 Thanks for checking out this no spoilers movie review This is for the 1987 John Carpenter film a prince of darkness actually prior to seeing this that I've never seen it before this was my first time doing it watched it streaming on shutter and This is one that I did a poll for and this is the Largest win any movie. I've put in a poll for a review has ever had I had this going up against I think best worst movie and Something else. Oh, no, it wasn't those. I don't even remember what I had it going up against But at any rate Prince of Darkness killing it people really want to see it So one of the things that I knew About this film going into it. Well, two things I knew about this film going into it the title says a lot So when I say I'm doing a no spoilers review, I'm gonna talk about you know The devil in it because that's not really a spoiler because the title says it So the only thing I really knew about it was based on title There's something about the devil and Alice Cooper is in it Like it's well-known people like oh Alice Cooper's in that movie Alice Cooper's a movie Which by the way like he doesn't even matter in the film to be honest because He has a very small part and he doesn't even have any dialogue either Does he do a fine job for what he's supposed to do in the film? Sure good enough But doesn't matter the fact that he was in there is just kind of like more of an Easter egg than anything Someone else easily could have played his role. So it's just kind of like hey look Alice Cooper. So whatever But like I said as a 1987 film and this film for John Carpenter He he wrote and directed it for him. This came out after Big Trouble on Little China and before They live so a pretty good stretch of films like boom boom boom in a row And for that reason since it came after Big Trouble on Little China. He actually had two Two people also in the film in the in Prince of Darkness who were in Big Trouble on Little China and that's Victor Wong and Dennis Dunn those two individuals if anyone seen Big Trouble on Little China And then you watch Prince of Darkness you'll immediately recognize those guys will be like hey Because I did and I had to look it up I'm like what are those guys names because I recognize them from Big Trouble on Little China And they do a really good job for the most part the cast does a good job There are a few moments where there's some kind of bad acting But for the most part it's fine and when I say a few moments of some kind of bad acting It's like kind of bad acting for the 80s because when you're watching 80s horror films You just kind of have in your mind like acting back then wasn't all that great Especially not in horror films and when you got a really good performance. It was very rare and you were like, oh wow That's amazing. So Just how it was So this particular cut of the film Looked really good on the shutter streaming service. It almost looked like it was done in high definition It looked really good. I was very very surprised at how crisp and clean it looked I was very impressed with that. It was a very nice Version of the film. I liked it. I liked the aesthetic the look of it a lot I like the strategy that that is employed in this and I think Carpenter does this in a lot of his films where he will have a little bit of credits and then a scene of the actual movie starting and then a little bit of credits and the See in the movie and just like going back and forth. So you're not just sitting there like seeing One backdrop and then the credits keep going because like people don't even pay attention for that Like I know I don't if there's nothing really going on. I'm just like, okay I'll just wait until this stops and then I'll start paying attention So it's kind of cool to like have you engaged but also try and get you to pay attention to The names and the credits at the same time. So I like that Much like the film big trouble little China the set design for this film is very well done For what they're going for and it's not, you know Like the setting that they have for this isn't anything like lavish or elaborate or anything like that But I think they nailed it. They made it look very good. They made it look authentic They made it look like kind of like gritty and old like it's supposed to be and it just looks good It looks really good, especially with The main thing in the film that is the focus looked really cool Watching this made me realize how much relationships are a staple of movies actually. Yeah, so It's not really so much tied to this film But it just seemed kind of like Unnecessary that there's a relationship that happens in the film where it's like oh this guy wants to be with this woman I was woman wants to be with this guy and it just made me think that like for a long time in film It was just expected that like we're gonna have a relationship There's gonna be a love interest and I know that for the most part We're starting to get away from that in film right nowadays And I think that's a really good thing because let's just focus on the story because in my opinion a lot of the times The relationship aspect of things doesn't really add much to it Especially when it comes to horror horror in particular Relationships can matter in certain aspects when it depends on what like the story is But I've seen a lot of them where it's