The defence The Arthouse Gremlin
“Its refusal to behave is the point.”
The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.
Back to trending 
Prince of Darkness
Horror · 1987
A priest discovers an ancient canister containing a strange liquid in an abandoned church. When a group of graduate students and scientists are tasked with studying it, they unknowingly unleash an evil force waiting to destroy all of humanity.
Movie details
Prince of Darkness
“Before man walked the earth...It slept for centuries. It is evil. It is real. It is awakening.”
1987 Horror 1h 42m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.8 / 10
Community rating
A priest discovers an ancient canister containing a strange liquid in an abandoned church. When a group of graduate students and scientists are tasked with studying it, they unknowingly unleash an evil force waiting to destroy all of humanity.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Prince of Darkness?
For the defence
The Arthouse Gremlin
“The stranger, the better.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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The Vigil
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A man providing overnight watch to a deceased member of his former Orthodox Jewish community finds himself opposite a malevolent entity.
The Exorcist
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When a mysterious entity possesses a young girl, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.
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Following the brutal murder of her husband, a Kansas highway patrol officer sets out on a journey to track down the perpetrator. As the hunt progresses, she comes to realize the man responsible is a sadistic serial killer, and the depth of his mental depravity and his sinister agenda is more twisted than anyone could have imagined.
It Follows
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A young woman is followed by an unknown supernatural force after a sexual encounter.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
John Carpenter
Written by
John Carpenter
Donald Pleasence
Priest
Lisa Blount
Catherine Danforth
Victor Wong
Prof. Howard Birack
Jameson Parker
Brian Marsh
Dennis Dun
Walter
Susan Blanchard
Kelly
Anne Marie Howard
Susan Cabot
Court is in session
Put Prince of Darkness on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Oddness is not depth.”
A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.