PRINCE OF DARKNESS

Out 26 NOVEMBER / Cert 15 / 102 Mins

Derided upon release in 1987, and often seen as the beginning of John Carpenter’s sad slump into directorial dereliction, Prince Of Darkness has revealed itself over time as the Horror Master’s last great movie. He wrote it as Martin Quatermass, a nod to Nigel Kneale’s hero scientist, and that shows in this ambitious blend of the rational and irrational, as a group of science students hole up in a mysterious church, trying to figure out the true nature of a jar of green gloop. the second part of his apocalypse trilogy (starting with The Thing, ending with In The Mouth Of Madness), this is devilishly tense stuff, driven by his last soundtrack in conjunction with Alan Howarth. Few images will burrow into your brain like the flickery, videotaped recurring motif of a shadowy figure, emerging from the church, intent and origin unknown. But if that doesn’t do it for you, there’s always Alice Cooper killing people with the pointy end of a bicycle.