The princes of darkness

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Movie
German title The princes of darkness
Original title John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1987
length 102 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director John Carpenter
script John Carpenter (as Martin Quatermass)
production Larry J. Franco
music John Carpenter,
Alan Howarth
camera Gary B. Kibbe
cut Steve Mirkovich
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
The thing from another world

Successor  →
The Forces of Madness

The Lords of Darkness is an American horror film directed by John Carpenter from 1987 . It is the second part of Carpenter's apocalyptic trilogy , which began in 1982 with The Thing from Another World and ended in 1994 with The Powers of Madness .

action

An old priest dies on the eve of an audience with the archbishop. He leaves a box with an old key in it. A priest becomes aware of the case and determines that the body is the last member of an ancient secret society , the Brotherhood of Sleep , to have spent the past 30 years in a closed church in Los Angeles . The priest goes there and uses the key to open the door to a secret vault below the church. What he finds there worries him. He gets in touch with a friend, Professor Birack, and asks him for help. He puts together a group of his most capable students with whom he wants to analyze the find over the weekend in church.

On arrival, the group notices the strange behavior of some of the neighborhood residents. The devices and computers are set up and put into operation. The group goes into the vault to view the artifact . It is a taller glass column that is locked at the top. A glowing green liquid swirls in the container. In front of it an old Bible is carried by a standing desk. The team starts to work. While one group is translating the Bible, which is repeatedly made difficult by overwritten or deleted passages, the other group carries out technical analyzes on the container. The container is over seven million years old. It is equipped with a locking mechanism that can only be opened from the inside. From the translation of the Bible, the researchers learn that the father of Satan , a god who walked the earth before men, locked his son in this container and buried it in the Middle East. Descended from a race of human-like aliens, Jesus Christ was sent to warn people. His disciples were initiated. It was decided to keep the truth secret until humanity was technologically able to fight the being in the container.

Meanwhile, some of the researchers keep having the same dream. The priest explains that all those near the Brotherhood of Sleep have been doing so for centuries. The researchers suspect that this is a video recording from the future that is intended to warn people.

The atmosphere in the church is becoming more and more tense, especially since the residents of the district are using all means to prevent people from leaving the church. A researcher is staked with the rest of a bicycle while trying to escape.

In the meantime, more and more of those trapped come under the power of the being in the glass pillar and become its slaves. The body of one of the researchers chose to become physical again. His slaves drag the glass container into the helpless victim's room, where the liquid in the container penetrates the young woman's body and begins to change it. The rest of the researchers, barricaded in an adjoining room, have to watch helplessly as their colleague is transformed. Meanwhile, further escape attempts are prevented by the residents of the district. The researchers are trapped.

The devil in the researcher's body is awakening. His goal is to free the father from prison. For this he needs a mirror. In the room with the matching mirror, the priest had previously hidden from the devil's slaves. He watches with horror as the devil sticks his hand through the glowing white mirror and calls for his father. Before he can remember, he takes up an ax and cuts off the devil's arm, who immediately disappears in the mirror. The devil looks only briefly at the priest and, by virtue of his will, hurls him into the corner of the room. In the next moment the arm has grown back and is put into the mirror again. Intrigued by the noise, the prisoners open the door and see what the creature is up to. With ultimate desperation, the researchers try to prevent the creature from carrying out its deed. The main character is horrified to see his lover jump on the devil and disappear with him in the mirror. The world is saved.

He falls into a deep sleep and dreams the warning again. At last he can make out the black figure stepping out of the church: his beloved. He wakes up in horror. Confused, he steps into the bathroom, thinking of his lost love. He walks towards the mirror and his hand goes up towards it.

background

  • The film cost only $ 3 million, which was surprisingly little by Carpenter standards at the time, considering that Big Trouble in Little China had cost $ 25 million. Although it was not the success hoped for with a gross profit of $ 14 million, it still earned more than Big Trouble in Litte China .
  • Donald Pleasence's character in this film is called Loomis, just like in Carpenter's film series Halloween .
  • Alice Cooper makes a brief appearance in this film.
  • The film was removed from the index in March 2013. After a re-examination, the film was approved by the FSK from the age of 16.
  • The almost 10-minute opening credits sequence is the longest in film history.

criticism

The lexicon of international films judges: "Horror film developed as a routine at the beginning, which turns into a frightful spectacle with numerous shock scenes and uses questions of modern physics to exploit fears."

literature

  • Frank Schnelle: Suspense, shock, terror. John Carpenter and his films. Robert Fischer, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-924098-04-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for The Princes of Darkness . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , April 2013 (PDF; test number: 59 651 V).
  2. ↑ The Princes of Darkness. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used