soavis the church vs carpenters prince of darkness

[blood vamp]

Both of these films deal with the reemergence and resurfacing of an ancient primal evil and the resulting contagion for the unlucky discoverers but imo soavis approach to this material is more solemn and effective for that reason. The inside of the chuch is so bizarre and foreboding that evil really seems to be at home in this environment. carpenters film had the green swirling liquid that was evil personified but it was very superficial compared to soavis film imo. comments?

[Dbone]

I love The Church. It has some very interesting camera work.
Both movies capture a surreal feeling of dread. I actually prefer POD.I like how Prince of Darkness utilizes science in its plot. Science and religion are used together to uncover the supernatural-evil. This way even if you aren't christian, catholic or whatnot theres no excuse of "I don't believe in God". In this film science helps prove the devil is real.

It gets better and better with ever viewing. It's by far one of my favorite movies.

[dwatts]

The Church.

[wago70]

Prince Of Darkness

[Ash28M]

The Church

[DrHerbertWest]

The Church put me to sleep. Twice.

I haven't seen Prince Of Darkness yet but I'd really like to.

[zompirejoe]

Extremely tough call. THE CHURCH is great but PRINCE OF DARKNESS wins out.

[Katatonia]

I really love both movies, but I'd have to go with Prince of Darkness.

[BoredSeal]

I love both movies very much, but I prefer John Carpenter´s Donald Pleasence vs Green liquid. :)

[maybrick]

The Church I would need to see again. Haven't seen it since Anchor Bay released it on DVD and I don't remember much about it other than it wasn't as good as Demons.

Prince of Darkness on the other hand is an underappreciated masterpiece. I didn't care for it either the first time I watched it but it grows on me more and more every single time. I love it. Who knows, maybe The Church would be the same way if I gave it a second chance. I've been meaning to, but just haven't gotten around to it.

[Paff]

Prince of Darkness has never "worked" for me. I've tried, seeing as how some people here often refer to it as "underrated", "masterpiece", "grows on you", etc. I think part of the problem is that I TRY to like it. That never works. I think some night I'll just have it in the player, and suddenly it will all hit me. I hope so, at least.

The Church is dumb, but in a Euro-dumb kind of way, thus making it a lot of fun. In other words, style over substance, randomness in the plot, but altogether endearing. Actually, I dig it a lot.

Maybe there's a double feature in my near future...

[The Chaostar]

Excellent poll! Great choice of films, really!

It was tough. But Carpenter has many great films in his CV so I happily went with La Chiesa.
Why?
Well... Prince hasn't got a GOBLIN/KEITH EMERSON/PHILLIP GLASS soundtrack.

[DVD-fanatic-9]

Haven't seen Prince of Darkness yet. The Church was really stupid and the special effects were horrible.

[Dbone]

Excellent poll! Great choice of films, really!

It was tough. But Carpenter has many great films in his CV so I happily went with La Chiesa.
Why?
Well... Prince hasn't got a GOBLIN/KEITH EMERSON/PHILLIP GLASS soundtrack.


Hell yeah! Gotta love that soundtrack!!

[DeathDealer]

The Church is brilliant. Prince of Darkness is very good.

[walkingdude]

Prince of Darkness has never "worked" for me. I've tried, seeing as how some people here often refer to it as "underrated", "masterpiece", "grows on you", etc. I think part of the problem is that I TRY to like it. That never works. I think some night I'll just have it in the player, and suddenly it will all hit me. I hope so, at least.

I'm with you.I've never understood the love for this movie.I'm sure Ive watched it at least ten times over the years and just can't get into it.

The Church isn't the greatest either but better than Prince of Darkness.

[DVD-fanatic-9]

The Church is brilliant.
What about it was brilliant?

[walkingdude]

Haven't seen Prince of Darkness yet. The Church was really stupid and the special effects were horrible.

Your sig is bullshit.You think you can give "education" on a horror dvd site?Maybe you should post a poll to see if people think Day of the Dead is a horror movie.

[DVD-fanatic-9]

I guess what you are saying is that you don't like my signature.

I fail to see what that's got to do with Prince of Darkness or The Church. But, whatever.

[spawningblue]

Prince of Darkness! Although The Church is pretty good as well.

[DeathDealer]

What about it was brilliant?
The camerawork was excellent, the music was fantastic, and the overall atompshere was near perfect.

Ok, the storyline and acting wasn't the best, but under context, works extremely well.

[DVD-fanatic-9]

The camerawork was excellent,
Okay, I'll agree with that.


the music was fantastic,
I agree that in places the music was good, but overall I was not impressed. And, I fail to see what so many people liked so much about it. The places where it was loudest, which weren't many, I think it was weak and unoriginal.


and the overall atompshere was near perfect

Ok, the storyline and acting wasn't the best, but under context, works extremely well.
I never hold acting against movies like these. But I do hold bad special effects, bad writing, and the fact that the movie was a 101 minute buildup to absolutely nothing, against it. It was sort of like a ghost movie that has most of the cliched moaning and chain rattling, only to reveal at its big moment... Big Bird! Smiling and waving and chuckling like a goof. Ooh, scary! This movie is actually really schlocky that way. It has completely, even embarrassingly weak scenes in place of where it should deliver a real punch.


Sorry that I asked you a question only to then pick apart your response. There were moments that I thought were great. Several, in fact. But I guess the reason I get so mad at this movie sometimes is that this movie is a major disappointment. At times, it looks like it's really going to go somewhere. But since it doesn't, even some of the elements everyone praises prove to be less impressive on repeat viewings.

[DeathDealer]

Its just a matter of opinion.

[Crystal Plumage]

If anyone wants the Chiesa score,just PM me :D

Oh,and my vote goes to La Chiesa.I just love those Templars (pity they had so little screen time)

[Mr. Cole]

The Church is one of my favorite horror films. Atmosphere overall is killer. I wonder if the hooded monk statues was a set?

And can't forget that Boris Vallejo "Vampire's Kiss" come to life!

btw the way I saw another flick the "main priest" was in - Episode I haha in a minor role haha.

[allmessedup]

Rewatched both within the last year--PRINCE OF DARKNESS is great, but THE CHURCH just lacks the impact of Carpenter's film. It's only okay.

[DVD-fanatic-9]

Its just a matter of opinion.
And that's an opinion, too. I guess in my opinion, my opinion is better than your opinion. What's your opinion on my opinion of your opinion?

:eek2:

[DeathDealer]

My opinion is your opinion x 20 / 12 + 678 = 697 (2/3)

[DVD-fanatic-9]

A lot of people have speculated that Soavi's The Church is so overrated because Argento fans are always looking for someone with the closest amount of style second to the master.

I think it'd be nice, but Soavi's not the guy.