Prince of Darkness - anybody???

I think you're right, quite a few similarities. But Carpenter's film is a lot better, better structure, better script (Soavi's is all over the place) better music; and just overall a lot creepier. Soavi's flick is stylish as hell but Carpenter's beats it in every other respect.

I felt the exact same way when I watched the church. Came here to see if anyone else did too. Even though I liked both, I liked Prince of Darkness more. POD was a little tighter and had more of a zombie movie feel. Also I like the idea that the secret sect knew about it, playing on early alternate interpretations and lost or suppressed histories in christianity, whereas in the Church the priests discovered as it was happening.

There are perhaps some similarities, but then again Argento and Carpenter are friends and Carpenter admits in the films commentary on the British disc from Momentum that the knife murder in Prince of Darkness was his attempt at a bonefide Dario Argento murder set piece. Argento sees Carpenters films and might have gotten some thoughts and influences from watching Prince of Darkness that he used for his project The Church (or Demons 3 as it was first known). Allthough Soavi was appointed to direct it, Argento was very much in charge of the production and story of the film. This was after all Soavi's first stint as director working for Argento, after having done work as first and second assistant director on many of his films and directed his first feature film Stagefright for Aristide Massacessi (Joe D'Amato).

One should judge a man mainly from his depravities.Virtues can be faked.Depravities are real.Kinski

i'm a huge John Carpenter fan. One of my favorite directors for sure. That said, I found PRINCE OF DARKNESS to be one of his least compelling films of his golden years. LA CHIESA is infinitely more interesting, creepy, stylish, and atmospheric than PRINCE OF DARKNESS. Not to mention ambiguous and elusive (in a good way, of course).

Although "The Church" dragged on in several scenes, I find it far superior to Carpenter's awful "Prince of Darkness".

Carpenter is one of my favourite horror movie directors and his "Halloween", "The Fog", "The Thing" are among my faves but his "Price of Darkness" IMO, is by far, his worst and a film I will never waste my time watching ever again.

I also noticed similarities with Prince of Darkness but I also noticed similarities to Mother of Tears, especially with the underground sacrifice/demon rape scene.

Prince of Darkness is pretentious, laughable crap. The Church is a beautiful, haunting and overall better made film than POD. The Gothic imagery and tight atmosphere is so intense, it almost feels like a Goya painting coming to life

The theater is like a faithful wife. The film is the great adventure, the costly, exacting mistress

I'd been meaning to check out one of Soavi's films for some time, so this one may have jumped the cue. I'm a huge fan of Carpenter and rank Prince of Darkness as one of his greatest films, so this has definitely caught my attention.