Prince of Darkness (John Carpenter) Can o' Satan

[Wyndham]

First time poster, long time horror fan. Favourite movie is John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness.

Has anyone ever tackled the cylinder full of swirling Satan? That would be my ultimate prop. I imagine displaying it in my prop room surrounded by crosses and candles.

Anyone else feel the love for this under appreciated movie?

 

[Nexus6]

You will not be saved by the Holy Ghost.
You will not be saved by the God Plutonium.
In fact... YOU WILL NOT BE SAVED!​

One of my favorite 'B' movies. The dream sequences in that flick are still hella-creepifying to me to this day.

Not sure how one would even begin to pull off the lucifer-vat, but I'd definitely like seeing someone take a shot at it. thumbsup​

 

[Wyndham]

I've looked far and wide for decent reference beyond screen caps. So far, no good. But this bunch has cracked tougher cases. Would be very cool to get enough interest to tackle this.

 

[Wyndham]

 

[Coz]

Cool Carpenter movie - curious how it looks more outdated than his earlier movies!

These might help with how to create a simillar effect:

Cool Cloud Lamp!

Make a cloud lamp.

I actually saved the first link under 'Prince of Darkness" in my favourites!

Would love to see someone tackle this - not necessarily full size, tho (!).

C.

 

[Wyndham]

 

[Wyndham]

 

[Mola Rob]

Satan looks a lot like a frog in a blender.

Seriously though this is one of my favorite Carpenter flicks. I would think doing a half scale vat o' evil would be more practical from a display standpoint.

 

[Wyndham]

I'd be down for figuring out a way to do one scaled--a lamp maybe--but come on...a full size can of Scratch-juice would be da bomb.

I've checked IMDB for info on the production designer, prop guy, etc., but I haven't followed through and I doubt anyone would want to reminisce about PoD for some prop geek. I think we're on our own here. First step is to pull some hi-res screen caps of every image shown of the cylinder, and then try to extrapolate its dimensions, etc. I've never seen any production photos or other reference, but this is as good a place as any to try to tackle this Beast.

I Netflixed PoD last week. It still holds up in spite of its admitted flaws. Like most Carpenter movies (except The Thing), the idea is compelling, there are moments of brilliance and terror (and creepiness), but at some point the movie collapses under its own weight. He's a regular 2/3rds genius, Mr. C.

Still, to me, the cylinder is one of my obsessions from a collecting standpoint.

Let's git r done.

 

[vadermania]

My friend Robert Grasmere played Frank Wyndham in the movie (the guy who got eaten by the bugs).

I actually visited him a few weeks ago and we talked about the cylinder. I'll try to get in touch with him and ask how they did the prop for the movie.

 

[Wyndham]

Wow! It pays to tap into the collective. That would be amazing. Here's a link to an interview with John Carpenter's wife about the movie from the one dedicated fansite I've found:

John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness - An Unofficial Fansite

She notes that he was the visual effects supervisor. What a cool friendship!

Danke!

 

[dropshipbob]

You could do this in 1:1 easy, the hard part would be to find a plastic container of the right size, plastic containers of that general size are not cheap.

Then for the Satan goo you wouldn't need to use actual water. Get a big piece of plastic sheeting with the right rigidity, paint it using translucent colors through an air brush, tape the whole thing into the shape of a cylinder, find a turn table of the right diameter, place the plastic on it and there you go. Weather the outside with gunk.

 

[Wyndham]

Bob, I agree that this could be done--and quite nicely-- on a 1:1 scale, though it might be costly. I'm really hoping that the real Wyndham (Mr. Grasmere) is available through vadermania to shed some light on the darkness.

I'm actually believing this could happen!

 

[Wyndham]

From the interview I linked to earlier:

jcpod.net: Without wanting to go too deeply into the technical details of the movie, how exactly did you achieve the canister effects?

SKC: I just remember that they had to have the churning liquid and have the lights up through it. We had lots of hoses coming out of it and we had to have the whole canister itself on a dolly while it was moving. That was pretty involved – getting it to move without destroying it at the same time. Robert Grasmere (POD’s visual effects supervisor who also played the part of Wyndham) would remember much more about how it was actually done. Really it was all about trying to convey that this rotating aquarium was actually the devil! Things that we’d find very funny on set had to have a sense of impending doom.

 

[Nexus6]

Well that was pretty quick. :lol :confused

Wonder what happened?

 

[juno]

This is not a dream... not a dream. We are using your brain's electrical system as a receiver. We are unable to transmit through conscious neural interference. You are receiving this broadcast as a dream. We are transmitting from the year 1-9-9-9. You are receiving this broadcast in order to alter all of the events you are seeing. Our technology has not developed a transmitter strong enough to reach your conscious awareness. But this is not a dream. You are seeing what is actually occurring for the purpose of causality violation.


---
Love that movie!

 

[Nwerke]

Well that was pretty quick. :lol :confused

Wonder what happened?

Either he posted something very naughty which was deleted, or it was a damned fast sock outing. I'd love to know too. If the latter, who was he??

 

[Contec]

Could not the swirling be made the same way that the Warpcore was made in TNG only at a smaller size?.

 

[Mola Rob]

Could not the swirling be made the same way that the Warpcore was made in TNG only at a smaller size?.

Do you mean the TMP swirly warp core? TNG's warp core was non-swirly.

 

[Contec]

Do you mean the TMP swirly warp core? TNG's warp core was non-swirly.

Did they not use the same warpcore from TMP in TNG?
I seem to recall that they use one of the warpcores from one of the show in on of the movies.