10 Best "What's Around The Corner" Horror Movie Moments

8. Satan Reaches Through The Mirror - Prince Of Darkness

Prince Of Darkness Mirror Scene
Universal Pictures

1987's Prince of Darkness contains some of the scariest imagery in John Carpenter's career, pulling from the well of satanic apocalypse ran through a cosmic filter. Tonally in keeping with Carpenter's more widely lauded remake of The Thing, Prince of Darkness prophesies doom in every frame, peeling back our dimension to reveal a voidless horror from which there is no escape.

There are numerous spooky highlights in the film, perhaps most notable being the various apocalyptic transmissions beamed to our protagonists in their dreams, but the most edifying reveal comes in the final act, before which the full extent of what's at stake has been made abundantly clear.

Prince of Darkness sees a team of scientists summoned to an old monastery in Los Angeles where they uncover the corporeal, liquid form of Satan - a cosmic threat humanity was initially alerted to by an alien Jesus Christ. Satan slowly musters his powers over the course of the film, eventually possessing one of the scientists, Kelly (Susan Blanchard), who attempts to summon their father - referred to as the "Anti-God" - through a mirror.

The prior possession sequence and Kelly's makeup are terrifying in and of themselves, but Carpenter conjures true, existential dread once Kelly reaches through the mirror. On the other side is an unending blackness, through which Satan attempts to pull through the monstrous, gigantic mitt of Father dearest.

Old Scratch is ultimately unsuccessful, but even in defeat Prince of Darkness produces its most terrifying image - a brave but doomed Catherine (Lisa Blount), having forced Kelly through to the other side, reaching out as the last vestiges of light are vanquished, and the portal is shattered.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.