My wife and I watched Prince of Darkness this week in preparation for the coming Halloween season. I’ve seen it once before, but it was probably 20 years ago. There is something about the tone of John Carpenter’s movies that I find really compelling. In this case, I was specifically inspired by the short interview with John Carpenter that was an extra feature on the Blu-Ray disc. Why did Carpenter make the transition from a big-budget feature like Big Trouble in Little China in 1986 to a low-budget cult-classic like Prince of Darkness in 1987?
In a word: creative control.
I had been making bigger budget studio films and had gotten tired of the process, tired of how that goes or at least that went in those days. I think it can’t be any better than when i was doing it; and I longed to make a low-budget movie where I would have complete control over it; the story, the flow, the characters, the thematic materials. So Prince of Darkness was the first of two low budget movies that i made. (Carpenter 01:16–01:44)
I admire the way he talks about the slow cutting speed that builds suspense and dread throughout the film:
There’s a couple of different concepts in cinema about how to shoot things. One is a Russian montage, which is the idea that if you cut things together fast enough, you can, in the audience’s mind, create excitement devoid from content. Has nothing to do with what you’re, what the movie’s about. So you see a lot of movies today, they’re cut really fast, trying to keep you excited. They’re trying to keep you jazzed up. And then there’s European expressionism or German expressionism. A lot of wide, long shots that kind of…there’s a languid quality, to slow it down, give me a chance to look around. And you use both in filmmaking, but I suppose that little German expressionism crept into my work; occasionally just letting things play out a little longer. (Carpenter 04:24–05:25)
“Interview – John Carpenter on Prince of Darkness – Sympathy for the Devil.” Red Shirt Pictures, 6 Apr. 2021, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpLU6CCLNm0.