the canon of green goo cinema - Prince of Darkness (1987)

what's that hiding in my church's basement it's A SATAN JAR

Apr 27, 2025

I feel like in the “Big Book of Lessons Learned from Horror Movies” there should be multiple pages dedicated to “if you find a box with a mysterious key inside, don’t fucking use said key”, no?

Spoilers, etc.

Prince of Darkness (1987)

Written and directed by: John Carpenter

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Victor Wong, Jameson Parker, Lisa Blount, Dennis Dun, Susan Blanchard, Anne Howard, Ann Yen, et al.

Running time: 101 minutes

Original release date: October 23rd, 1987

the plot, in brief

In the basement of an abandoned church in LA, an ancient, sinister secret rests, protected by a centuries old sect. When the last member of the sect dies before he can warn the cardinal that “the sleeper awakens”, a visiting Catholic priest (Pleasence) finds a small ornate box among his possessions. In the box, a key, and when the priest opens a secret door inside the Saint Godard monastery, he discovers the item the sect was protecting: a large cylinder full of swirling green liquid.

The priest calls upon his friend, quantum physicist Professor Howard Birack (Wong) to help analyze the contents of the cylinder. But Birack, along with a group of his best students and fellow scientists, discover that what’s inside may be a lot more dangerous than they could have ever imagined.

but first

I cannot physically stay away from John Carpenter for too long, apparently, it’s A Problem.

five things i rather liked about Prince of Darkness (1987)

John Carpenter deciding to just go unbelievably hard for the score because HE CAN

John Carpenter is, aside from one of horror’s most beloved fathers, an incredibly skilled composer and he once again shows that off here. The score acts as a sort of pulse to the story, ever present but not intrusive, just a guiding line of dread running along with the plot. When it’s called for, Carpenter and co-scorer Alan Howarth dial it up, giving you a bit of choral wailing for good measure. I am slightly baffled as to why this score is not more talked about because I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere it creates, like a spiderweb of unease being woven through music.

goo! green goo! ominous green goo time! ominous green goo in a tube time!

Folks, we’ve had The Substance. We’ve had Re-Animator. And this week, we are pleased to announce a new addition to the The Horror The Horror canon of green goo cinema.

The film begins with the death of an elderly priest who, at the time of passing, is clutching a small silver box. Another priest, who remains nameless (played by Pleasence, who does some beautifully understated work here), arrives on the scene and retrieves the box, opening it to find a key inside.

During the opening credits (which go on for a while, and then some more, just a proper pageant runway of a credits sequence) we’re slowly introduced to the students of Professor Howard Birack (Victor Wong, who had previously worked with Carpenter on Big Trouble in Little China and who, according to his Wikipedia page, had quite an interesting life to say the least). Their paths will soon cross with the Priest, who is told by a nun that the recently deceased priest only used the key at night, leading him to a mysterious door. Priest opens the door with the key and descends into a secret web of corridors, which lead to a room where a giant cylinder with swirling green liquid (GOOOOOOOOOOO) stands at the center.

Priest finds a diary at the scene, and reads about an ancient order called The Brotherhood of Sleep. Centuries prior, the Brotherhood discovered the cylinder in the Middle East. Its existence was kept a secret from even the Vatican, and eventually the cylinder was moved to its current location, the dilapidated Saint Godard monastery in LA. A member of the Brotherhood has always guarded it, with the secret being passed on to the next member upon passing. The priest holding the box was the last member of the Brotherhood, and died before he could warn the cardinal that “the sleeper awakens”.

Priest visits Professor Birack, an old friend (it’s implied that the two had faced off on a televised debate on theology for the BBC at one point which, give me that deleted scene now, please) on campus and asks him to help analyze the contents of the cylinder.

Birack summons his best students - among them Brian Marsh (Jameson Parker), his lover Catherine Danforth (Lisa Blount), Walter Fong (Dennis Dun) and Susan Cabot (Anne Howard) - along with a small band of scientist colleagues (including Brooklyn 99’s Dirk Blocker!) to the church, without giving too much context because… to be fair, he doesn’t really have a lot of context, like, all he knows from the Priest is that there’s Bad Vibes in the air and all we know is that there’s sudden influxes of ants appearing randomly.

As a side note, there is a shot when the Priest arrives at the church where a woman approaches him and speaks to him in the voice of someone who is absolutely possessed by more than one demon and it’s horrifying.

just out of shot: giant shrine to Nigel Kneale

We must address briefly the Nigel Kneale of it all because his presence is very much felt in Prince of Darkness. Carpenter wrote the script but is credited as “Martin Quatermass”, the university Prof. Birack works at is Kneale University and the story itself draws from a number of Kneale’s projects, including The Stone Tape. There, a belated plethora of horror Easter eggs for you, don’t say I never give you anything.

anti-god

From there, the rest of the film plays out much like a siege horror. The thirteen scientists gather in the church to carry out investigations, unaware that there have been subtle clues to things not being right directly under their nose. The cluster of ants stuck to the back of Brian’s TV. The bizarre astronomical anomalies occurring. The strange chill in the air in the room with the cylinder. The collective nightmare (this is not a dream) starts having, of a dark figure emerging from the church, playing like a strange tachyon transmission.

