Director: John Carpenter
Starring: Donald Pleasence, Jameson Parker, Victor Wong, Lisa Blount, Alice Cooper, Dennis Dun, Susan Blanchard, Anne Marie Howard, Anne Yen, Dirk Blocker
31 Days of Horror continues with Adam Truscott reviewing another John Carpenter classic. Send me your horror reviews.
This Halloween, you need to ask yourself something. Are you willing to forget all you know about Satan? All you think you know? All that you have ever seen on screen before?
The reason I ask is simple. John Carpenter wants to throw you a curve ball.
Far from being dapper, and small (with big heels, and a lizard tongue), like Al Pacino – he /she/whatever is instead a green vat of liquid.
Far from being sharp in a suit, with long nails, peeling eggs – he/she/whatever turns people into zombies. Sinisterly typing “I Live!” over and over, like some demented Jack Torrence.
Still with me? Then you’re either a fan, or soon will be, of Prince Of Darkness.
It’s a film that I didn’t quite “get” before. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I “get” it now. It’s a bizarre little creation. But it’s charming.
And it works.
John Carpenter expects us to believe that the “Brotherhood Of Sleep” (*snigger*), have been keeping Satan locked up in the basement of an L.A Church forever. Satan, far from being caged up, is a green vat of liquid. Soon, when he starts to escape, he will drip liquid from the floor, to the ceiling. You know, like the complete opposite of how things should be.
He will possess people, and get them to spew green gunge into other people’s mouths.
He’ll do this to gather a crew of zombies, who look a bit like the gangs in Escape/Assault, or the zombies in Ghosts Of Mars (Told you it was Halloween). They will surround the church, creating far more tension than in the whole of Resident Evil: Afterlife (Don’t start me on that one, again.)
He’ll start to pick the ensemble cast off (Victor Wong! Dennis Dun! No Kurt Russell!), one by one. Have them crawling through, and under walls. Building to a conclusion that can only satisfy by having Donald Pleasance speaking in Latin, and wielding an axe.
It’s all classic John Carpenter in terms of themes.
It shouldn’t work, but it does.
A flick through IMDB reviews shows a better description than I could ever give.
“One of the most cosmically creepy movies of all time”.
I don’t even know what that means, but I like it! It sums the film up. It is creepy.
The image of someone in the hallway, recurring in the characters nightmares. It’s unsettling. Throw in a JC soundtrack too – and you know JC can do a soundtrack. The whole film just comes together. Plus, it’s unique. Say what you like about The Thing being a remake. This is 100% balls to the walls original – and JC (Carpenter, not our Lord), knows it. He plays on it. Keeps pushing the boundaries.
There are bits that shouldn’t work, but do.
Alice Cooper as a deranged hobo? Check.
Putting a decapitated head back on, as a sort of homage to The Thing? Check.
If nothing else, see it for JCs use of opening credits. Nine minutes apparently! Why not, I suppose.
It’s just a film that is hard to dislike.
I know I love me some Carpenter – but this is different. Similar to In The Mouth Of Madness, it offers something different this Halloween.
You can’t just be happy to watch Halloween every year, can you…?
