Prince of Darkness (1987) – What Happened to This Horror Movie?

A new episode of our What Happened to This Horror Movie? series is now available to watch on the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and you can also check it out in the embed above! In this one, we’re taking a look back at the 1987 John Carpenter film Prince of Darkness (watch it HERE), the middle installment in what the director calls his “Apocalypse Trilogy”, even though the three films – the other two being The Thing and In the Mouth of Madness – aren’t directly connected to each other. If you haven’t seen Prince of Darkness yet, watch the video to find out all about it.

Scripted by Carpenter under the pseudonym Martin Quatermass, Prince of Darkness has the following synopsis: Poking around in a church cellar, a priest finds an otherworldly vial filled with slime. Frightened, he brings his discovery to a circle of top scholars and scientists, who eventually learn that the strange liquid is the essence of Satan. The slime then begins to seep out, turning some of the academics into zombified killers. As the possessed battle the survivors, student Kelly is infected by a large quantity of the liquid and becomes Satan personified.

The film stars Donald Pleasence, Lisa Blount, Victor Wong, Jameson Parker, Susan Blanchard, Dennis Dun, Anne Howard, Ann Yen, Ken Wright, Dirk Blocker, Jessie Lawrence Ferguson, Peter Jason, Robert Grasmere, Thom Bray, and Alice Cooper. Yes, the Alice Cooper.

This is what the What Happened to This Horror Movie series is all about: Hollywood has had its fair share of historically troubled productions. Whether it was casting changes, actor deaths, fired directors, in-production rewrites, constant delays, budget cuts or studio edits, these films had every intention to be a blockbuster, but were beset with unforeseen disasters. Sometimes huge hits, sometimes box office bombs. Either way, we have to ask: WTF Happened To This Horror Movie?

The Prince of Darkness episode of What Happened to This Horror Movie? was Written, Edited, and Narrated by Tyler Nichols, Produced by Lance Vlcek and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

A couple of the previous episodes of the show can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!

What do you think of Prince of Darkness? Let us know by leaving a comment!

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