There’s also the matter of the city’s homeless population seemingly affected by whatever is going on, as they descend upon the church and crowd around like sentinels, guarding. Watching. Waiting. Combined with the throb of the score, it’s an eerie atmosphere, and that’s before the scientists start gathering information on what the hell is going on with the green liquid.

And look, I am but a teeny stupid baby who is a vessel for nonsense so rather than try and explain this to you myself, I will revert to Wikipedia to tell you what the hell is going on with the green liquid:

The team analyses the cylinder, discovering that it can only be opened from inside, and is at least seven million years old. Brian realizes that the liquid is prebiotic, but is evolving with purpose instead of decaying.
Translating the Brotherhood's ancient textbooks, Catherine identifies differential equations from before their known invention. Lisa's translations, meanwhile, claim that the cylinder contains Satan, who was buried by his father, an ancient god who was banished to the dark side. Jesus Christ was an extraterrestrial humanoid who warned humanity about the cylinder. Though he was killed by those who deemed him insane and too powerful, his disciples passed on his warning. Birack hypothesizes that Satan's father may be the Anti-God, an even more powerful force of evil bound to the realm of anti-matter.

That’s some heavy concepts Carpenter is playing with here and you can’t help admiring him for swinging so hard. It doesn’t always work (no, John, we do not need to insert a love story between Brian and Catherine in your movie about Satan Goo, yes it is entirely my prerogative to not mention this side plot because it DOESN’T MATTER) but when it hits it hits hard, and some of the imagery here (particularly the dream/nightmare broadcast, which Carpenter first shot on video camera before re-photographing it on a television set to create the otherworldly vibe of the footage) deserves to be talked about as his best. Additionally, the scenes of the texts slowly being translated on the computers, culminating in one computer just displaying I LIVE! I LIVE! I LIVE! over and over again? Chilling.

pretty sure Alice Cooper kills someone with the rusty remains of a bicycle, and other gnarly things that happen in this movie

Also, if you’re a sicko (/affectionate) who adores gore, you’re in for an absolute treat because from here out the film just has a plethora of beautifully grotesque moments, including but not limited to:

the liquid in the cylinder dripping upwards to the ceiling
Susan becoming entranced by the cylinder, allowing her to be possessed by the liquid as it spurts directly into her mouth (I fucking love this as a way to spread the possession, by the way)
Etchinson (Thom Bray) leaving the lab and getting cornered by the crowd of homeless people, before getting impaled by their leader (played by Alice Cooper) in just the nastiest way possible, by what looks like the rusted remains of a bicycle (it is in fact one of Cooper’s stage props, called the “impaling device”)
Wyndham (Robert Grasmere) getting brutally stabbed to death, Mrs. Bates-style by the same woman who earlier addressed the Priest on his arrival.
Catherine later calling out the window to Wyndham who is at that point a million beetles in a human suit - Wyndham ominously tells them death is coming before his head just straight up falls off
A possessed Susan and Lisa (Ann Yen) tackling poor Calder (Jessie Lawrence Ferguson) and Susan drooling the Satan Goo into his mouth, possessing him.
Kelly’s (Susan Blanchard) slow and nasty transformation into the physical vessel for Satan, the purest body horror moment of the film

NO SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK
Priest beheading Kelly Satan, only for her to pick up her head and pop it back on.
Kelly Satan reaching through the mirror, with the surface being liquid
Catherine sacrificing herself in order to stop Kelly Satan pulling actual Satan out of the mirror.
Brian’s nightmare, from which he wakes up and turns around to find a decaying Catherine in his bed before he wakes up again, a nightmare within a nightmare.
The final shot of Brian, hesitantly reaching out to the mirror, with the camera cutting to black just as his fingers are about to touch.

All top notch work, but the thing that really strikes me, as we get the final iteration of the nightmare, is that you are left with a distinct sense that it isn’t over. The tachyon broadcast is revealed to come from the year 1999, and the figure that emerges from the church looks suspiciously like Catherine. And even though the Priest breathes a sigh of relief as he is transported to the hospital, his relief may well be short-lived…

Prince of Darkness has some errors, as mentioned, but it’s a mix of impressive ideas constructed into a queasily unreal atmosphere, supported by some truly grotesque visuals and a score that makes you tense with fear. Cut out the love story and this stands right up there with Carpenter’s best. And I love it when Carpenter is at his best because there’s just a lingering note of nihilism stuck in the mouth at the end…

Listen to the excellent Blank Check episode on Prince of Darkness here.