just like Relationships don't matter in this aspect or in this story and people wouldn't be focusing on relationships Because they're trying to survive now with this film the relationship is set up before anything terrible is going on So it's a little more believable, but I've seen horror films plenty before where there's horrible stuff going on and these people are Just like this is life or death Hey, do you want to have a relationship should we slow things down? Should we have a little bit of sex when there's like a zombie apocalypse going on and they're beating in our door right now It's kind of like that type of stuff, but they they don't do that in Prince of Darkness It just made me think so sorry for the side tangent. Let me know your thoughts on that though Put a comment down there. Do you like the relationship stuff? Or are you happy to kind of get away from it? I'm happy to get away from it. Obviously. I also like the whole I Like this whole thing and it happens in films from the 80s from 70s 80s like decades and decades and decades past where if there's science related stuff and there's this kind of like obligatory scene of Setting up all this random Sciencey equipment that nobody knows what it is or what it does and particularly in this film It's funny because all the like the computer screens are like constantly like running code and running text and you're just like What is the point of that? It's just totally random It's just like ah this computer is working because there's all sorts of gobbledygook going on on there. It's weird But I just found that funny It's just kind of remind me I was like ah yes science stuffs of the obligatory Setting up random equipment. You have no idea what it's for or what it does and it doesn't even get explained usually Oh, yeah, I already said that the acting's kind of rough So this this film actually has a lot of very strong foreshadowing in it Which actually takes a lot of the surprise out of it. There really is not much of any surprise I mean maybe a little bit to some degree, but the the stuff going on and very very early on It's super strong foreshadowing. You know where it's going. You know what's gonna happen I mean you already know stuff based off the title of the film Which you know, maybe you should have chose something else, but I mean it is a good title. So I don't know it's just It's just one of those things where like I I am in the mode of kind of liking to Be surprised as I go along especially with a horror film and with this one I felt like I didn't really have that the only things I was really surprised by were The the things they decided to do for their special effects Which we're good like and that's another thing I was gonna talk about it and so I'll just talk about it now The special effects were really cool. I really liked a lot of the choices they made for certain special effects to do and Those things you don't see coming so those are fun and interesting and some of that stuff I haven't really seen in film before so very unique and You know, that's John Carpenter though John Carpenter does that. He's a very unique guy He's had a lot of very cool original ideas. So Although his favorite film of mine is not original The thing remake but you know, but yeah, just the foreshadowing super super heavy. So You know, if you if you really like to have a mystery on your hands when you're watching a film This is not that film for you really Um, okay, so I already said we already know the devil's involved in this because of the title of the film And one of the things one of my pet peeves in film in general is the use of like religion Like God and the devil aspect of religion not because like I have problems with it necessarily it's just that like I feel like it's used a lot It's very tired to me and I feel like it's kind of like a crutch It's like when people can't come up with anything new or interesting They're just like, oh, well, let's do God and the devil stuff because that's there And it's been mined so heavily and You know, this is from the 80s So at that point it wasn't mined as heavily but I feel like it was still mined pretty heavily at that point But but I will say in the instance of this film That there were some interesting new things that john carpenter threw in He had an interesting kind of fresh take on that whole thing So for that reason at first I was like, oh devil stuff But then as things kind of unfolded I was like, okay Well, he he actually made it interesting enough and different enough that I'm okay with it Then I'm like, all right, you may you made it your own thing It it's not tired and old and that's what I'm fine with these things When people kind of take it and they kind of make it their own just like with um zombies Like I feel like the the zombie film is so Unbelievably overdone every time I see a new zombie films come out. I roll my eyes so hard You can probably even hear it if you're in my presence Because I'm I'm sick of it because a lot of it's just the same Now when someone does something new With it, then I'm like, okay, you have my attention. I respect that that's great But when you have all these people just being like, well, we're just gonna do something just like the walking dead or we're gonna do something Just like world war z or just like knight of living dead I'm out You