10 Most Underappreciated '80s Horror Movies

4. Prince Of Darkness

Prince of Darkness Donald Pleasence
Universal

While John Carpenter is rightly viewed as one of the greatest filmmakers of the 1980s - and beyond, for that matter - the Horror Master's The Fog, Escape from New York, and Big Trouble in Little China are viewed as masterpieces of that decade, and even Christine and They Live are cult classics of that period, but one Carpenter film that often gets massively overlooked is 1987's Prince of Darkness.

Prince of Darkness may not be up there in the conversation for the very best work of Carpenter's career, but it deserves to receive more love than it currently gets.

Pulling plentiful inspiration from the Quatermass series - Carpenter even crediting himself as Martin Quatermass on the screenplay - the ever-great Donald Pleasence takes centre-stage here as a priest who comes face to face with Satan. Well, kind of, for Satan is an eerie green liquid in a canister found in a church basement.

Calling in the help of quantum physics professor Howard Birack (Victor Wong), Pleasence's character - who's only ever named as Priest - has to deal with creepy sects, portals hidden within mirrors, and a slice of social commentary built around the AIDs epidemic of the time.

Like certain other John Carpenter classics, adding to the appeal of Prince of Darkness are some phenomenal SFX work and shocking visuals, which are all balanced with Carpenter's mastery of tension-building. On top of that,  it's just always a good time whenever Donald Pleasence gets to deliver some intense, erratic monologues - as is the case here.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer and Presenter, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund and Eli Roth to Kevin Smith and the Russo Brothers, to Kevin Conroy and Frank Miller, to Bret Hart and Sting, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, and Brian Flynn, to many, many more. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is a long-standing season ticket holder and an FSA Award-winner for his time co-hosting the Fearless in Devotion podcast.