Horror's Hallowed Grounds: Prince of Darkness By: Sean Clark
Prince of Darkness
By: Sean Clark
After a four year absence from the horror genre, John Carpenter came back strong in 1987 with the film Prince of Darkness. Shot entirely in Southern California in just over thirty days with a budget of three million dollars, the film was a moderate success but found a wide audience later on video that has given the film cult status today. The film used very few locations, which worked well within the small budget.
The film starred the great Donald Pleasence, the fourth and final film in which he worked for Carpenter. Donald kept the Halloween torch burning for three more non-Carpenter installments before passing away in 1995 from complications during heart valve replacement surgery. The film also starred Jameson Parker, best known for the television series "Simon & Simon", as well as Victor Wong and Dennis Dun who both had just worked with Carpenter on Big Trouble in Little China.
We begin in Mission Hills California at Mission San Fernando Rey de España. The Mission was founded in September of 1797 and served as the location Father Loomis (Donald Pleasence) resided. The Mission is open to the public for a fee of $4.00 but all of the locations used in the film can be seen for free on the outside of the Mission.
The garden area and fountain where Father Loomis speaks to the other priests is located in the park right across the street from the Mission.
Directly across the street from the park where the fountain appears is the outside of the Mission where Professor Birack (Victor Wong) first goes to visit Father Loomis.
The room where Professor Birack and Father Loomis speak inside the Mission doesn’t appear to be at the Mission. I dropped the four dollars and combed the Mission in search of this room and found nothing like it. I showed the photos to several employees and one of them told me they thought it may have been filmed there but most everything in the photo appeared to be props and not any of the relics found at the Mission.
Mission San Fernando Rey de España is located at 15151 San Fernando Mission Blvd., Mission Hills, CA 91345-1109. If you would like to learn more about the Mission you can visit their website right here.
Next we head over to where John Carpenter himself went to film school, USC, the University of Southern California. This location served as the school the students attended in the film. It took me a few trips to this rather large campus to find everything but it was well worth it.
The walkway we first see Brian Marsh (Jameson Parker) on is located in between the Hancock Foundation Building located at 3616 Trousdale Parkway and the Town and Gown Faculty Center located at 665 Exposition Blvd. This was also where he saw Catherine (Lisa Blount) and Susan (Anne Marie Howard) talking by the fountain.
The exterior of the building that they continue to go in and out of for class was the Town and Gown Faculty Center located at 665 Exposition Blvd.
The interior used for where they go to class was a completely different building on campus. This building oddly enough is the Science Hall located at 3651 Trousdale Pkwy.
The classroom used is in the same building and is the Lecture Hall room #163.
The exterior of the home that Brian Marsh lives in is briefly seen in the film. I believe this location was in a neighborhood right across the street from the USC campus near the corner of Catalina Street and 36th Street.
This corner appears in the very next shot as Brian looks at the sun from his porch.
There are several homes in this neighborhood that resemble the exterior of this house. The exact location of this home is unknown and may no longer exist. There is some newer construction on 36th Street where it may have once stood.
Lastly is the grand daddy of Prince of Darkness locations; the church. Founded in 1922, this was originally a Japanese Union Church and was the first Christian church built in Little Tokyo. The church was designated a national landmark in 1995. In 1998 it became the Union Center for the Arts and is located at 120 Judge John Aiso Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012. For more information visit their website here.
As Father Loomis enters the church, he notices the homeless people on the street behaving strangely. The direction he is looking in is actually correct. The homeless people are standing on Judge John Aiso Street near East Temple Street. This is also the same spot when the homeless woman with the shopping cart appears to be praying earlier in the film.
In the film, the homeless people led by Alice Cooper watch the church from an alley across the street as the students load equipment into the church. In reality this alley is not across the street, and its location is currently unknown.
Here is what is really across the street and does actually appear in the film near the end as the sun rises.
As Father Loomis and Professor Birack enter the church through the front door, they enter the lobby of the church, which is the actual lobby of the church. As you walk in the front doors today, just beyond the lobby Father Loomis and Professor Birack walk through a doorway and into what is now an art gallery called LA Artcore. If you check the Center’s website it has the hours that the gallery is open to the public. By going to the gallery during business hours you can legally enter the lobby of the building.
As they pass through the doorway that is now the entrance to LA Artcore, it then cuts to a set. All of the room interiors and long hallways inside the church as well as the interior of Brian’s home were built on a set in Valencia, California.
The only interiors used inside the church were the aforementioned lobby, the stair ways and the large main room that housed all of the equipment. Everything else in the church was on a set.
The main room that held the bulk of the equipment in the film is now the Art Center’s theater. The arch at the top of the room is hidden by the stage curtain as are the churches windows on each side of the room hidden by drapes.
All of the footage of them going down the stairs into the basement, as well as the basement itself, was shot at an abandoned ballroom in Long Beach California. Carpenter has said that the building was quite unsafe at the time of filming. Shortly thereafter the building was demolished. The exact location where it once stood in Long Beach is unknown.
The scene where the three men argue and ultimately one is stabbed by a homeless woman is located in the parking lot just behind the rear of the church.
There have been a few changes made to the rear of the church. My guess is these changes happened before it was made an historical landmark. They removed the old fire escape and sealed the old windows and doors. You can still see where they used to be today since they only filled them with concrete.
A lot of action in the film takes place on the right side of the church in what is like a long alleyway in between the church and the building next door. There have been some changes made to this area as well. In the rear of the church they have put in an elevator where the stairs used to walk down to this alleyway. In the film the stairs used to go down to the alley way at an angle like a capital L. You would go down the stairs and then turn right to head down the alley way. This is the where Etchinson (Thom Bray) finds the crucified bird. Today they have added new stairs that is just a straight shot to the alley in the same direction.
If you look at this next shot the stairs to his right are now gone and there are now stairs behind him.
One thing that is really cool about this location is that is hasn’t really changed much at all on the outside. I asked an associate of the Center why they left the cross on top of the building and apparently it is now protected by being a historical landmark and it can no longer be removed.
I hope you enjoyed this edition of Horror’s Hallowed Grounds! Until next time the hunt continues!