gotta give me something new you gotta give me something at least slightly original if you're gonna use something that's been mined Heavily and like I said prince of darkness did a good job with that. I think good job, john carpenter um Bad things happen a little bit of it at a time in this film And it's kind of like here's a bad omen here's a bad thing happening And I felt like the pacing of when they dropped those things into the film Was like perfect It was it was like the perfect amount because they give you a little bit of Like the characters interacting with each other trying to figure things out and then a bad thing happening And then a little bit more of the character stuff and then a bad thing happening And I just felt like it moved at such a nice pace that it kept you fully engaged until Towards the end of the film to be honest because when when it's kind of those two worlds are merging Where you know, you can't get away from the terrible things happen and and the terrible things are consistent in a certain time frame It got really slow It got very slow and I started to get very disinterested in the film I still paid attention because you know doing the review but There could have been some much better editing on this. I feel like they really needed to chomp this thing down Cut it down. It was uh, I think it clocked in at like an hour and 40 minutes So really I would like to see it more like an hour and a half or less Because it didn't feel like it should be as long as it is It really should not be that long to be honest and you you know If you're watching this film if you go and watch it right now You'll see what i'm talking about you you will feel it and you will see it When you know That moment where you're just like yeah this stop this scene in particular needs to be cut down drastically It's going on way too long. It's not that interesting just cut it down And especially it's bad placement because it's towards the end of the film where things are like really Moving and that's when you want people most engaged. So I don't know that's one of my that's probably my biggest criticism of this film that really took me out of it Uh, I like the setting Um, it's a can you know, this doesn't give much away It's it's a confined setting and I really like horror films that are done in confined settings usually not always It depends on how a director works with it A lot of the times if it's like bigger budget like john carpenter was getting with prince of darkness he You know has a lot of things he can do with it. He can make the set design look really good He can use numerous rooms and new numerous areas of the one location But when it's like lower budget it gets to be a little bit hard because you need to just be like super creative with the story in general Um, because you don't have all that money as as a resource. So I just really like the whole confined Location one location thing because it makes you feel like the big bad thing in the film Is that much closer all the time like people can't get away from it No matter what you do You're stuck like you're you're you're locking in there with it and this movie really feels that way and I like that about it Um There's oh, I already talked about the one point where it's super super slow Um, yeah, and then the practical effects. I already talked about that as well the practical effects were there's one in particular involving Liquid I will just say that and it happens a few times throughout the film And that's probably my favorite effect in the film. I just thought they set it up really cool They made it look super awesome and you didn't see it coming which I really liked so um Yeah, so that's my overall review of prince of darkness now Out of five stars with half stars in play I don't think I can give it a ton because there are a lot of like I was saying there's a bunch of it that really needs to be cut down Um, there's some cool things that happen overall. I enjoyed the film, but it's not it's not like crazy great Uh, and I will say that you know, I was saying that it came out after big trouble in little china and before they live I like they live and big trouble in little china more like significantly more than prince of darkness Is it good? Am I glad that I watch it? Yeah, it's good. I'm glad I watch it. Yeah, will I go back and watch it again? Maybe I don't know maybe But uh, that being said I will give it three out of five stars So still a pretty good mark and I would recommend it if you haven't seen it So especially because I mean come on it's john carpenter Just see as much john carpenter as you can. That's all I'm saying Anyway, thank you for checking this out. Please hit the subscribe button for me I really appreciate it every time I see a new subscriber I get excited and I'm just like ha ha someone else who likes horror and likes horror movie reviews Down with that. Um, I will be seeing mid summer Actually, when this comes out, I will have already seen the movie mid summer in the theater So I will have a review available go back and check that out if you're wondering about it because it's like the new hot thing Hope and it's good. But anyway, um, put some comments down there Let's talk about prince of darkness if you want and like I said, please subscribe Anyway, thank you so much until next time. Keep it brutal