For hundreds of years now the Catholic Church has been hiding a secret deep in the basement of an old run down church in Los Angeles, California. When one priest, investigating the death of another, finds himself opening the door to the basement in question, he discovers a strange containment unit that sort of resembles a giant test tube, full of swirling green liquid.

Curious to find out more but not wanting to alert the press to this unusual discovery, the priest pulls some strings and arranges for a team of scientists and physics students from the nearby university to spend some time at the church to determine what exactly the green liquid is, and whether or not his suspicions about its origin are correct or not.

As the group spends more time in the church and gets closer to the truth, strange things start to happen. Some of the students seem to be almost possessed and groups of homeless and transients are gathering outside the church, but not for hand outs or charity – they have an altogether different agenda in mind.

I openly admit, I'm a sucker for a good horror movie with advertent religious themes. Probably due to my upbringing, it gets me every time. But looking beyond my own personal preferences, I still feel safe in stating that Prince Of Darkness is one of John Carpenter's most underrated films and certainly one of his scariest. It seems to get panned more of then than it's praised and I really don't understand why that is.

Think about what the movie has working in its favor. Not only is it skillfully directed by a master of modern horror, but its got genre veteran Donald Pleasence (Dr. Loomis of the Halloween series) in a lead role as Father Loomis (catch the name reference?), Victor Wong (of Big Trouble In Little China as the professor, and a great cameo from Alice Cooper as one of the possessed transients. Add in a nice synth score that isn't as badly dated as some have said, and it all adds up to a nice, atmospheric little movie with a lot of eerie, subtle touches that give a wonderfully foreboding feeling.

Video:

Prince of Darkness is presented in a 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer and is, overall, quite pleasing. For those who own the old Image release, this appears to be the exact same transfer. Colors are nice and rich with a few minor exceptions and blacks remain consistently solid throughout. There is a mild amount of grain and the odd instance of very minor print damage that crops up here and there, but you kind of have to be looking for them to notice them and they don't interfere with the movie watching experience or anything.