anne Howard was a soap vet, having been in daytime dramas like Days of Our Lives and Another World. And finally, the late character actor Peter Jason would go on to be a regular Carpenter collaborator in future projects.

Speaker 10:05

Prince of Darkness took a huge ambitious swing for the fences in 1987, which had its share of great horror films like Hellraiser and The Lost Boys, some direct-to-video releases with varying degrees of quality and success, and outright turds. I mean, come on, Jaws the Revenge? It mostly succeeds and is rewatchable, though it's not one I would want to sit through and watch all the time if it happened to come on TV. Like I mentioned earlier, this was the first time I'd seen Prince of Darkness in its entirety since maybe the late 90s or early 2000s. So as having rewatchability potential, I'd put it around a six out of ten.

Speaker 10:39

Is it worth your time? Absolutely. However, it's generally not going to appeal to a large swath of today's audiences simply because of the intricate subject matter mixing theology, mathematics, and quantum physics, as well as the dreamy and languorous pace. It wasn't quite the recipe for success in 1987, and a film with this pacing definitely wouldn't be made today. That said, if you like slower-paced films like Bring Her Back and Hereditary, you just might enjoy it. If nothing else, add it to your list for this Halloween as a late night entry.

Speaker 11:09

Well, that's all I have for today, so thank you for listening. If you liked it, make sure you hit that subscribe button so you're the first to know when new episodes become available on your favorite podcast platform. For Scenes From the Screen, I'm Sean, and until next time, don't let your screen go dark.